iMac: Will downloading Chrome affect Apple apps?

iMac: Will Downloading Google Chrome Affect Apple Apps?

A brief consideration before choosing your browser

If you are considering installing Google Chrome on your iMac, it may be worth reviewing its potential impact on system resources, storage, and privacy before deciding whether it is the right fit for your needs.

Consider an alternative: Brave

Brave Browser is worth exploring as an alternative to Google Chrome. It is built on the same Chromium foundation, offering a familiar browsing experience while emphasizing privacy, tracking protection, and reduced reliance on Google's ecosystem.

For more information and perspectives on Chrome's impact on Macs, see:

Chrome Is Bad?

MacRumors: Stop Chrome Browser From Downloading a Hidden 4GB AI File

System resources and memory usage

Google Chrome can consume substantial memory and other system resources, particularly when multiple tabs or resource-intensive websites are open.

Depending on your iMac's configuration and workload, this may affect overall system responsiveness and the resources available to other applications.

Privacy and personal data

Like many modern browsers, Chrome collects certain user and browsing data according to its settings and Google's privacy policies. The types of data collected and how they are used depend on your configuration and the services you use. If privacy is a priority, it is worth reviewing these practices and considering a browser with privacy protections that better match your preferences.

Further reading from Apple Support Communities

For additional perspectives and technical discussion, consider these posts by respected community contributors:

• John Galt — Apple Support Communities

• Kurt Lang — Apple Support Communities

The bottom line: Installing Chrome does not automatically mean your Apple apps will be affected. 

However, browser choice can influence memory usage, storage consumption, and privacy. Before installing another browser, consider whether you need it, how it may fit into your existing workflow, and whether an alternative such as Brave better aligns with your priorities.

If you find there is no alternative you need not lose any sleep.

Chrome had some well documented problems (mainly affecting pro-apps) but they have all been resolved.

It's still a bit of a resource hog so turn it off whenever it's not required.

Chrome is a know resource hog. While it may not directly cause problems for other App's, it does use a lot of resources that could slow down your Mac's overall performance.

see > https://chromeisbad.com/

dsbfromca wrote:

My wife is a retired UCD employee. Two months ago the usual access that retired UCD staff had to their retirement account stopped. We were told that access must be only via Chrome browser. If we must use Chrome just to access her own retirement pension account and if Chrome doesn't mess up our other apps we could perhaps live with Chrome being a resource hog. If we could just delete it and when need again comes to access her retirement account, download Chrome again when we have gotten the info needed or changes to her account accomplished. Seems to be a weird way to do things/

We have a similar situation working for a U.S. government agency. Some of their web site and web tools work ONLY with Chrome, so installing Chrome was required (on those work computers). I did not like having to do that but you can turn off at least some of the privacy invasive things that Google and Chrome TRY to do. I also installed Chrome on my personal Mac because I had to do some work from home on that Mac using the government provided VPN. I suggest you do what I did, which is just use Chrome for the specific web site that requires it, but otherwise leave it inactive. My daughter uses Chrome as her main browser, which I told her is not a good idea but she has a mind of her own.

I would not uninstall it and reinstall when your wife needs it -- I would leave it installed but use it only when required.

It's already been said, but also can't hurt to be repeated.

Helium or Vivaldi in particular are excellent replacements for Chrome. They’re built on the same open-source Chromium web code, but without any of Google Chrome’s intrusive data harvesting. One thing that makes Helium or Vivaldi better alternatives are dumb web sites (like some banks) which insist you use Chrome for access. In almost all cases, Helium or Vivaldi will also work. And to really cut off Google’s data harvesting, change the default search engine in your browsers to DuckDuckGo.

I used to use Brave, until it was found by fellow user MrHoffman (who I think knows more about security than anyone else on this forum) to be anything good for the user.

When Safari doesn't work as it should, Helium always does. And it's leagues faster at loading sites.

Being able to only use Chrome for access sounds kind of flaky.

If you just occasionally use Chrome for that and then Quit Chrome when she's done, it shouldn't affect your Mac over-all performance.

There are a number of Chrome-based browsers that don't have all the tracking and other cruft that comes with Chrome and they might be worth investigating. Vivaldi and Brave are two.

See this thread about Chrome.

Is Chrome Safe?

In my personal case Safari has been my only browser for many years. All of my banks, investment houses, credit card websites, government websites (SSA, IRS) continue to work perfectly well with the current version of Safari. If some site forces users to use a certain browser I would be very suspicious of the motive. Possible kickback from Google, or it could just be incompetent or lazy developers. Either way Chrome is inherently less secure and ignores privacy at all costs to collect and sell data to advertisers. After all that’s always been Google’s business model, to sell you to advertisers.

I’m old enough to remember when websites demanded the use of Microsoft’s Internet Explorer and nothing else. Apple users were literally old to go away and don't come back. Even the Mac version of internet Explorer wouldn’t work on most sites. Of course Internet Explorer is now in the dustbin of history. We can only hope Chrome ends up there soon as well.

In my personal case Safari has been my only browser for many years.

Same here. I was using Safari exclusively until about a year ago.

One good reason to use Helium or Vivaldi is ad blocking is built-in. Normally, sites seeing an ad blocking plug-in in Safari refuse to let you read a page until you turn it off. But with Helium or Vivaldi, such sites don't recognize there is an ad blocker as there's no plug-in to detect. So the page loads without being scolded to turn your ad blocker off.

But the more current versions of Safari - on the Mac - have developed a couple of ugly bugs. These do not happen in iOS 27. One, which occurs on both of our Macs (an M2 Pro mini and an M4 Pro mini) is a page will refuse to scroll with the mouse wheel. It might scroll down, but then won't scroll back up. When that happens, it then won't scroll in either direction. Another is a forum I visit that has a lot of linked articles with preview images. In Safari, a busy page takes a long time to load. And if I try to post a response, you'd swear Safari had frozen as the editing window will appear, but you can't type anything.

All of these problems go away when I visit the same sites with Helium. I even tried Safe Mode to see if any third party items I use was causing Safari's problems. Nope. Safari was just as unusable on these particular sites in Safe Mode.

Even the Mac version of internet Explorer wouldn’t work on most sites. Of course Internet Explorer is now in the dustbin of history. We can only hope Chrome ends up there soon as well.

Yup, because MS intentionally didn't include ActiveX with the Mac version of EI. Forcing users over to Windows was the long term goal.

lkrupp wrote:

If some site forces users to use a certain browser I would be very suspicious of the motive. Possible kickback from Google, or it could just be incompetent or lazy developers.

The government agency we have contracts with (> $2B per year) requires Chrome Enterprise for a small number of sites. These sites are very restricted and have strong security restrictions and run only on certain networks. There are links on those sites that simply do not respond with Safari or Firefox but that government agency directs that we use Chrome Enterprise for them. Chrome Enterprise has some restrictions and security features that some government activities require. I have never experimented with trying other browsers that share the Chrome engine but do not harvest data. Note that for the vast majority of sites we utilize, Safari, Firefox, or virtually any browser will work. Only a small number sites require those certain Chrome-specific features.

When sites are set up and designed so that Chrome must be used for full functionality, there is usually not much one can do.

Well you do you then. I’m sticking with Safari because it just works.

Oh, I still use Safari first. I only switch to Helium when Safari just plain fails to work.

DIdn't know that about Brave. Thanks.