iOS 17.4 is out now with extensive changes for iPhone customers in the EU. One of the biggest is the allowance of third party browser engines for the first time on iOS. To this point, all non Safari have been required to use Apple’s open-source WebKit rendering engine. Which means that its been really hard for 3rd party browsers to be better than Safari in any meaningful way.

At this point, its unclear if Google and Mozilla will be bringing their rendering engines, Blink and Gecko rendering engines, respecitively, to iOS. We know that Google has been working on a version of Chrome for iOS using Blink for a some time now. Mozilla, on the other hand, has complained about the work involved in bringing Gecko to iOS. Since Apple is only allowing alternative rendering engines on iPhone and not iPad, they would now have to maintain two versions of iOS Firefox.

I’ve never loved the web browser rendering engine restriction on iOS. And I do agree with the sentiment that it limits user choice and stifles competition. But it also feels like it’s the only thing preventing the complete domination of Blink/Chromium. Its a little baffling to me when I see people claiming that Safari is the new Internet Explorer. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a single website tell me some functionality only works in Safari, but I’ve certainly seen that for Chrome. We are way past the point where many web developers only test their sites on Chrome, and make fixing issues in other browsers a low priority (or no priority).

As of February 2024, Safari has roughly a 18% marketshare among web browsers, compared to Chrome’s 65%. The only reason Safari’s marketshare is even that high, is because it is the default, and essentially only option, on iPad and iPhone. Chrome has become synonomous with the web to the point that normal people ask me why I use anything else (on my laptop). Again, this is normal people, not fellow nerds.

It’s not even a matter of which browser is “better” anymore. But that should be the right answer, right? Safari should have to compete on its own merits and not just “win” because it has the home field advantage on iOS. Unfortunately, I think we’re beyond the point of people actually evaluating a web browser based on its features set or how well it adheres to web standards. “Everyone” just uses Chrome, just because.

And for those not using Chrome or Safari, chances are they are still using a Chromium based browser. Both Microsoft and Opera gave up their rendering engines years ago. I can’t see how less choice and variety helps keep the open web open. Even though Chromium and Blink are open source, they are Google projects, and Google drives their direction. Software can be open source, but without an open governance model, you end up with a product that’s still driven in a top-down, closed source way. And sure, both companies can deviate from some of the things Google puts in Chromium, but if the point of using Chromium and Blink are maximum web compatability, they are likely to follow Google’s lead.

If Chrome continues its march to be the only web browser that matters, then it is Google, not the Web Standards groups, that will drive the future of the open web. What’s even the point of a standards body if every browser is built on Chromium anyway? The scare about Google implementing a DRM scheme for the web shows that maybe they can’t be trusted to be a benevolent steward of the web. Really, no one company can. Not Google, not Apple, not Microsoft. These companies gatekeep enough of our tech lives, they should keep their hands off the web.