Will You Wait Till 2024 to Sideload Apps on Your iPhone? Apple Has the Answer!

Apple is planning big changes to iOS, and many suspected that these updates would be released as early as next month. But it turns out that the company is reserving these new features for iPhone users until early next year. Bloomberg’s new report contradicts a recent article that hinted that iOS could get support for sideloading apps with the iOS 17.2 update, which is slated for release in December of this year.

But new developments say that Apple will move the timeline for this support in certain markets, bringing it some time to early 2024. One of Apple’s big changes for users in European Union (EU) countries will be the ability to install apps from any app store besides Apple’s App Store. Bloomberg’s story also references a previous article, saying it misread the new code in iOS 17.2 and suggested the feature would be introduced in that version.

Apple has never offered iPhone users the ability to install apps from anywhere, but new EU laws are forcing the company to open its doors to third-party app stores. This option also means that Apple misses out on a 15-30 percent commission from developers who have hosted apps on the App Store for many years.

According to the report, Apple is likely to push a localized update for iPhone users in EU countries, which means that Apple will not offer sideloading of apps for iPhone users worldwide.

The most interesting part of the report is that Apple will likely put in place a monitored system to control what apps are installed on the iPhone, but that may require further scrutiny from privacy advocates and EU regulators.

That said, opening up iOS to sideloading apps puts more pressure on the company to ensure that the security of iPhone users isn’t compromised, something Apple has always feared about this feature and therefore decided not to offer it to users.