Apple has now finally opened the doors for third-party app stores to comply with the new EU regulations. While the feature is only available in select European nations, it is still considered as a welcome move.
The feature to sideload apps from outside the Apple App Store will remain exclusive to iPhones, and will not be available on iPads. As iPadOS is derived from iOS itself, both operating systems share a lot of resources and have plenty of similarities. Most of the apps on iOS are compatible with iPadOS unless it is designed to be iPhone-only.
As per the EU rules and regulations, Apple’s iOS was seen as the restricting factor for users and app developers from having external sources for app distribution. However, the rules only mention the term iOS and not iPadOS.
Although both operating systems are similar, they are completely different on paper as per the law. Hence, Apple is not legally required to extend app sideloading support on iPads.
