| For years, the voluminous rules for Apple’s App Store have banned iPhone apps featuring “overtly sexual or pornographic material.” But now, an iPhone porn app called Hot Tub is available — only in the European Union — from one of the non-Apple mini app stores created under a landmark E.U. law to jump-start more technology competition. It’s likely the first ever porn app that’s available to download directly to iPhones. Apple knew iPhone pornography apps were likely to spring up as a result of the 2024 E.U. regulation, and the company isn’t happy. “This app and others like it will undermine consumer trust and confidence in our ecosystem,” Apple said. The way an antitrust law ushered in a porn pioneer is evidence that anti-monopoly crackdowns against Apple and other technology giants are changing our technology — in ways we might love or loathe. Also because of new laws or government pressure, Apple recently made its iPhone chat app work more seamlessly with Android phones worldwide, the popular Fortnite games returned to iPhones in the E.U. and Netflix for the first time in years is offering a way to buy a subscription from its iPhone app. I’ll explain Apple’s history of simultaneously prohibiting and enabling online porn, and how Hot Tub is emblematic of the messy but potentially exciting challenges to Apple’s and Google’s nearly 20 years of control over the app economy Apple’s ban on porn When Apple first formalized rules for its App Store in 2010, the company said porn and sexual material were no-nos. Apple alone decided what crossed the line. In reality, pornography has flourished on iPhones with or without Apple’s explicit permission. Apple still allows porn in apps like Reddit and X, as long as there are settings to hide it, and people have found even illegal sexualized material in iPhone apps despite Apple’s rules. Anyone can use the iPhone’s Safari browser to access the internet’s full variety, including pornography. To some people, Apple’s prohibitions still went too far. Lawrence Walters, a First Amendment attorney who represents adult entertainment companies and performers, said Apple has hurt people and businesses involved in adult content by closing off iPhone apps as a way to reach their audience. The complicated combination of banned but widespread adult content got even murkier starting last year in the E.U. The region’s sweeping Big Tech law required Apple to give iPhone users a choice of downloading apps from alternative app stores that could set their own rules and terms for developers. One of those alternative app stores, AltStore PAL, heard about Hot Tub and invited it to come aboard. People have previously gotten around Apple’s bans on some app categories by breaking iPhone software locks to download apps that the company doesn’t permit. Hot Tub has previously been available for iPhone users that have done this uncommon step, called “jailbreaking.” People knowledgeable about Apple’s history say that Hot Tub is probably the first porn app that people can download to iPhones directly, without jailbreaking. Why this matters to you I hear from readers who overwhelmingly like Apple’s App Store as a safe space mostly free from porn, scams and other material they don’t want. Critics of Apple’s control and bans on apps generally say they want to add choices — not take away what you might like. Will Smillie, the 27-year-old software developer who created Hot Tub, said Apple is right to ban porn apps in its App Store. He also wants people to have options of apps that don’t conform to what Apple decides its users should have. “It’s great there are more options coming online for people who want to explore what else they can do with their device,” he said. Shane Gill and Riley Testut, who created the AltStore PAL storefront, said as a child-safety measure their app store can be automatically blocked on iPhones that use Apple’s parental controls. People also can’t find Hot Tub and most other apps on AltStore PAL unless you know where to look. Smillie said there were more than 3,700 downloads of Hot Tub as of Monday, when AltStore PAL first publicized its addition to its app store. While Hot Tub is the first porn app on AltStore PAL, Gill and Testut said their app storefront has been a haven for other apps that didn’t have a place in the mass market App Store, including video games that Apple rejected and apps businesses created for their employees that didn’t need to be in the App Store. The rise of alternative stores shows that governments and courts around the world are challenging the tens of billions of dollars Apple and Google make each year as the hubs for app downloads and digital app purchases. A judge last fall also ordered a dramatic change to Google’s app store for Android devices that would be far more radical than what the E.U. did. (Those changes are on hold while Google appeals.) You might be fine with the app status quo. The point of the antitrust crackdowns, Gill said, is to give you an opportunity to find out what an alternative app reality could be. “It’s the freedom to try,” he said. | 
