Oliver Haslam on June 21, 2024, 8:34 pm

Apple Intelligence And Other iOS 18 Features Won’t Launch In The EU Over DMA Concerns

When iOS 18 ships to the world later this year it will include a raft of features including Apple Intelligence, iPhone mirroring, and SharePlay Screen Sharing. But Apple has now confirmed that those particular features won’t make their way to iPhones in the European Union.

Bloomberg reports that Apple is concerned about the Digital Markets Act and the impact that it would have on these specific features, saying that the DMA would require that Apple downgrade the security associated with them in order to comply with its rules.

“We are concerned that the interoperability requirements of the DMA could force us to compromise the integrity of our products in ways that risk user privacy and data security,” Apple said in a statement.

It isn’t immediately clear exactly why Apple believes this will be the case or what it means when it says that the changes would risk privacy and security.

“Gatekeepers are welcome to offer their services in Europe, provided that they comply with our rules aimed at ensuring fair competition,” the European Commission said in response to Apple’s plans, Bloomberg reports.

The move will mean that 27 EU countries will miss out on these features with Apple Intelligence perhaps the most interesting. The feature will bring improvements to Siri as well as give the iPhone the capability to summarize text, create AI-generated images, and more.

Apple Intelligence was only ever set to launch in the US English language initially, but it remains to be seen now whether the EU DMA issues can be addressed before the feature is ready to be made available globally.