The rise of mobile has dramatically changed how people browse and interact with websites. Many users may never actually visit the desktop version of your site. If the mobile experience is lacking, you run the risk of losing a huge portion of your potential website traffic and conversions.
By viewing the mobile version on your desktop, you can catch issues before launch and optimize the experience. It’s easy to miss small styling problems or annoying navigation when only viewing the desktop site. Elements that look fine on a 15-inch screen may be frustratingly tiny on a 5-inch phone display.
With a few simple tricks, you can easily view and test the mobile version of any website right from your desktop Chrome browser.
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How to Visit Mobile Version
How do we visit the mobile version of a website using a desktop computer? Luckily, Google Chrome has come up with a feature that lets you view the mobile version of websites without the need for extensions or third-party software. Check out the following guide!
1. Right-click on the website page and select Inspect. You can also use CTRL+SHIFT+I or F12 shortcut.
2. Click on the device toolbar icon to enable the mobile view.
3. In some cases, it best to Reload (CTRL+R) the page first to get the proper mobile version.
4. Now, you can adjust the screen size manually or selecting device examples available.
5. After finished, you can disable the mobile view or just close the Inspect window.
The mobile view mode isn’t permanent. It’s only available when you running the Inspect window. This certain tool is commonly used by developers to develop websites.
Another popular way to get the mobile version is by using user-agent extensions which I have mentioned in the article How to Upload Photo to Instagram from PC. It can be useful to get a deeper level of a mobile site experience that might not be available on Chrome’s Inspect window.
Browser Extensions for Mobile Testing
If you need more dedicated mobile testing tools, Chrome extensions like Responsive Viewer and Mobile Simulator provide similar emulation features.
These extensions add a toolbar icon to Chrome. With one click, you can then view the mobile version of any site and resize to different device widths.
Key features:
- Quickly toggle between desktop and mobile views.
- Resize by dragging window edges.
- Test responsiveness by incrementally decreasing width.
- Network throttling to simulate slow connections.
- Custom device profiles.
- Dark mode for testing theming.
- Mobile device frames for more realistic previews.
The extensions offer similar utilities as DevTools but with more convenience through dedicated controls and overlays. They provide another option for testing without digging through DevTools menus.
Conclusion
Viewing the mobile version of your website on desktop is crucial for catching issues before launch. Emulators and extensions provide a quick way to validate the mobile experience during development.
However, testing on real devices is still ideal before final release. Emulators can miss mobile OS quirks and are no replacement for feedback from real users. Treat emulators as a starting point, then continue testing on phones to confirm usability.
FAQs
How do I get the mobile version of a website on my computer?
You can use your browser’s developer tools to simulate a mobile view. In Chrome, press F12 to open DevTools, then click on the “Device Toggle Toolbar”. Choose a device to simulate from the list, and the website will display in mobile view.
How do I use Chrome mobile browser mode on my computer?
Open Chrome and navigate to the website you want to view. Press F12 to open DevTools. Click on the “Device Toggle Toolbar” (the icon turns blue when device mode is on). Choose a device from the list to simulate its view.
How to simulate mobile browser on PC?
In Chrome, Firefox, Edge, or Opera, you can simulate a mobile browser by opening developer tools (usually with F12 or Ctrl+Shift+I), then clicking on the “Toggle device toolbar” button or pressing Ctrl+Shift+M. Choose the mobile device you want to emulate from the list.
How do you make a website think your phone is a PC?
On your Android device, open Chrome. Tap More > Settings. Under “Advanced,” select Site settings > Desktop site. Turn on Desktop site. This will make websites load in desktop mode by default. For more advanced options, consider using a mobile browser with a user agent spoofer extension.
