Like Google, Mozilla is preparing the end of the WebKit monopoly on iPhone

This year, with iOS 17, Apple may finally give third-party developers the opportunity to take advantage of web engines other than WebKit for internet browsing applications. Remember that a web engine underpins the rendering of web pages.

As it stands, Chrome, Firefox and other browsers that you know on iPhone and iPad are all based on WebKit, the same web engine that Safari uses. It is then difficult to offer original functionalities for a non-native solution, or to optimize certain aspects. However, all this could change soon.

A crisp end to the year for web browsing on iPhone

In anticipation of the opening of iOS to other web engines, specialists in the field are preparing. We saw Googlealready testing internallya non-WebKit web browser on iOS. More recently, it was Mozilla that was reportedly caught trying tonon-WebKit version of Firefox on iPhone.

Remember that on macOS and Windows, Firefox is powered by the in-house Gecko engine. It seems logical that the latter is also the one used for this new mobile Firefox formula.

For now, however, such a version of Mozilla's browser could not appear on the App Store, given that Apple's application store prohibits the use of a third-party web engine. According to information fromThe Register, Mozilla is therefore carrying out this work for the moment only toexperimental title, like Google. Obviously, all this is being done in anticipation of Apple's potential openness on the subject of web engines.

See you next September with iOS 17

The EU would also be ready to push in this direction, as would other legislators in different areas of the globe, as indicated by our colleagues at MacRumors.

No longer having to use WebKit for a web browsing application could beone of the biggest changes in iOS 17. Because this new version of the iPhone operating system is expected, for the moment,with few new features. Apple would prioritize performance optimizations, with, we hope, apositive impact on the autonomy of our iPhones.

Editor-in-chief for iPhon.fr. Pierre is like Indiana Jones, looking for the lost iOS trick. Also a long-time Mac user, Apple devices hold no secrets for him. Contact: pierre[a]iphon.fr.