Short answer: Google retired its Mobile-Friendly Test, the test’s API and the Mobile Usability report in Search Console starting December 1, 2023. Mobile usability still matters, and Google points to tools such as Lighthouse. In practice, you check a page with Lighthouse, Chrome’s device mode and a real phone.
What Google retired, and why
According to Google, retiring the tools doesn’t mean mobile usability stopped mattering for success in Google Search. It remains critical for users, who use mobile devices more than ever, and it stays part of Google’s page experience guidance.
Google also noted that in the nearly ten years since the report launched, many other tools for evaluating mobile usability had appeared, including Lighthouse from Chrome.
What makes a page mobile friendly
You can run these five checks on any page, with nothing more than a browser.
| Check | What to look for | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Viewport tag | A meta viewport tag with width=device-width, initial-scale=1 in the page head | Without it, phones render a desktop-width page and shrink it |
| No sideways scrolling | The content fits the screen width | People scroll pages up and down, not sideways |
| Images that fit | Images with a max-width of 100%, plus width and height attributes | They shrink with the screen and keep their space while loading |
| Layout set by content | The layout changes where the content needs it | Breakpoints tied to device brands are hard to maintain |
| Readable text | No need to zoom in to read or tap | Zooming is what a page without a viewport tag forces |
From web.dev, “Responsive web design basics”, read November 3, 2026.
Lighthouse checks part of this table for you. We checked with Lighthouse 13.6, the version PageSpeed Insights used on November 3, 2026. There, the viewport tag is checked in Performance, by the “Optimize viewport for mobile” insight.
Touch target size and spacing sit in Accessibility, next to a check that the viewport tag doesn’t block zooming. web.dev still names an audit for content wider than the screen, but that report didn’t include it, so check sideways scrolling yourself.
How to check your site now
- Paste the page’s address into PageSpeed Insights, or run Lighthouse in Chrome DevTools, and read the mobile result.
- Open Chrome’s device mode and look at the page at a few phone sizes.
- Drag the viewport from wide to narrow and watch for anything that spills over the edge.
- Throttle to Mid-tier mobile, which simulates fast 3G and a CPU 4 times slower than your computer’s.
- Check that the page head has a viewport tag with width=device-width, initial-scale=1.
- Open the page on a real phone, because Chrome calls device mode a first-order approximation.
- Repeat after every design change, on each type of page your site has.
Our guides to PageSpeed Insights and mobile-first indexing go deeper into step 1 and into why Google reads the mobile version of your pages.
How we check our own pages
Every guide we publish is checked at 360 and 390 pixels wide, in light and dark mode, in English and in Spanish: eight views per guide. The page can’t be wider than the screen, and no table cell can be cut off.
The 8 guides we published on November 3 passed all 64 views. Our pages carry the viewport tag web.dev recommends, width=device-width with an initial scale of 1.
We also typed the address of Google’s old Mobile-Friendly Test that day. It now takes you straight to the Lighthouse overview in Chrome’s documentation.
Before you call your site mobile friendly
- Every page has a viewport tag with width=device-width, initial-scale=1.
- Nothing makes the page scroll sideways.
- Images shrink to fit the screen.
- Text reads without zooming.
- You ran Lighthouse on mobile.
- You opened your main pages on a real phone.
RememberThe tool is gone, the test isn’t. Open your important pages at phone width, in device mode and on a real phone, and fix anything that makes people zoom or scroll sideways.
If your site still feels like a desktop page on a phone, see our web design service.
Quick answers about mobile-friendly testing
Does Google still have a Mobile-Friendly Test?
No. Starting December 1, 2023, Google retired the Mobile-Friendly Test, its API and the Mobile Usability report in Search Console. It points to other tools for checking mobile usability, including Lighthouse from Chrome.
Does being mobile friendly still matter for SEO?
Google says retiring the tools doesn’t mean mobile usability isn’t important for success in Google Search. It remains critical for users, who use mobile devices more than ever, and it stays part of Google’s page experience guidance.
Is Chrome’s device mode enough to test a page?
Not on its own. Chrome calls device mode a first-order approximation: you simulate a phone from your computer, without running the page on a real device. Open the page on a real phone too.
What does the viewport meta tag do?
It tells the browser how to size the page. With width=device-width, the page matches the screen’s width, and initial-scale=1 lets it use the full width when the phone turns sideways. Without it, mobile browsers render the page at a desktop width, usually about 980 pixels, and shrink it to fit.
Which screen widths should I test?
web.dev advises against choosing breakpoints by device type, product or brand: let the content decide where the layout needs to change. We check every guide at 360 and 390 pixels wide, in light and dark mode.
Sources
Read on November 3, 2026. Google Search Central blog: The role of page experience in creating helpful content. web.dev: Responsive web design basics. Chrome for Developers: Simulate mobile devices with device mode and Optimize viewport for mobile. Our own case: our width checks and a PageSpeed Insights run on one of our guides, November 3, 2026.