Credit: Gary Sims / Android Authority
- The release of iOS 17.4 gives iPhone owners in the EU the ability to use third-party app stores.
- Apple says that if owners leave the EU for too long, certain third-party features will stop working.
- Apps downloaded from alternative app stores will still work, but they won’t be able to update through the marketplace it was downloaded from.
Yesterday, Apple began rolling out iOS 17.4 and iPadOS 17.4, which opened up the doors for iPhone and iPad owners within the European Union to use alternative app stores. Although EU customers can now access third-party alternatives, it looks like that permission will only exist as long as they stay in EU countries.
On its support page about alternative app marketplaces, Apple details how it will approach the use of third-party app stores in the EU. The company explains in the availability section that device eligibility for alternative app marketplaces is “determined by using on-device processing.” In the following paragraph, however, the firm says these users won’t retain that eligibility if they leave the EU for too long:
