Google has officially sunset the Google Search Console Mobile Usability report, the Mobile-Friendly Test tool and the Mobile-Friendly Test API today. Google told us back in April 2023 that this would happen on December 1st and Google announced today on December 4th that it has been done.
“Today we’re sunsetting Search Console’s Mobile Usability report, Mobile-Friendly Test tool and Mobile-Friendly Test API. We believe these tools helped website owners make the web a better place – thank you for working with us on this journey,” Google posted on X.
What Google wrote. Google posted back then, “Also starting December 1, 2023, we’ll be retiring Search Console’s “Mobile Usability” report, the Mobile-Friendly Test tool and Mobile-Friendly Test API. This doesn’t mean that mobile usability isn’t important for success with Google Search. It remains critical for users, who are using mobile devices more than ever, and as such, it remains a part of our page experience guidance. But in the nearly ten years since we initially launched this report, many other robust resources for evaluating mobile usability have emerged, including Lighthouse from Chrome.”
Access removed. When you try to find the Search Console mobile usability report within Search Console, you won’t be able to. Also the mobile friendly testing tool, which is accessible over here, has been redirected to Lighthouse. And the API should no longer be returning results.
Why we care. If you have been using these reports for clients or internal SEO work, you will no longer be able to use them, as they are gone. Ensure your sites and webpages are mobile-friendly using other tools, such as Lighthouse.
