Chrome came with my first Android phone, and I never made a decision about it. It was just there, it loaded pages, and that was enough.
I tried other browsers that have shown up over the years, like Firefox, Edge, and Kiwi, and I would look at them for a few minutes, notice something interesting, then drift back to Chrome without really choosing to.
That’s not loyalty, that’s just the benefit of the doubt.
Lately, I started doing more real work on my phone, and I kept reaching for things that weren’t there. Adblocker for the ad-heavy pages and Bitwarden for passwords.
I ran tools on my desktop Chrome without thinking about them, but on my phone, none of them existed. I told myself Google was probably working on it, and I believed that for longer than it made sense.
Then one afternoon, while I was waiting on a page that covered half the screen without a cancel button, I stopped waiting.
9 reasons you should ditch Chrome for Android and use this old-school browser instead
Android browser Chrome doesn’t want you to use
Why Chrome on Android still lacks extension support
Kiwi proved it was possible years ago
Kiwi Browser did this years ago. It ran on the same engine as Chrome and supported full extensions on Android. Back then, I tested it with uBlock Origin, and it worked, which made me assume Chrome would follow, but it never did.
Kiwi shut down eventually, and I thought that was probably the end of it. Then Microsoft added extension support to its Edge browser. It doesn’t support every extension, but it supported enough that I stopped giving Google the benefit of the doubt.
Two browsers built on the same base as Chrome had already figured it out, while the Chrome browser still hadn’t.
I kept telling myself there was probably a technical reason, even though Kiwi had already shown the engine could handle it.
The more I thought about it, the harder it was to ignore how much of Google’s business revolves around ads. Extension support on mobile would almost certainly mean ad blockers on mobile, too.
Discovering Quetta as a Chrome alternative
The Chrome Web Store works in desktop mode
I was searching for Chrome alternatives that can handle extensions properly on Android. Quetta didn’t come with a big reputation attached. There were no major reviews, no coverage I could find, and I didn’t expect much when I installed it.
The first thing I noticed was how clean it felt. I tested it for extension support, and that’s where it became interesting.
The Chrome Web Store opens in desktop mode. I tried Bitwarden first because I half-expected something to break. It installed cleanly, showed up in the extensions menu, opened when I tapped it, and filled in my password. It just works the way it should have always worked on Android.
I opened the same news site that usually takes three scrolls to get past ads, and for the first time, it was clean.
Now the same experience I had on a desktop for years is finally on my phone. That was the moment my phone stopped feeling like a compromise.
What Chrome still does better
Sync is effortless and automatic
The moment I opened Chrome again, I felt the difference. I didn’t have to think about where anything was because everything was exactly where I had left it. That kind of familiarity is hard to ignore.
Sync is a big reason for that. My bookmarks, history, open tabs, and saved passwords all move between my phone and laptop without me doing anything. Even random bookmarks I saved three years ago are still there.
I never really set it up, as it just built up over time and now runs quietly in the background.
Autofill is where Quetta fell short, and I didn’t expect it to bother me this much. Chrome already knows my accounts, addresses, and card details. When I tap a field, it usually suggests the right thing right away.
With Quetta, I have to type everything manually, every login, every address, every time. Ordering something online meant typing my full address again. It doesn’t sound like much, but it breaks your focus more than you expect.
It’s not a dealbreaker, but you don’t realize how much Chrome was handling for you until it’s not there anymore.
The extensions changed what my phone can actually do
Desktop tools now work on mobile
It took me a little time to get used to Quetta. I started putting productivity tools to use that I had only ever used on my laptop. A userscript that removes cookie popups, blockers to clean up messy pages, and tools that save me two or three taps every time.
Having these tools on my phone made a real difference in how much I could actually get done.
Quetta doesn’t support every extension since some just don’t work well on mobile, and that’s fine. The ones I use every day worked, and that was enough for me.
I still like Chrome, and I’m not pretending otherwise. It’s fast, it syncs everything, and after years of using it, I don’t have to think about anything.
But I don’t see Google adding full extension support to Chrome on Android anytime soon. And at this point, a browser that lets me work the way I want matters more than sticking with what’s familiar.
Quetta isn’t perfect, and it has rough edges, but it gave me something Chrome has been sitting on for years and hasn’t brought to mobile. And after I had that, it was hard to go back.
Why I’m sticking with Quetta for now
Chrome is still fast and familiar and is well integrated with my Google account, making browsing effortless. Sync works in the background, and autofill shows up when needed. However, extension support changes how I browse and what my phone can actually do.
With Quetta, I can install extensions that were mostly limited to desktop. I use a pop-up blocker to clean ad-heavy pages, enable a VPN to open blocked websites, install scripts to remove everyday friction, and add utility tools like dark mode and a voice reader.
This setup gives me more control over how pages behave, and that flexibility matters more to me than familiarity right now.
