Google and Mozilla are working on browsers for iOS that violate current App Store rules

Companies like Google, Mozilla, and Microsoft have versions of their web browsers in Apple’s iOS and iPadOS app stores, but those versions come with a big caveat: App Store rules require them to use the Safari WebKit rendering engine, not engines that use these browsers. on other operating systems.

But this may change. According to The Register, Google and Mozilla have recently been seen working on versions of Chromium and Firefox that use their usual Blink and Gecko rendering engines, respectively.

Apple has not announced any rule changes. Correlating activity by Google and Mozilla could indicate that they expect Apple to lift its restrictions on third-party browser engines in the near future, or the companies may simply be hedging their bets. Regulatory pressure from several governments is pushing Apple to loosen many restrictions on the App Store, including (reluctantly) accepting third-party payment services and downloading apps and third-party app stores.

The iOS versions of Chrome, Firefox, Edge, and other iOS can currently sync with their desktop counterparts and display whatever user interface they want, but the WebKit requirement means their capabilities and drawbacks are basically the same as Safari’s. There is no such restriction on macOS, where third-party browsers can use whatever rendering engine they please.

Apple can still impose limits on how these browsers work – the amount of storage they are allowed to use for caching content, the amount of memory and CPU power they are allowed to use when running in the background, how aggressive tabs should be. paged out of RAM to make room for other applications, which extensions they are allowed to use, and a host of other possibilities. But for the iPad in particular, opening up a platform for third-party browser engines will hopefully mean more third-party browsers that look and act more like their macOS and Windows counterparts.