Apple’s walled garden just lost another brick, courtesy of Europe

What Apple is building into iOS 27

Apple is adding support to iOS 27 for third-party AirPlay alternatives, according to Bloomberg’s lead Apple reporter Mark Gurman, in his latest Power On newsletter. The change would let users in the European Union pick something like Google Cast as their default for sending video, photos and audio from an iPhone to a TV or speaker.This is being done to satisfy the EU’s Digital Markets Act (DMA), the same set of rules that already pried open Apple’s grip in other ways. AirPlay, for anyone who hasn’t used it, is Apple’s built-in way of wirelessly throwing content from your phone onto a bigger screen.The headline rival here is obviously Google Cast, but the door this opens is wider than one company. Any streaming protocol can theoretically slot in as the default, which is the part that should make Apple a little uneasy.

Why this is one more brick out of Apple’s wall

This is not a one-off. It follows sideloading, third-party app stores and alternative payment systems, all things Apple swore protected users right up until regulators forced its hand.

We covered when Apple first agreed to let EU users swap out core defaults like their payment app and app marketplace, and we also saw how some of that EU-only pressure eventually went global, like when Apple opened the door to third-party defaults in Europe and later when iPhone owners everywhere gained the ability to set a third-party default for calls and texts.

Will US iPhone users get this too?

It should be noted that Gurman frames this as EU-only. If you are reading this in the US, you get to keep watching from the sidelines, and your only “default” stays whatever Apple decides it is.

What this actually changes for you

My honest read is that most people will never touch this setting. AirPlay is woven so deeply into how iPhone owners already live that inertia alone will keep them right where they are.The people who do flip the switch are exactly the ones Apple should worry about losing. Think of the mixed-ecosystem households juggling a Pixel, a Chromecast and an iPhone on the same Wi-Fi. For them, this quietly removes one of the last reasons the walled garden felt unavoidable.

The fragmentation warning Apple loves to wheel out feels thinner every year. Europe keeps proving the sky does not fall when users get a choice, and the rest of us are left wondering why “protecting” the experience so often means protecting it from competition.