Google Mobile-Friendly Test Is Gone: How to Test Your Site in 2026

Looking for the Google Mobile-Friendly Test? Google retired the tool, along with its API and the Mobile Usability report in Search Console, on December 1, 2023. In 2014 we ran QuickOnlineTips through it and proudly shared that our Bootstrap-based responsive design passed. The goal is the same today: your site must work well on phones. Here is what the tool did, why it went away, and how to test mobile-friendliness now.

Quick answer: Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test was retired on December 1, 2023. To test a site today, run Lighthouse in Chrome DevTools or PageSpeed Insights for mobile performance and best-practice checks, use Chrome’s device toolbar to preview different screen sizes, open the page on a real phone, and use Search Console’s URL Inspection tool to see how Googlebot Smartphone renders it. Check that text is readable without zooming, buttons are easy to tap and there is no sideways scrolling.

What the Google Mobile-Friendly Test was

Launched in 2014, the free tool let you enter a URL and get a simple pass or fail: “Page is mobile-friendly” or a list of problems such as text too small, clickable elements too close together or content wider than the screen. It became especially important around Google’s 2015 mobile ranking update, when site owners rushed to make sure their pages passed.

Why Google retired it

When Google dropped the tool in December 2023 (external site), it pointed to Lighthouse and other mature resources for evaluating mobile usability. By then, Google had also moved to mobile-first indexing, which means it primarily uses the mobile version of your pages for indexing and ranking.

How to test mobile-friendliness in 2026

1. Lighthouse in Chrome DevTools

Open your page in Chrome, press F12, choose the Lighthouse tab, select Mobile and run an audit. You get scores for performance, accessibility, best practices and SEO, with specific fixes. See Google’s Lighthouse overview (external site).

2. PageSpeed Insights

PageSpeed Insights (external site) runs Lighthouse online and adds real-user Core Web Vitals data when your site has enough traffic. Check the Mobile tab first.

3. Search Console URL Inspection

In Google Search Console (external site), inspect a URL and use the live test to see the page as Googlebot Smartphone renders it, including a screenshot and any loading issues.

4. Chrome’s device toolbar

In DevTools, click the device icon to preview your page at common phone and tablet sizes and spot layout problems quickly.

5. Real phones

Nothing beats opening the site on an actual iPhone and Android phone, on mobile data as well as Wi-Fi.

Mobile-friendly checklist

• Responsive design that adapts to every screen width.
• A viewport meta tag: <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1">.
• Body text around 16px, readable without zooming.
• Buttons and links large enough to tap, with space between them.
• No horizontal scrolling; wide tables scroll inside their own box.
• Fast loading: compressed images, lazy loading and caching.
• No intrusive full-screen pop-ups on mobile.
• The same important content on mobile as on desktop.

The evolution of mobile websites

As we wrote in 2014, sites first built separate “m.” subdomains, then some tried .mobi domains, before responsive design became the standard: one site that works on everything from small phones to giant monitors. We moved QuickOnlineTips to a responsive theme early on, built it on Bootstrap, and today run on the Kadence theme. Our 2014 complaint still applies to too many sites: designed for desktop, then left with tiny text, sideways scrolling and broken scripts on phones.

For step-by-step fixes, see how to make your site mobile-friendly for free and our guide to Core Web Vitals.

FAQ

Is the Google Mobile-Friendly Test still available?

No. Google retired the Mobile-Friendly Test tool, its API and the Search Console Mobile Usability report on December 1, 2023.

What replaced the Mobile-Friendly Test?

Google pointed users to Lighthouse. PageSpeed Insights and Search Console’s URL Inspection tool also help you check how pages work on mobile.

Does mobile-friendliness still matter for SEO?

Yes. Google uses mobile-first indexing, so the mobile version of your site is what it mainly crawls and ranks, and mobile visitors leave hard-to-use pages quickly.

How do I know if my site uses a responsive design?

Resize your desktop browser window or use Chrome’s device toolbar. If the layout rearranges to fit narrow screens without sideways scrolling, it is responsive.