Ever since Apple announced EU-exclusive features like third-party app stores, app downloads directly from the browser, and the ability to uninstall Safari, I've been jealous. Well, it seems I'm not the only one desperate to get my hands on such features. There is another enthusiast who is and he HAS managed to trick his iPhone into thinking he lives in Italy when he actually lives in Australia.
I want this new iPhone feature on Android!
Adam Demasi of kirkblog has successfully gotten a taste of EU-exclusive features on his iPhone, but the process to get those features is complicated and not feasible for many to try. With iOS 17.4, Apple rolled out a new system called permissions, which together with the country (another system) determines where the user is. Additionally, there are several other parameters that are analyzed internally to get the location before Apple allows users to access geo-restricted features.
To provide access to features, Apple downloads a file called a plist that consists of individual features that are locked behind a geo-restriction. Demasi explains, "At the time of writing, there are 24 (although one is missing), and the file was last updated on April 5th. We didn't track updates to it before this week, so I don't know what exactly changed."
After figuring it out, Demasi took an old iPhone 12 Pro Max, reset the phone, disabled location services, and tried an Italian SIM card and signed up with an Italian Apple ID. However, this bore no fruit. I'm in Australia 🇦🇺, but as far as my iPhone knows I'm in Italy 🇮🇹. How? A bunch of people asked, so here's how I tricked iOS into giving me EU features: In iOS 17.4, Apple introduced a new system called eligibility. This works with countryd (which you may have heard of… https://t.co/Ryx06Tbo21 pic.twitter.com/qT2jdMAXQE — Adam Demasi (@hbkirb) April 20, 2024
