How do you know, Apple has finally brought the iPhone ecosystem into line with the European Union’s Digital Markets Act, a standard that seeks to prevent possible excesses by technology companies responsible for the most used digital products and services in various fields. The deadline for this move was March 6, and Apple released iOS 17.4, opening some of the fences that until then prevented access to the walled garden.

Apple made sure it did introduce a good stack of conditions to be able to cross that door to the extent that it raised the spirits of many companies that sought to take advantage of this development, especially in relation to bringing their own app stores to the iPhone operating system. With a special mention along these lines of the decision by those from Cupertino to cancel the developer account of Epic Games, ending (at least temporarily) the plans of the creators of Fortnite to create their own store.

Linking this development to a specific geographical area and also the fact that we as users still barely feel the effects of this development (which we also saw yesterday in the case of WhatsApp), raises a huge amount of doubt. Some of them won’t get a response for a while as new stores, browsers, etc. start arriving, but luckily there are others today that are already responsive.

One of them has to do with the effects of traveling with an iPhone in your pocket, and we were interested What happens when an iPhone with apps from alternative stores installed leaves the European Union?. And from Cupertino, they have finally answered this question on a page dedicated specifically to alternative stores. In this regard, he explains this:

«If you leave the European Union, you can continue to open and use applications that you previously installed from alternative application markets. Alternative application marketplaces may continue to update applications for up to 30 days after you leave the European Union, and you may continue to use alternative application marketplaces to manage previously installed applications. However, you must be in the European Union to install alternative app marketplaces and new apps from alternative app marketplaces.»

So we can see that occasional trips of 30 days or less will have no impact, so the vast majority of iPhone users will not be affected by the restriction. It will be different for those who, either for personal or work reasons, spend a period of more than one month outside the EU, as in this case the application from alternative stores for important tasks will not have a recommended option.