Epic Games has given Apple a backhanded compliment over the changes it made to reduce the barriers to installing the company’s games store on iPhones. Apple had long come under antitrust fire for forcing users to take 15 separate steps to install a third-party app store. The company has now reduced that to six steps and eliminated what has been described as a “scare screen with a misleading message” … When the EU’s Digital Markets Act (DMA) required Apple to allow third-party app stores on the iPhone, the company was accused of malicious compliance by deliberately making the process as convoluted and scary-looking as possible. Independent testers described it as taking more than a dozen steps with a process that was both irritating and scary. This included a warning that third-party App Store developers may get access to user data and that features like subscription management and refund requests would not be available. Epic Games was of course among the critics, but has today acknowledged that Apple has since greatly improved the process. In response to ongoing Digital Markets Act enforcement, Apple has significantly improved the process for installing alternative app stores from the web in the European Union with iOS 18.6 in July. They’ve reduced the install flow from 15 steps to 6, eliminating their former scare screen and its misleading message, and eliminated a dead-end that left the user stranded in iOS Settings. If you’re surprised that Epic has gone out of its way to compliment Apple, don’t be. The point of its blog post is to provide evidence that Apple was previously effective in discouraging installations of third-party app stores, and to argue that the company still hasn’t gone far enough. Prior to Apple’s update, around 65% of users attempting to install the Epic Games Store on iOS were thwarted by Apple’s deceptive design. After the update, the drop-off rate has gone from 65% down to around 25%, and continues on a downward trend as users upgrade to the new version of iOS […] Despite their significant strides to improve the store installation process, Apple’s policy towards competing stores continues to violate the Digital Markets Act. They are thwarting competition through anticompetitive junk fees such as their Core Technology Fee, discriminatory policies retaliating against developers who support competing stores by making their terms on the iOS App Store worse, and by imposing an approval and notarization process in order to dictate product design decisions to competing app developers and store developers. These Apple policies are unlawful and stand in stark contrast to the operation of Apple’s own Mac platform, which does none of these things. The company also accuses Google of failing to improve its own installation flow, which still has 12 steps and a similar scare screen to the one previously used by Apple. Highlighted accessories Image: Epic Games