Chrome may be everywhere, but it’s still a second-tier browser for most of you

Rita El Khoury / Android Authority

For better or worse, Google has a stranglehold over much of our tech lives. The Chrome browser is so ubiquitous that you might expect most people to use it by default, but a poll we ran on the matter paints a different picture.

We decided to ask for your opinion because our writer, Andy Walker, vented his frustration about Chrome in a recent article. Andy explained that while Chrome’s integration with Google services is convenient, he finds it frustratingly limited. It’s missing key features he values — like switching between multiple accounts on Android, using mobile extensions, and choosing custom search engines. Plus, Chrome’s content-heavy design, with trending searches and a rigid Discovery section, feels more cluttered than useful. He finds Firefox a much better fit, with customization options, add-ons, and a setup that’s easy to use one-handed. 

Whether you were persuaded or not by Andy’s approach, we were wondering what your default browser was on both mobile and desktop. The results make interesting reading, and Google seems to have work to do.

The first thing you notice about these poll results is that more than half of you don’t have Chrome as your default browser anywhere. When you add in the 7% that only have it on desktop, that means almost 60% of you don’t use it on your phones. That could be a bit surprising in an Android Authority poll since Chrome is the default browser on Android out of the box, but we do have a lot of Apple users reading our content. If you take iPhones out of the equation, the result becomes less eyebrow-raising.

And let’s be clear — not having Chrome as your default browser doesn’t mean that you don’t use it at all. Like Andy, you might have a different default choice, but dip into Chrome when you feel it works best for you.

Google still has over 30% of our readers as loyal Chrome browser acolytes but clearly needs to tweak its approach to win over the majority of our readers. Based on Andy’s experience, that will involve improving the browsing experience as a whole rather than forcing it on us even more.