In iOS 17.4, Apple introduced a new system called eligibilityd. This works with countryd (which you might have heard about when it first appeared in i

How I tricked iOS into giving me EU DMA features

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2024-04-24 08:30:03

In iOS 17.4, Apple introduced a new system called eligibilityd. This works with countryd (which you might have heard about when it first appeared in iOS 16.2) and the Apple ID system to decide where you physically are. The idea is that multiple sources need to agree on where you are, before giving you access to features such as those mandated by the Digital Markets Act.

A plist file downloaded from Apple declares “domains”, which are individual features locked behind a location wall. At the time of writing, there are 24 (although one is missing), and the file was last updated on the 5th of April. We weren’t tracking updates to it before this week, so I don’t know what changed exactly. As a reminder, iOS 17.4 launched on the 5th of March, and was in beta from the 30th of January.

Probably to obscure what they are, these domains are named after the chemical elements corresponding to their numeric value. The only way to determine what feature these correspond to is by disassembling the relevant parts of iOS that check the eligibility system. On The Apple Wiki’s Eligibility article, I’ve documented what I’ve already found.