One change Apple made in iOS 17.4 has resulted in a notable increase in the number of iPhone owners choosing to install the Brave Browser app to use in place of Safari.

The EU’s Digital Markets Act (DMA) required Apple to prompt European iPhone users to choose their default browser, with its own Safari app merely listed as one of the options …

EU iPhone owners are now asked to choose

While iPhone owners have been theoretically able to choose their preferred web browser since iOS 14, it wasn’t much of a choice. That’s because Apple insisted that all browsers had to use its own WebKit API.

That ensured that competing browsers couldn’t do anything to impact security of privacy, but it also meant that they couldn’t offer faster speeds, or features not available in Safari. The EU required Apple to drop the WebKit requirement, and also to proactively present users with a choice of browser when they first set up their device.

We first learned back in January how Apple would comply with the requirement.

Apple is making major changes to how web browsers can operate on iPhone for customers in the EU. iOS 17.4 will introduce the option to set your preferred default browser when you initially launch Safari, and browser makers will be able to use other browser engines.

The list of browsers offered to users includes Chrome, DuckDuckGo, Edge, Firefox, and Brave.

Brave Browser take-up increases notably

Bleeping Computer spotted a tweet by Brave about the impact of the change.

The graph shows daily installs shoot up from below 8k to around 11k in just a few days.

Images: Brave / Rubaitul Azad on Unsplash