Apple announced Friday that three major features for its upcoming operating systems will not be available in the European Union, when iOS 18 and macOS Sequoia ship later this year in the fall.
Apple Intelligence, iPhone Mirroring to macOS Sequoia, and SharePlay Screen Sharing, are impacted and won’t be available, via Bloomberg. In fact, due to regulatory concerns relating to compliance with the Digital Markets Act, Apple signaled that these features won’t be available to European Union customers at all this year.
This is a bit of a blow for EU Apple customers as the features in question are some of the most significant enhancements Apple unveiled at WWDC.
Apple Intelligence is a major new initiative for the company and encompasses a suit of new AI-powered features (including writing tools, Image Playgrounds, notification summaries, quick replies and more) and a major revamp to the Siri virtual assistant.
Top comment by PD
So they are basically saying that the 3rd most valuable company in the world is unable to implement screen sharing in a way that complies with EU regulations.
iPhone Mirroring is the major significant new feature in macOS Sequoia, which allows users to see a live interactive screen of their iPhone on their Mac. Notifications from the iPhone are also mirrored to the Mac display.
And SharePlay Screen Sharing is an upgrade to the screen sharing feature in FaceTime. With iOS 18, users will be able to ask to take control of a friend’s device.
It’s a bit unclear exactly what the interoperability requirements enforced by the Digital Markets Act require in the context of these new features. But Apple said in a statement it would compromise “privacy and security”. An expected EU release date for these features was not announced.
For everyone else, Apple Intelligence will begin to roll out this fall for US English language devices with iOS 18.0. More Intelligence features, such as some of the new Siri capabilities, will be arriving in future iOS 18 updates. The Mac iPhone Mirroring feature is due later this year, in an update to macOS Sequoia. SharePlay Screen Sharing should be part of the first iOS 18.0 release.
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