Mobile-Friendly Test Retired: What to Use Now

Google retired its Mobile-Friendly Test tool, the Mobile Usability report in Search Console and the Mobile-Friendly Test API on December 1, 2023, and pointed site owners to Lighthouse instead. There is no longer a Google tool that gives a pass or fail “mobile-friendly” verdict, so you now need to check mobile pages with a mix of tools.

What was removed

• The Mobile-Friendly Test tool, the page where you pasted a URL and got a pass or fail answer.
• The Mobile Usability report in Google Search Console, which listed pages with problems such as text too small or content wider than the screen.
• The Mobile-Friendly Test API, used by third-party tools.

Mobile usability still matters. Google indexes the mobile version of pages, and a page that is hard to use on a phone is a poor experience for visitors. What changed is that Google stopped offering a dedicated checker.

What to use now

Tool	What it tells you	Good for	Limits
Mobile Friendly Test (SeckRates)	A phone-sized preview plus checks for viewport, sideways scrolling, text size, tap targets, zoom and plugins, with the elements involved	A quick check of any public URL	Reads server HTML and does not run JavaScript. Not Google’s verdict.
Lighthouse (in Chrome DevTools and PageSpeed Insights)	Performance, accessibility, best practices and SEO audits, run on mobile settings	A broader quality review of a page	It is an overall audit, not a simple mobile pass or fail.
Chrome DevTools device mode	The page at different phone sizes, with throttling	Debugging layout problems yourself	Emulation, not a real phone.
Search Console URL Inspection	How Googlebot crawled and rendered the page	Seeing what Google sees	One URL at a time.
A real phone	How it actually feels to use	The final check	Slow for many pages.

What each one is good at

Use the Mobile Friendly Test for a fast, specific answer to “what is wrong with this page on a phone?” It names the elements causing each problem, so you know what to fix. It is a basic check made by SeckRates and does not claim to be Google’s verdict.

Use Lighthouse for a wider view. In Chrome, open DevTools, go to the Lighthouse panel, choose the mobile option and run the audit. It also covers performance and accessibility, and PageSpeed Insights runs Lighthouse for you from a URL.

Use URL Inspection to see how Google rendered an important page. Look at the screenshot and the crawled HTML to confirm your content, links and structured data are present.

Test on a real phone at least for your key pages. Emulators are close but not identical.

What to look for

Whichever tool you use, check the same basics:

• a viewport meta tag
• no sideways scrolling
• readable text without zooming
• buttons and links big enough to tap
• the same content, links and structured data as on desktop
• pages that load quickly on a phone

For a walkthrough, see How to Check If Your Website Is Mobile Friendly, and for why it matters, Mobile-First Indexing Explained.

Frequently asked questions

Is Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test still available?

No. Google retired it in December 2023, along with the Mobile Usability report and the API.

What replaced the Mobile-Friendly Test?

Google recommends Lighthouse. It does not give a simple mobile-friendly pass or fail, but it reports on mobile performance, accessibility and best practices.

Did Google stop caring about mobile usability?

No. Google uses the mobile version of pages for indexing and ranking, and good mobile usability is still part of a good experience. It simply retired the standalone tools.

Can I still see mobile problems in Search Console?

The Mobile Usability report was removed. Use URL Inspection to see how Google renders a page, and check performance with Lighthouse and PageSpeed Insights.

Is there a free alternative that shows a phone preview?

Yes. The SeckRates Mobile Friendly Test shows a phone-sized preview and lists the specific issues. It is independent of Google and has the limits described above.