According to pulsestacks' April 17th report, Apple announced last month that it would offer a new Web Distribution service for developers in the European Union region. With today's release of iOS 17.5 Beta 2 update, this distribution option is officially available.
According to the Digital Markets Act (DMA) regulations, developers, in addition to distributing their applications through the App Store or third-party app stores, can directly distribute their applications through their websites, which is the third distribution method available to EU developers.
Pulsestacks provided the following updates from Apple:
Developers must opt into the new App Store business terms. This means that if the number of application downloads via web distribution exceeds 1 million in the past 12 months, developers will be required to pay a "core technology fee" of €0.50 for each additional download.
Applications can only be installed through website domains registered by developers in App Store Connect. Apple will also provide developers with numerous APIs for integrating system functionalities.
For Users
When users first download an application from a developer's website, they'll encounter a series of screens explaining what granting the developer the ability to install the application from their website entails.
After using Face ID for authentication and agreeing to grant the developer permission to install the application, users will go through a three-step installation process for the application itself.
Apple's notarization system means users will see clear information about the application and its purpose, including the app name, developer name, app description, screenshots, and system age rating.
It's worth noting that users only need to grant permission to install applications from each developer once.
For example, if Meta Company launches web distribution functionality in the EU, when a user downloads a Meta Company app for the first time (such as Facebook), they'll need the user's authorization. Subsequently, if users want to continue installing other apps from Meta Company (such as Instagram), they won't need to authorize again; they can install them following the regular app installation steps.
