Apple has added Smart App Banners to the latest iOS 14 beta that prompt Safari users to open its News app when viewing the website of a publisher that is part of Apple News+.
First spotted by AppleInsider, the new in-app Safari prompts use Apple's Smart App Banner API, first introduced in iOS 13, which allows developers to prompt users to download their third-party app from the App Store or a corresponding link from Safari.
In this case, Apple is using the Smart App Banner framework to direct users to its own News app when they visit a website hosted by a publication that is also an Apple News+ partner. It's worth noting that the banners only appear for users who subscribe to Apple News+.
The Smart App Banner code on affected pages is reportedly unchanged, making it seem likely that it's a change to the way Safari handles publisher URLs, but it remains unclear if developers are able to control which banner appears.
The news follows a similar change Apple made in iOS 14 and macOS Big Sur that directs users who tap to read a news story in Safari to the Apple News app instead of to the publisher's website.
Safari banner that appears in iOS 14 (Image via AppleInsider)
Many Apple News+ users have been asking for a way to open up web links in Apple News+ to avoid paywalls on the web, so Apple News+ subscribers that pay for the service are likely to be appreciative of the new feature.
However, it has not gone down well with some large publishers, three of which have said they were not informed of the change and are now evaluating whether to terminate their relationship with Apple News+ as a result.
There have been multiple reports suggesting publishers are unimpressed with the revenue generated from Apple News+, which has fallen below Apple's initial promises. Apple has not only struggled to entice new publishers to the paid service, it has had difficulty gaining new subscribers since it launched in March 2019.
Thursday January 23, 2025 6:41 am PST by Joe Rossignol
iOS 18.3 should be released to the public next week, following beta testing since mid-December. While the software update is a relatively minor one, it still includes a handful of new features, changes, and bug fixes for iPhones.
Below, we recap everything new in iOS 18.3.
Notification Summary Changes
Examples of inaccurate Apple Intelligence notification summaries
Apple Intelligence...
Thursday January 23, 2025 7:32 am PST by Joe Rossignol
Walmart still does not accept Apple Pay or other NFC payments at its more than 4,600 stores across the U.S., and it stood firm on its reasoning for that today.
A spokesperson for Walmart today informed MacRumors that its position on contactless payments has not changed since we last reached out about the matter in 2022. The big-box retailer said it remains focused on its own convenient...
Tuesday January 21, 2025 4:31 pm PST by Juli Clover
Apple provided developers and public beta testers with the release candidate version of iOS 18.3 today, and with it comes release notes confirming what's new. While we knew about several of the features that are in the update, there are some lesser known tweaks and bug fixes.
The update adds new Visual Intelligence features for iPhone 16 models, it tweaks Notification summaries on all...
Wednesday January 22, 2025 2:07 am PST by Tim Hardwick
Popular caller ID app Truecaller is rolling out an update that brings real-time caller ID support to its iOS subscribers.
Apple introduced Live Caller ID Lookup in iOS 18, allowing third-party caller ID apps to securely retrieve information about a caller from their servers, hence today's Truecaller update.
iPhone users can enable the Live Caller ID Lookup feature by going to Settings ➝ ...
Tuesday January 21, 2025 12:46 pm PST by Joe Rossignol
A leaker known as "Majin Bu" today shared an alleged image of a component for the rumored, ultra-thin "iPhone 17 Air" model.
The blurry, pixelated image shows a pair of rear iPhone shells with a pill-shaped, raised camera bar along the top. On the left side of the bar, there is a circular cutout that appears to be for a single rear camera. On the right side of the bar, there appears to be an ...
Wednesday January 22, 2025 6:01 pm PST by Joe Rossignol
A new Apple TV is expected to be released later this year. In this article, we recap rumored features and changes for the device.
The next Apple TV will be equipped with Apple's own combined Wi-Fi and Bluetooth chip, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. He said the chip supports Wi-Fi 6E, which would be an upgrade over the current Apple TV's standard Wi-Fi 6 support. Wi-Fi 6E extends the...
Friday January 17, 2025 2:42 pm PST by Joe Rossignol
iOS 19 is still around six months away from being announced, but a new leak has allegedly revealed a completely redesigned Camera app.
Based on footage it obtained, YouTube channel Front Page Tech shared a video showing what the new Camera app will apparently look like, with the key change being translucent menus for camera controls. Overall, the design of these menus looks similar to...
Wednesday January 22, 2025 9:39 am PST by Joe Rossignol
New information has surfaced that indicates the rumored iPhone SE 4, iPad 11, and new iPad Air models are nearing launch.
A private account on social media platform X today revealed that iOS 18.3 or iPadOS 18.3 will be preinstalled on all of those upcoming devices when they are released. It is still unclear exactly when the devices will launch, but this information suggests that Apple will...
Friday January 24, 2025 1:55 am PST by Tim Hardwick
Apple is set to release iOS 18.3 next week, bringing further refinements to Apple Intelligence features, a couple of neat new capabilities to iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 16 devices, and bug fixes.
While not quite as packed with new features as Apple's preceding iOS 18 point releases, iOS 18.3 still introduces capabilities that aim to make your iPhone smarter and more intuitive. Below, we've...
Apple is really doing themselves no favors in their anti-trust case. Tell me how can a third party developer on iOS hijack third party website URLs and redirect to their own app?
It’s only for paying users who ALREADY pay the publisher via News+. This is so they can use their subscription on/from the web too. This has nothing to do with antitrust, just letting the user know that they can read the article with the News+ subscription they already have, instead of subscribing to another one for the web version.
Apple is really doing themselves no favors in their anti-trust case. Tell me how can a third party developer on iOS hijack third party website URLs and redirect to their own app?
THIS IS ONLY FOR NEWS+ USERS, NOT REGULAR USERS OR USERS WHO HAVE SUBSCRIBED THROUGH THE PUBLISHER’S APP. This isn’t antitrust, for goodness sake. ?♂️
