Google Updates Chrome On iPhone—Stop Using Browser, Warns Apple

Let battle commence. Apple warns iPhone users to stop using Chrome and stick to its own browser instead. “Unlike Chrome, Safari truly helps protect your privacy,” it says. “Safari works to prevent advertisers and websites from using the unique combination of characteristics of your device to create a ‘fingerprint’ to track you.”

Apple is conflicted and as ever with such warnings, it’s hard to separate security from marketing — albeit privacy experts also flag Chrome’s credentials versus Safari (1,2). But Google is now fighting back. iPhone is the battleground, and the world’s most popular browser is targeting Apple’s users with its latest AI upgrade.

Per 9to5Google, “after teasing in September, Chrome for iOS is now more widely rolling out a built-in Gemini experience. Once available, the icon at the left of the address bar changes from the Google Lens camera to a page icon badged by the Gemini spark. The ‘Page tools’ sheet that slides up has two options: ‘Search screen’ and ‘Ask Gemini’.”

Safari versus Chrome
Apple

This is rolling out slowly. “Important,” Google says, “Gemini in Chrome is not available to all users at this time. We’re gradually releasing Gemini in Chrome, so it might not be available to you just yet.” For now, it’s U.S., English language iPhones only.

Gemini data harvesting
Surfshark

“We’re seeing it more widely available with Chrome 143 for iOS,” 9to5Google says. Given Apple’s privacy warnings, you should also note that the Gemini update doesn’t work in Chrome’s Incognito mode and Surfshark warns that “Gemini in Chrome collects the most user data among all browser-integrated AIs.”

This Chrome upgrade is critical for Google and Apple. While Gemini was the 10th most popular free iPhone app this year, ChatGPT was 1st. But Google’s strategy is to stitch Gemini through its multiple platforms in a way no one can match. And nothing is bigger for Google than Chrome, the world’s most dominant browser across all platforms.

Chrome is a potential trojan horse on iPhone, a front window for Google’s new AI-fueled ecosystem. And with Apple infamously lagging on the AI front, Safari needs a plan before Google’s hybrid AI browser starts eroding Safari’s market share. 

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