European users will not get macOS Tahoe’s Live Activities, and they still won’t get 2024’s iPhone mirroring, because of Apple’s uncertainty over the EU’s Digital Markets Act.
Apple initially held back Apple Intelligence from the European users — prompting lambasting criticism from the EU — but did eventually launch it in April 2025. It has not launched iPhone mirroring, and has now confirmed that it will not come to the EU with iOS 26 or macOS 26.
According to Paris-based publication Numeramamultiple unnamed Apple officials said that the company will still not enable the feature because of the Digital Markets Act (DMA). Rather than any technological concern, Apple says that it simply unclear about the DMA’s regulatory requirements and what they may lead to.
Previously, both Apple and the EU have said that they are working together to ensure the company complies with the DMA. However, in Apple’s appeal against a $570 million fine for non-compliance, the company claimed that the EU had ignored its proposals.
Specifically, Apple said that it had proposed changes that it believe would have made the company compliant. The EU allegedly told Apple to wait, and then fined the company for not doing it.
Naturally, the EU denies this. European Commission spokesperson Lea Zuber said that its fine “only addresses the solution that Apple decided to roll out, not any other hypothetical approach that the company might have been considering.”
What Apple fears from the DMA
While Apple has given no further detail, it did include iPhone mirroring in its 2024 white paper on security issues, as one feature it was concerned about. Based on the current regulations of the DMA and of their enforcement, Apple considers that it may be forced to allow Android mirroring.
It’s also concerned about having to provide access to such technology to any third-party company that requests it. Apple notes that iPhone mirroring is one of the very many technologies that Facebook owner Meta has requested, even though it appears “to be completely unrelated to the actual use of Meta external devices.”
The EU has consistently demanded that Apple open up iOS to rival developers. As part of that, the then EU chief Margrethe Vestager insisted that there was “constructive dialogue.”
She also claimed that the DMA’s rules “will provide clarity for developers, third parties and Apple.” This has yet to happen.
It’s a small but useful new feature in macOS Tahoe, but EU users will not get iPhone Live Activities on Mac
But the unnamed Apple officials told Numerama that it did hope to bring all features to the EU, once legal issues were understood.
How the DMA affects the Mac
Apple is considered to be what the EU calls a gatekeeper platform, because of the size of its iPhone user base. It is not considered such for the Mac.
Yet Apple is also specifically not bringing the macOS Tahoe feature of Live Activities to EU users — possibly in case this somehow brings the Mac under the same regulations. While there has not been a specific announcement of iPhone Live Activities being unavailable in macOS 26 in Europe, Apple has omitted any mention of it from, for instance, the French edition of its press releases.
It’s very unclear what Apple can or can’t do, or perhaps will or won’t do. For while it’s blocking iPhone mirroring and the showing of the iPhone’s Live Activities on Mac, it is bringing the macOS Tahoe feature of phone calls on the Mac.
That’s the new feature that lets macOS users make and take phone calls on their Macs. But it works by utilizing the user’s nearby iPhone.
What features won’t come yet
There isn’t, therefore, a very obviously clear set of criteria for features that are excluded from the EU. Neither Apple or the EU have commented in any detail.
But including the main ones of iPhone mirroring, at present the list of definite exclusions is:
- iPhone mirroring
- Live Activities on Mac
- SharePlay Screen Sharing
SharePlay itself is working in the EU, but SharePlay Screen Sharing lets users send whatever is on their iPhone screen to another device, such as a Mac. In that sense it’s not dissimilar to iPhone mirroring.
It’s also possible that Apple Watch notifications will be affected, or to some extent removed in future. This is again because the EU is demanding that third-party companies be given full and equal access to iPhone technologies.
Curiously, EU users will get the ability to place calls from their Macs using their nearby iPhones
Apple repeatedly makes the fair point that Google is not being required to do any of this releasing of technology with Android, nor is Microsoft with its technologies. The EU’s position is that giving all developers equal access to Apple technology means there will be more choice for users.
That seems laudable in theory, but in practice it is going to be only large firms — and probably large US firms — that will exploit this. Based on Apple’s own reporting of how Meta is already requesting unnecessary user data, it is certain that the EU’s laws would lead to privacy and security issues.
There is also the fact that making these demands on Apple means that the company is having to spend engineering time and money to comply, when third-party developers have comparatively little to do to take advantage of it. Apple says that it has already created a quarter of a million APIs for developers to access its technology, for instance.
That may seem like Apple’s problem, but the EU laws could require it to release its technology compatible with Android and other devices, at the exact same time it releases them for iPhone users. This unquestionably lengthens the development time and means that all users, worldwide, could face much longer delays before key new features are available.
“Today’s decisions wrap us in red tape, slowing down Apple’s ability to innovate for users in Europe and forcing us to give away our new features for free to companies who don’t have to play by the same rules,” said Apple in a statement to AppleInsider in March 2025. “It’s bad for our products and for our European users.”
At the heart of the EUs DMA is a stated desire to be for the benefit of consumers. However, the implementation of it is necessarily leading to issues that are to the advantage of Apple’s competitors — and likely to the disadvantage of customers.