My theory about Apple Intelligence, iPhone Mirroring, and the EU was wrong

[JonathanParker]

My theory was wrong: I thought Apple would make it possible for EU users to access Apple Intelligence and iPhone Mirroring by simply changing their region to the US, which would as a result disable sideloading for those EU iPhones which changed regions to the US.

I thought it would go viral on TikTok & Twitter: “HOW TO ACCESS APPLE INTELLIGENCE IN EU” and they would make millions of people change their regions to the US, and the EU could do nothing about it. They couldn’t undermine the free will of their citizens changing their device regions to somewhere else.

The latest iOS 18 Beta 2 actually contradicts my theory: the iPhone Mirroring feature is heavily geolocked and inaccessible within the EU.

 

[TimFL1]

EU functionality is not tied to your phones region setting, so this was never really an option

 

[Ansath]

EU functionality is not tied to your phones region setting, so this was never really an option

Yea, I thought it would work the same as hit alternate app stores for the EU works

 

[JonathanParker]

Yea, I thought it would work the same as hit alternate app stores for the EU works

EU functionality is not tied to your phones region setting, so this was never really an option

Interesting, if one of you are in the EU, does changing your region to the US disable sideloading? I’m aware US users can’t change their region to Europe to get sideloading, but Europe users changing their region to US may disable sideloading?

 

[flexwithmarius]

It’s tied to the region of your Apple ID. Which is much tougher to deal with if you have Apple Music, TV+, or payment methods stored specific to your country.

As much as I would love to see people say f*ck it and change their Apple ID region out of rebellion, it’s not worth it.

 

[originalmagneto]

Unless Apole comes up with a simple method of changing this, then it’s a no brainer 😬

 

[Ansath]

Interesting, if one of you are in the EU, does changing your region to the US disable sideloading? I’m aware US users can’t change their region to Europe to get sideloading, but Europe users changing their region to US may disable sideloading?

Not in EU and even if I was, I'm not messing with the region on my account, sorry.

Edit, from what I read in forums, the EU checks that Apple does for the side loading, etc (which makes sense is being used for Apple Intelltigence, etc) is:

1. Apple ID billing address
2. The user’s current location (apparently Apple is only checking the country and not a precise -location for privacy reasons)
3. The current region set in iOS settings

 

[one more]

Someone else managed to get it working in Germany:

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/iphone-screen-mirror-works-with-us-apple-account-eu.2429995/

 

[LutzRFrank]

Someone else managed to get it working in Germany:

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/iphone-screen-mirror-works-with-us-apple-account-eu.2429995/

can confirm that working fine - without losing the EU Apple ID settings and linked info like contacts, iCloud+ and Wallet. Its just changing store ID to an US one