The EU Will Finally Get Apple Intelligence, but Not These Two iOS 18 Features (Here’s Why)
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The European Union’s Digital Markets Act has made things more complicated for Apple and its European fans. While the new regulations offer significant benefits, like a much more open app ecosystem and full support for third-party web browsers, it’s also resulted in some features being delayed in the EU as Apple navigates the uncertainties of the DMA and how it will affect its tighter ecosystem.
This was most noticeably felt when Apple unveiled its new AI features at last year’s Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC). While Apple made it clear from the beginning that Apple Intelligence would start off solely in the US, folks in most other countries could take advantage of it by setting their language and region settings to the US. This worked even in the betas, and by the time Apple Intelligence was rolled out, Apple had removed the region restriction, allowing almost anyone in the world to use Apple Intelligence as long as their Siri language was set appropriately — to US English in iOS 18.1, or most other “flavours” of English in iOS 18.2.
Anyone, that is, except for folks in the European Union and China. Apple had geo-locked Apple Intelligence to prevent it from being enabled in those regions, albeit for different reasons. In China, it was a simple matter of law; the Chinese government doesn’t allow foreign AI large language models (LLMs) to operate inside the country, so Apple had to go hunting for a Chinese partner.
That wasn’t the case in the EU, where regulators weren’t technically preventing Apple Intelligence from launching. However, Apple wanted to be sure that it wouldn’t run afoul of the DMA. The ways in which this might happen were never entirely clear, but since one of the principles of the DMA is to require “gatekeeper devices” like the iPhone and iPad to be open to competition and integration by third parties, Apple may have feared it would be forced to compromise the privacy and security of Apple Intelligence.
Thankfully, Apple solved both these issues. In late October, around the time iOS 18.1 was released, Apple announced that Apple Intelligence features would come to the EU in April, and by February, it had reportedly found an Apple Intelligence partner in China.
While China won’t get Apple Intelligence until at least iOS 18.5, the European launch was confirmed when the first iOS 18.4 beta arrived last month. By the end of next week, folks in the EU will be able to enjoy Writing Tools, Image Playground, Genmoji, Photo Clean Up, and more.
Sadly, two other iOS 18 features still won’t be coming to the EU in iOS 18.4. With all the hype around Apple Intelligence, iPhone Mirroring and SharePlay Screen Sharing have flown below the radar, but they’re still missing in the EU — and nowhere to be found in the iOS 18.4 Release Candidate that dropped yesterday.
Last summer, Apple made it clear that folks in the EU wouldn’t be getting SharePlay Screen Sharing and iPhone Mirroring, stating that “the interoperability requirements of the DMA could force us to compromise the integrity of our products in ways that risk user privacy and data security.”
Considering last week’s order by the European Commission requiring Apple to open up nearly all connectivity features to third parties, it’s not hard to see why Apple is reluctant to add these features in the EU. With Apple being forced to open AirDrop, AirPlay, and even smartwatch connectivity to other companies, the EC would likely require it to do the same with its screen-sharing technologies.
Right now, Apple controls both ends of the connection, which means it can ensure that everything is secure. Only a Mac can pull up an iPhone screen, and screen mirroring only works over SharePlay, which is built into iOS and FaceTime. Under the DMA, Apple would likely need to allow not only Microsoft, but any third-party app developer to build an iPhone mirroring client for Windows, Mac, or even Linux. It would also be required to open SharePlay mirroring to Android tablets and who knows what else.
That’s not to say that Apple can’t do this securely, but it takes more time to shore things up when you need to be concerned with how other developers could potentially misuse or even abuse them. Apple will likely bring these features to the EU eventually, but only after it can guarantee that it can open them up securely enough to avoid compromising the security and privacy of its customers.
