As per the Apple official press release, the official version of iOS 17.4 will be released in March 2024, bringing application sideloading (only in the European Union), podcast improvements, new Emoji, etc. characteristics.
Opening sideloading functionality for EU regions
In order to comply with the EU’s “Digital Market Law”, Apple has made three changes to the App Store, Apple Pay, and Safari browser. The relevant changes are applicable to iPhone users in 27 countries or regions in the EU :
Allow users to download apps from third-party app stores.
Third-party browsers can use web engines other than Apple WebKit on iPhone.
Third-party wallet apps support calling iPhone’s NFC chip.
Apple will add text lines to the Podcasts app. The overall form is similar to “Lyrics” in Apple Music, allowing users to search for lines from a specific podcast in the app and quickly jump to the relevant part.
