Google advertises Chrome and the Google app on its own websites, even within Safari. The iOS 27.2 beta contains code that allows Safari to recognize these advertisements and record how users react to them. This is part of a business that generates billions for Apple every year and has kept courts and competition authorities busy for years.
9to5Mac made the discovery during its own analysis of the beta. According to their findings, Apple has been testing code in Safari since iOS 27.2 beta 2 that detects and logs advertisements for Chrome and the Google app on Google's homepage and search results pages, and whether users interact with them. The feature is not mentioned in the release notes for the now-distributed third beta of iOS 27.2, according to the report.
A code discovery in a beta version confirms testing, not release. It joins a series of findings that have surfaced around iOS 27.2. Safari already received new AI features with iOS 27; however, the measurement now discovered is not directed at the user, but rather at Google's websites.
Key Facts at a Glance
- Safari in the iOS 27.2 beta recognizes Google's advertising banners for Chrome and the Google app on Google's home and search pages.
- According to the report, the system records whether a banner appeared, whether the user is logged into Google, and whether they accepted or clicked away the notification.
- Google cited precisely this advertisement to the British competition authority as proof of genuine competition between Chrome and Safari.
- Apple receives 36 percent of Google's advertising revenue from Safari searches, and a lower share from Chrome searches on the iPhone.
- In the EU, the DMA regulates browser selection on the iPhone; the Commission discontinued the procedure for the selection screen in April 2025.
What the code captures in Safari
According to the report, Safari loads an additional script on certain Google start pages and search results pages. This script searches for visible advertisements and other page elements that prompt users to open or install Chrome or the Google app. These elements are identified by links to the two apps, such as those found in their app store listings.
If the script detects such an advertisement, Safari can record several events: whether the banner was displayed, whether the user appears to be logged in with a Google account, and whether they interacted with the notification. The result is recorded as accepted or rejected.
The code is embedded in a point version of the current iOS 27 generation and has not been documented previously. This proves that Safari was built to recognize Google's advertising and count the responses to it.
Google's Chrome advertising as an argument before the British authority
The importance of these advertising spaces for both companies is demonstrated by a statement from Google dated December 19, 2024, regarding the UK Competition and Markets Authority's (CMA) preliminary report on mobile browsers. In it, Google explicitly cites its advertising for Chrome on the iPhone as evidence that Chrome competes with Safari. For the years 2022 to 2024, Google points to significant marketing expenditures aimed at attracting iPhone users to Chrome.
In the same statement, Google confirms that it displays Chrome prompts on iPhones even on certain of its own websites when these are opened in a different browser. The new Safari code recognizes precisely these prompts. According to Google, citing a survey commissioned by the authorities, more than half of iPhone users in the UK have Chrome installed.
The CMA had issued a preliminary objection stating that the search agreement between Apple and Google also includes a revenue share from Chrome searches on the iPhone. According to the preliminary report, this share is lower than the share from Safari searches, but similarly significant – and, in the agency's view, reduces the incentive for both companies to compete for users. Google has disputed this.
What Apple's search contract depends on
How much Apple earns from Safari searches has been known since November 2023: Google passes on 36 percent of its advertising revenue from Safari searches to Apple, as Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai confirmed in court. This figure had previously slipped out of the record of an expert witness in the US antitrust case against Google.
If a user switches from Safari to Chrome, Apple's share doesn't disappear, but it does decrease. The contract itself survived the US legal proceedings: Google can still pay Apple for the default setting, but exclusive agreements have been prohibited since the September 2025 ruling.
Browser choice in the EU
In the EU, browser choice on the iPhone is regulated by the Digital Markets Act, which classifies iOS and Safari as core platform services. Apple is required to show users in the EU a selection screen for their default browser. After Apple revised this screen, the European Commission closed its proceedings on April 23, 2025, but announced that it would continue to monitor Apple's implementation.
At the time, Apple narrowly avoided a threatened fine over its browser rules on the iPhone. The frequency with which Google promotes switching to Chrome within Safari, and how many users respond to these promotions, is precisely the kind of data that is contested in such legal proceedings.
Whoever has the numbers has the argument
I consider this feature less of a privacy issue and more of an evidentiary one. Google has used its Chrome ads in Safari as evidence, while Apple has so far only seen its own side of the story. With this code, Apple could demonstrate how frequently Google advertises its own browser within Apple's browser and how effective this advertising is – both to authorities and in future contract negotiations.
The logged-in status for the Google account is noteworthy. It reveals nothing about the search term, but it does indicate whom Google is targeting with its advertising. Anyone who no longer wants to use Safari as their default browser can change it at any time in the iPhone settings.
Have you ever let Google's suggestion in Safari tempt you to switch to Chrome – or do you just dismiss it every time? Tell us in the comments which browser you prefer.
