According to the latest report from Bloomberg, iOS 18 will be severely hamstrung outside the US until at least next year. In particular, customers based in the EU will miss out on major features thanks to “regulatory uncertainties.”
Apple blames the EU’s Digital Markets Act, saying its stringent “interoperability requirements” could undermine the privacy and security of three specific features: iPhone Mirroring, SharePlay Screen Sharing, and Apple Intelligence.
It would be a shame to miss out on the first two, but they’re relatively niche in the grand scheme of things. Apple Intelligence, on the other hand, is not merely one feature: it powers a whole suite of exciting new capabilities in iOS 18. That means iPhone users in the EU will miss out completely on flagship updates like Writing Tools, Image Playground, ChatGPT integration, and a more capable Siri. It’s likely that many smaller changes, like inbox sorting and priority notifications, will also be affected.
That means for the 27 countries of the EU, most of the announcements from WWDC24 are missing until 2025 or beyond, making iOS 18 an extremely underwhelming update.
It’s unclear whether the UK will be lumped in, despite leaving the EU in 2020. For the rest of the world, Apple will continue to roll out iPhone Mirroring and SharePlay Screen Sharing later this year as planned. Apple Intelligence, meanwhile, looks like it will only be available in US English at launch – although users anywhere in the world (excepting the EU) can merely change their language settings to try it out.
It won’t be the first time Apple has split features between regions. One thing European iPhone users have that others don’t is access to third-party app stores and sideloading, which Apple reluctantly allowed thanks to EU legislation.
We’re sure Apple has a plan to get around these complex requirements, but it certainly looks set to delay things for those outside the US. No dates are officially confirmed yet, but Apple Intelligence is expected to release in beta by the end of Summer, with a public release of many AI features this September and the rest rolling out later this year.