Meta and Apple have been engaged in a months-long back-and-forth over how Apple should implement EU-mandated pairing for third-party devices. Here are the details.
As part of Europe’s Digital Markets Act, Apple is required to let third-party devices access certain iPhone and iPad features that are currently more deeply integrated with the company’s own accessories.
That includes pairing and connectivity capabilities intended to give competing products access comparable to that available to accessories such as AirPods and Apple Watch.
For instance, Apple has already introduced proximity-triggered pairing in the EU with iOS 26.5, allowing compatible third-party accessories brought near an iPhone to trigger a streamlined pairing prompt.
Meta’s request, however, concerns a separate capability that Apple has yet to release: letting an accessory paired with one iPhone or iPad automatically become available on the user’s other iPhones and iPads, similar to how AirPods pairing is synced across Apple devices.
