New Chrome warning issued for 1.4 billion Apple iPhone users
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Updated July 18th to address Apple’s criticism of Chrome in the new Webkit release.
We all know relationships can be complicated, but few are more complicated than the relationship between Apple and Google. Apple has launched a creepy new attack ad against Google, with a clear message to its 1.4 billion users: “Stop using Chrome on your iPhone.”
So why now? Google is on a mission to convert Safari users to Chrome. Currently, Google relies on Safari for most search requests from the iPhone, thanks to a financial arrangement between the company and Apple that makes Google search the default in Safari. But that arrangement may soon be restricted by monopoly investigations in the U.S. and Europe. So Google is moving forward with Plan B.
Chrome is only installed by 30% of iPhone users. Google’s goal is to increase this to 50% and bring another 300 million iPhone users into their data tent. Apple clearly wants to stop this. Those 300 million eyeballs generate significant revenue online. As search changes with the introduction of on-device AI, it becomes a battleground for retention and conversion.
That’s why you may have seen Apple’s Safari privacy ads pop up in your city. What started as a local campaign in San Francisco has now spread globally. The ads don’t mention Chrome, but they don’t need to. Nothing else matters. Safari and Chrome have over 90% market share on mobile devices. And on the iPhone, they’re going head-to-head.
Privacy is a weak spot for Chrome. Tracking cookies remain and plans to phase them out have already been delayed as Google navigates ongoing regulatory hurdles. Chrome’s semi-privacy mode is far less private than users expect, and there have been recent warnings that Google is collecting device data from Chrome users that is hidden and cannot be disabled.
Apple has further fueled this privacy battle with a new video ad that uses Hitchcock’s “The Birds” as a reference to smartphone privacy. The ad is powerful and memorable, and the message is clear: if you don’t want to be monitored online, use Safari. Or, quite simply, if you don’t want to be monitored online, don’t use Google Chrome. We’ve reached out to Google for comment on the new ad:
When The Birds was released in the 1960s, it was shocking, frightening and thought-provoking. Its message was that there is a threat that we can’t really see, but that is everywhere. As one of the characters says in the film, “Who are you? What are you? Where do you come from? I think you’re the cause of all this. I think you’re evil.”
The video suggests that this is an attempt to target Android users to switch to iPhone, but that’s not the point. No one is going to abandon their Android just to have access to a different browser, no matter how impactful the ad. This is an attempt to keep iPhone users locked into Apple’s cage. But even so, it may not be that simple.
The harsh reality for Apple is that users prefer Google search, and Apple itself reportedly feels it’s better than other searches. This is similar to how Apple killed Google Maps a few years ago, and was subsequently forced to reverse course. Even if Google is removed as the default search in Safari, users will likely be able to manually set it.
That raises the question of whether Google will offer advanced AI search features in Chrome that aren’t available elsewhere. We know that such a move has been considered, but rejected so far. But such AI browser integration is still in its early stages. And on that note, Apple has also begun to send other important messages against Chrome.
In addition to Birds-inspired videos and social media ads, Apple also released its Private Browsing 2.0 update, which highlights recent innovations that enhance security and privacy for Safari users. Apple says it wants to significantly enhance privacy on the web and set a new industry standard for what private browsing should be like.
The video did not receive much attention when it was released due to its sheer impact, but it has now been picked up on social media and, as X’s post explains, is of major importance due to its impact on Google Chrome.
This is a big milestone in the escalating Chrome vs Safari browser war, and it’s not just on the iPhone. Google is pushing the Topics API to break the current impasse over cookie deprecation. Removing tracking cookies without an alternative is not allowed by regulators, given the damage it would cause to the marketing industry.
The Topics API offers an alternative that balances preventing cross-site fingerprinting of individuals with targeted marketing, grouping users into like-minded but anonymous cohorts that are then presented to advertisers.
But as Apple points out, imagine what advanced machine learning and artificial intelligence could infer about you based on a combination of different interest signals. If data brokers and trackers could compare and contrast large segments of the population, what patterns would emerge? Keep in mind that the output of the Topics API can be combined with other available data points, and all of that combined and analyzed will inform algorithms that try to draw conclusions about you.
What Apple is saying, simply put, is that fingerprinting and cross-site tracking are here to stay, and Chrome’s half-assed measures can’t compete with the pure approach to privacy that the company claims to be. Google is caught between the current tracking cookies that we all hate and a set of new technologies that have so far not come to fruition. Apple is trying to undermine Privacy Sandbox before it’s fully released.
The browser battle is just beginning, with Apple bringing in serious weapons to attack Chrome before any changes are made, but while those 300 million Safari users may remain Apple users for now, watch this space.
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