For years, the quickest way to answer "is my website mobile friendly?" was to paste the address into Google's Mobile-Friendly Test. That tool no longer exists. If you followed an old link or a tutorial and ended up here, this page explains what happened, what Google recommends instead, and where MobileCheck fits.
What Google's Mobile-Friendly Test did
The Mobile-Friendly Test loaded a page as Google's smartphone crawler, took a screenshot, and gave a simple verdict: the page was mobile friendly or it was not. If it was not, it listed the reasons, typically:
- Viewport not set, or not set to the device width.
- Content wider than the screen.
- Text too small to read.
- Clickable elements too close together.
It also had an API, and Search Console had a matching Mobile Usability report that flagged the same issues across a whole site.
Retired in December 2023
Google retired the Mobile-Friendly Test tool, the Mobile-Friendly Test API and the Search Console Mobile Usability report in December 2023. In its announcement, Google pointed people to Lighthouse, available in Chrome DevTools and through PageSpeed Insights, for checking mobile usability.
The tools went away, but the reason for them did not. Google uses mobile-first indexing for the whole web, meaning it crawls and ranks pages using their mobile version. If your mobile pages are hard to read or use, that is the version Google sees. And of course your visitors see it too. Mobile usability was never only an SEO checkbox.
What Lighthouse checks, and what it does not
Lighthouse is an excellent, free, open-source tool, and it is worth running. It audits a page in four areas: performance, accessibility, best practices and SEO. On mobile it emulates a single mid-range Android phone with a throttled connection and gives you lab Core Web Vitals, a filmstrip of loading, and a long list of audits, each linked to documentation.
Some things are outside its scope:
- It tests one emulated device per run, always in Chromium. It does not show how the page renders in Safari's engine on an iPhone.
- It does not test dark mode or larger text settings.
- It does not open your mobile menu to see what happens.
- Its audits explain the rule that failed; they do not always show where on the page the problem is in a way a non-developer can follow.
That is not a criticism; Lighthouse is a developer tool focused on quality and performance metrics. It is just a different job from the quick, visual "does this work on phones?" check people used the Mobile-Friendly Test for.
How MobileCheck compares
MobileCheck aims to fill that gap: paste an address, pick devices, and get a visual, plain-English answer in about a minute.
| Google Mobile-Friendly Test (retired) | Lighthouse | MobileCheck | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Status | Retired December 2023 | Active, free, open source | Active, free |
| Devices | One smartphone profile | One emulated phone per run | Any or all of 51 phones and tablets in one check |
| Safari engine (WebKit) | No | No, Chromium only | Yes, for iPhones and iPads |
| Screenshots | Viewport screenshot | Page screenshot and loading filmstrip | Full-page screenshot per device with problems marked |
| Dark mode and large text | No | No | Yes, plus the opened mobile menu |
| Performance | No | Detailed lab metrics and diagnostics | Lab LCP, CLS and page weight |
| Explanations | Short issue names with help links | Audit descriptions with documentation links | What, why and how to fix, per issue, with guides |
If you need deep performance diagnostics, use Lighthouse. If you want to see your site on real iPhone and Android sizes and understand what to fix, use MobileCheck. Many people use both.
What MobileCheck flags
Everything the old test checked, and more. The viewport tag (see the viewport meta tag guide), content wider than the screen, text too small, tap targets that are too small or crowded, plus low contrast, tight line height, overlapping or clipped text, disabled zoom, web fonts that fail to load, sticky bars and popups that cover the screen, slow Largest Contentful Paint, layout shift and heavy pages.
Each device is checked in four scenarios: normal, dark mode, large text at 150%, and with the mobile menu opened. iPhones and iPads run on WebKit, Android devices on Chromium, each with its real viewport, pixel ratio, touch input, user agent and browser bars. The report gives you a score from 0 to 100 and every problem highlighted on the screenshot.
Prefer to poke around yourself? The phone window in our free extension lets you tap and scroll through your site on any of the 51 devices.
Frequently asked questions
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 in December 2023 and recommends Lighthouse instead.
Does mobile friendliness still matter for SEO?
Yes. Google uses mobile-first indexing, so it crawls and ranks the mobile version of your pages. No tool can guarantee rankings, but pages that are hard to use on phones serve visitors poorly.
Is MobileCheck made by Google?
No. MobileCheck is an independent free tool. It checks the same basics the old Google test did and adds more devices, the Safari engine, dark mode and large text.