Apple is testing code in Safari that detects when Google promotes Chrome or the Google app to people browsing Google’s pages. The same code logs whether users accept or dismiss the promotion.
The code has been present since iOS 27.2 beta 2 as reported by 9to5Mac. Nothing changes for iPhone owners today, and Apple has not said whether the code will ship in the public release or why it is testing it.
Safari Can Spot Google’s Chrome Banners and Log What Users Do With Them
Safari injects a JavaScript file into certain Google home and search results pages. The script looks for visible banners or other page elements built to push people toward opening or installing Chrome or the Google app.
It also looks for links tied to either app, including their custom URL schemes and App Store IDs. A custom URL scheme is the kind of link that opens an app directly, and an App Store ID points to the app’s listing.
When Safari finds a promotion, the code can record what happened next.
- Whether the banner was shown
- Whether the user appears to be signed in to a Google account
- Whether the user interacted with the promotion
From there, Safari can sort the interaction into accepted or dismissed and log that result.
Google Has Spent Years Promoting Chrome to iPhone Users
Google has been open about pushing Chrome on iOS. In a December 2024 response to the UK Competition and Markets Authority, the company said it ran marketing campaigns promoting Chrome to iOS users between 2022 and 2024, including one called “No Place Like Chrome.”
Google offered that as evidence that Chrome competes with Safari. The regulator had provisionally found that a Chrome revenue-sharing arrangement between Apple and Google reduced their incentives to compete in browsers on iOS.
The same document says Google shows Chrome prompts on iOS inside its own apps and on certain Google websites opened in browsers other than Chrome. That investigation also looked at Apple’s WebKit requirement for iPhone browsers, how much access to iOS features rival browsers get, and Apple’s limits on in-app browsers.
In the U.S., a federal court ruled in September 2025 that Google can keep paying Apple to remain the default search engine in Safari. Analysts have estimated those payments at $15 billion to $20 billion a year. The same ruling did not require Google to spin off Chrome.
As of iOS 27.2 beta 3 and the Safari 27.2 beta release notes, Apple has not publicly documented the feature.
Our Take
I think Apple wants hard numbers on how often Google pushes Safari users toward Chrome and how many of them go along with it. UK regulators have already examined how the two browsers compete, so data like that would be useful to have on hand. The signed-in check stands out to me, since it would show how many of those people are Google account holders.
