iPhone users are abandoning Google Search in record numbers. DuckDuckGo's iOS app installs in the US jumped 33% week over week on average following Google IO 2026, with a single-day peak of 69.9% on May 25, the company told Mashable and 9to5Mac. The growth was not a blip. It held through Memorial Day weekend, when web traffic typically dips, and US numbers ran "multiples of the international rate," suggesting the surge was a direct response to Google's US-centric announcements rather than a global trend.
Overall DuckDuckGo app installs rose 18.1% week over week between May 20 and May 25, peaking at 30.5%. Traffic to noai.duckduckgo.com, the search engine's AI-free version, climbed 22.7% on average with a peak of 27.7%.
DuckDuckGo CEO Gabriel Weinberg did not mince words. "Google is force-feeding AI with no way to opt out," he said in a statement.
"As a result, their results are getting worse, not better. We want to be the place that puts users in charge and allows them to decide how much or how little AI they want."
Google IO 2026 brought what the company called the biggest upgrade to Search in over 25 years: AI Overviews, an AI Mode with custom generative interfaces, and agent-style tools that complete tasks for users. The overhaul replaces traditional blue links with conversational answers for many queries, and publishers have watched zero-click searches exceed 60%. The backlash was immediate. Critics argue that AI-generated summaries complicate simple searches, obscure source attribution, and give users no simple toggle to disable the features.
DuckDuckGo's own polling of 175,000-plus visitors in January found over 90% opposed mandatory AI integration in search results.
DuckDuckGo is not anti-AI. It offers Duck.ai with access to models from OpenAI, Anthropic, Meta, and Mistral.
It has Search Assist, a feature similar to Google's AI Overviews. The difference is that every AI feature is optional, and users can disable them entirely through the noai.duckduckgo.com portal.
"Not only do we respect user choice, but also user privacy," Weinberg said. "Everything you do in DuckDuckGo is private, we don't collect search histories or chats and nothing is used for AI training." The surge is the latest sign that Google's aggressive AI push is creating real momentum for competitors. With the US v.
Google antitrust ruling already declaring the company a monopolist, and users increasingly vocal about wanting control over AI in search, DuckDuckGo's bet on optionality over automation is paying off in installs.
