Criticism that iOS 18's 'changes that allow users to individually choose which contacts apps can access' will hinder the growth of social apps



iOS 18 , released on September 17, 2024, includes enhanced home screen customization features and the addition of a 'Game Mode.' At the same time, a feature has been added that allows users to individually select which contacts they want to allow access to apps that request access to their contacts. The New York Times, a foreign media outlet, points out that this feature will cause major problems for social apps that rely on sharing contacts.

Did Apple Just Kill Social Apps? - The New York Times
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/02/technology/apple-social-apps-contacts-change.html



This iOS 18 privacy change could spell doom for new social apps - 9to5Mac

https://9to5mac.com/2024/10/02/this-ios-18-privacy-change-could-spell-doom-for-new-social-apps/

In previous iOS versions, when social apps such as Instagram and WhatsApp requested access to their contacts, users had to choose between 'Allow access' and 'Deny access.' If the user agreed to access, the app developer could obtain a list of all contacts in the user's address book, as well as phone numbers and email addresses stored in the user's contact card, and use that information to suggest other accounts for the user to follow.

But in iOS 18, when an app requests access to contacts and the user agrees, the app will prompt the user to choose which contacts to share next, so the user can choose which contacts they are comfortable sharing.

Kevin Roose, a reporter for The New York Times, said of the feature, 'Giving users granular control over which contacts they share is great from a privacy perspective, and I'm sympathetic to Apple's stance that social apps that ask users to hand over their entire contact lists are creepy and invasive.' He added, 'Some developers are worried that this will make it hard for new apps to get off the ground.'

App developer Nikita Beer criticized the changes to contact access in iOS 18, saying, 'The changes are the end of the world, and new social apps may be dead on release.'




On the other hand, Apple has stated that it does not believe that the changes in iOS 18 will harm app developers. According to Apple, if users who previously refused to share all of their contacts can now share only the contacts they need, the number of contacts shared may increase.

According to Beer, since the release of iOS 18, contact sharing has dropped dramatically, with some apps seeing a 25% increase in the number of users who set the number of contacts they can access to 10 or less. Beer said, 'A 25% decrease in contact sharing may not sound like a big change, but for social apps, the ability to quickly connect new users with existing friends through access to contacts can make the difference between an app's success and failure. For example, Facebook has found that if a user follows seven friends within 10 days of signing up for an account, they are more likely to continue using the service than users who did not follow any friends.'



Beer went on to speculate that 'social apps that require access to contacts could be replaced by apps like TikTok that show content based on what users like, or AI companion apps that don't require humans at all.'

Additionally, Ruth pointed out that the changes in iOS 18 do not apply to Apple's own services. In fact, iMessage does not ask for access to users' contacts, as third-party messaging apps such as WhatsApp and Signal do. Some developers have criticized this as 'anti-competitive.'

Related Posts:

in Software,   Web Service, Posted by log1r_ut