Apple warns millions of iPhone users: Stop using Google Chrome

We all know relationships can be complicated, but few are as complicated as the one between Apple and Google. new scary attack ad on 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 users from Safari to Chrome. It currently relies on Safari to generate most search queries from iPhones, thanks to the Chrome browser. lucrative financial arrangement Google has a deal with Apple that makes Google Search the default search on Safari. But that deal could soon be undermined by various antitrust investigations in the US and Europe. So Google is putting a Plan B in place.

Chrome only has 30% of iPhone users installed on its site. Google aims to increase that to 50%, which would allow it to welcome an additional 300 million iPhone users. Apple obviously wants to prevent that from happening. Those 300 million pairs of eyes generate significant online revenue, and as search evolves with the introduction of on-device AI, it will become a battleground between retention and conversion.

That’s why you’ve probably seen Apple’s Safari privacy billboards popping up in the city where you live. What started as a local campaign in San Francisco has now gone global. And even if the ads don’t mention Chrome, they don’t need to. Nothing else matters. Between them, Safari and Chrome have a greater than 90% market share on mobile devices. And on iPhone, it’s a real battle between the two.

Privacy is Chrome’s Achilles heel. Tracking cookies remain, and plans to phase them out are already being delayed as Google navigates a continuing regulatory minefield. Chrome’s quasi-privacy mode is much less private than users thought. And in recent days, we’ve seen warnings that Google is capturing data from Chrome users’ devices with a hidden setting that can’t be turned off.

Apple has just raised the stakes in this privacy battle with a new video ad that applies Hitchcock’s “The Birds” to smartphone privacy. It’s powerful and memorable, and its message is clear. If you don’t want to be monitored online, use Safari. Which means, very, very simply, if you don’t want to be monitored online, don’t use Google Chrome.

When The Birds came out in the 1960s, it was shocking and frightening. Its message was that there was a threat we don’t see, but it’s everywhere. As one character in the film says, “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.”

While the video suggests that this campaign might be targeting Android users to get them to switch to iPhone, that’s not the real goal here. It’s about keeping iPhone users within Apple’s walled garden. But it might not be that simple.

The harsh reality for Apple is that its users prefer Google Search. And Apple itself reportedly found it better than other alternatives. This echoes Apple’s abandonment of Google Maps a few years ago and then its reversal. Presumably, even if Google is no longer the default search on Safari, users will be able to set it manually.

The question then becomes whether Google is bringing advanced AI search features to Chrome that aren’t available elsewhere. We know that such initiatives have been considered, and even rejected for now. But this browser battleground is still in its early stages, and those 300 million Safari users remain Apple’s property for now. Watch this space…