We Might Finally See Sideloading

Europe has really been focusing on Apple as of late. First, it forced the company to adopt USB-C on all its devices, and now it’s also asking for Apple to allow sideloading apps on the iPhone.

In case you don’t know, sideloading is the act of installing an app into your phone using a third-party platform. So, instead of just relying on the App Store, you would be able to go to any website, download an app, and install it. This would also open the doors to third-party app stores.

While this will give users more freedom to install whatever they want from any app store, it’s also a potential security risk for people who don’t know what they’re doing.

Still, the EU is forcing Apple to adopt sideloading and allow third-party app stores to be available to iPhone users, which might come in iOS 18 — or even sooner depending on how the laws go; the new EU laws take effect in March 2024, and code to support sideloading has already been found in the latest iOS 17.2 betas.

Granted, Apple is fighting the legislation and will likely try to find ways to make sideloading hard to do. Some have speculated that the company might only allow sideloading in Europe, and while that feels like a stretch at the moment, it wouldn’t be the first time it’s geographically restricted some features on its devices.