Mobile browsers
Run Safari or Chrome on a real iPhone, Chrome, Firefox, Edge, and Opera on a real Android phone, or Safari on a virtual iPhone, in a Live session.
A Live session can drive a browser on a real phone — not a desktop browser resized, and not a device-emulation mode in desktop DevTools. You get the phone's own browser engine, on the phone's own screen, with the phone's own touch input.
Pick the mobile side of the Live picker, choose a device, and choose a browser.
What you can run
| Platform | Browsers |
|---|---|
| Real iPhone | Safari, Chrome |
| Real Android phone | Chrome, Firefox, Edge, Opera |
| Virtual iPhone (iOS simulator) | Safari only — there is no Chrome for a simulator |
| Virtual Android (emulator) | Chrome, Firefox, Edge, Opera |
Virtual devices sit behind the picker's Real device / Virtual device switch — see Virtual devices.
Everything in a normal mobile session still applies: tap, swipe, type, rotate the device, take screenshots, record, and read logs. See Session Tools.
You can also change what the phone sees of the network and where it thinks it is. GPS location works on both Android and iOS, and a VPN exit IP works on both too. Network throttling is the limited one: on Android the control can only switch the phone between Wi-Fi and fully offline — 4G, 3G, and 2G shaping is desktop-browser only — and it isn't offered on iOS at all. See Network, location & VPN.
DevTools
A mobile browser session gives you the real Chrome DevTools UI, docked beside the phone and wired to the page the phone is actually showing — Elements, Console, Network and Sources against the live page, not a reimplementation of them. Open it with DevTools on the session rail.
| Browser | DevTools |
|---|---|
| Safari on a real iPhone or iPad | Yes |
| Safari on a virtual iPhone | Yes |
| Chrome, Edge or Opera on Android | Yes |
| Firefox on Android | No — Firefox's engine exposes no socket an inspector can attach to |
| Chrome on a real iPhone or iPad | No, and it cannot be. Every iOS browser runs on Apple's WebKit, and a page is inspectable only when the app opts in — App Store Chrome does not. Use Safari. |
The button is only rendered where it will work, so no DevTools button means that combination has no inspector — not that something failed.
The logs panel, screenshots and recordings are all still there too. See Session tools.
Setting the language in a mobile-web session changes the language of the browser under test and relaunches it, so the page you were on is lost. Setting the timezone changes the phone's real clock and needs no relaunch.
Mobile browser or desktop browser?
| You want to check… | Use |
|---|---|
| Real mobile rendering, touch behaviour, mobile Safari or Chrome quirks | A mobile browser session |
| The same page on a full desktop browser | A desktop browser session |
| Console output or network activity while you drive the page by hand | A mobile browser session — open DevTools |
| A scripted mobile-web run in CI | Automate |