Limited browser engine options on iOS restrict user choice and hinder web development testing

Signals over time

3 observed signals across 1 sources, tracked for 1 days. Confidence: low.

What people are saying Observed

• “>As soon as Apple is forced to allow Chrome on iOS, I won’t even have that opt-out available to me. Those are quite the mental gymnastics you're doing here. You know, you could just choose not to install Chrome, right? >If you want to use Google, they have a whole mobile OS you can use. If someone bought an i-device, they don't get to choose, Safari is forced on them. >Why take away my choice as a consumer that prefers Safari? Calm down, nobody is taking away your choice by allowing Chrome to run its own browser engine on iOS. You're totally delusional and making shit up that would never happen. Apple is the only one that's forcing you to do anything. They are the ones that took away your ability to choose. You seriously sound totally brainwashed.”

  Hacker News · frustration

• “I agree, and it amuses me that the Chrome advocates call Safari the new IE ! My mortgage website and DoD website and VA.gov, etc all don’t tell me I have to use Safari or they won’t work. No, they say I must use Chrome (or sometimes Edge). As soon as Apple is forced to allow Chrome on iOS, I won’t even have that opt-out available to me. If you want to use Google, they have a whole mobile OS you can use. Why take away my choice as a consumer that prefers Safari? And Apple's on the device they build and sell? Not to mention all the security flaws that would entail...”

  Hacker News · frustration

• “First let us install other browser engines on iOS, and then we can talk. Safari has the most obscene monopoly of any browser ever. IE 6 came pre-installed on windows machines, but you could always install Mosaic or such. Google Chromebooks come with Chrome as the only default browser, but you can still run Firefox on Chromebooks just fine (even in two different ways, the supported android app version, and the semi-supported linux terminal + launching firefox that way). Heck, iOS's monopolistic behavior is so bad that multiple regions (the EU + Japan) have already ruled against their behavior, though in reality Apple has complied in a way that makes it impossible to actually make a second browser engine for iOS still (going against the spirit of the law, but the courts haven't caught up to them yet). Safari is also an awful browser in that it requires someone to buy an expensive machine to see if their site works on it. I can run a windows trial copy in a VM to see if my site works in IE, I can run Chrome or Firefox on linux to verify if my site works in them. I can install a free android emulator on any common OS to see that my site renders right in those. But Apple doesn”

  Hacker News · frustration