In my PHP page I should display two different text contents according to whether the page run under mobile or desktop browser. Is there a way to perform this control in PHP?
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Here is a working solution: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/15228937/php-check-if-the-page-run-on-mobile-or-desktop-browser/45234082#45234082 – Mwangi Thiga Jul 21 '17 at 09:31
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You could use a third party api service like https://useragentinfo.co or see my answer here https://stackoverflow.com/a/44982837/395676. It could detect browser version, OS version and device type. – Ronnie Beltran Jan 30 '18 at 02:40
6 Answers
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There is a very nice PHP library for detecting mobile clients here: http://mobiledetect.net
Using that it's quite easy to only display content for a mobile:
include 'Mobile_Detect.php';
$detect = new Mobile_Detect();
// Check for any mobile device.
if ($detect->isMobile()){
// mobile content
}
else {
// other content for desktops
}

user13204473
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alphadevx
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@luka if there will be only one line of code you don't need to use braces, but PSR said you should anyway. – Krzysztof Duszczyk Jan 10 '17 at 18:15
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[mobiledetect](https://github.com/serbanghita/Mobile-Detect#continuous-updates) is now available through composer: `composer require mobiledetect/mobiledetectlib` – Javier Arias Jun 27 '17 at 13:13
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Bundle of thanks, its quite simple and working fine for me i added this in my custom php project. – Abid Ali Oct 22 '20 at 05:07
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any way to bypass the chrome->inspect->mobile view mode? because it recognizes the desktop browser as a mobile :-( – user3495363 Nov 08 '21 at 08:52
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I used Robert Lee`s answer and it works great! Just writing down the complete function i'm using:
function isMobileDevice(){
$aMobileUA = array(
'/iphone/i' => 'iPhone',
'/ipod/i' => 'iPod',
'/ipad/i' => 'iPad',
'/android/i' => 'Android',
'/blackberry/i' => 'BlackBerry',
'/webos/i' => 'Mobile'
);
//Return true if Mobile User Agent is detected
foreach($aMobileUA as $sMobileKey => $sMobileOS){
if(preg_match($sMobileKey, $_SERVER['HTTP_USER_AGENT'])){
return true;
}
}
//Otherwise return false..
return false;
}

Felipe Balduino Cassar
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From the looks of this -- this will also catch android tablets too, correct? – RockyK Jan 31 '19 at 15:50
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I'm afraid I can't test this because I don't have an Android tablet around, but I suppose it would catch it too. I checked [this link](https://developers.whatismybrowser.com/useragents/explore/hardware_type_specific/tablet/) and looks like every tablet has the `Android` string. – Felipe Balduino Cassar Feb 07 '19 at 12:13
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You can do it manually if you want.
Reference: http://php.net/manual/en/function.get-browser.php
preg_match('/windows|win32/i', $_SERVER['HTTP_USER_AGENT'])
preg_match('/iPhone|iPod|iPad/', $_SERVER['HTTP_USER_AGENT'])
You can even make it a script
$device = 'Blackberry'
preg_match("/$device/", $_SERVER['HTTP_USER_AGENT'])
Here is somewhat of a small list
'/windows nt 6.2/i' => 'Windows 8',
'/windows nt 6.1/i' => 'Windows 7',
'/windows nt 6.0/i' => 'Windows Vista',
'/windows nt 5.2/i' => 'Windows Server 2003/XP x64',
'/windows nt 5.1/i' => 'Windows XP',
'/windows xp/i' => 'Windows XP',
'/windows nt 5.0/i' => 'Windows 2000',
'/windows me/i' => 'Windows ME',
'/win98/i' => 'Windows 98',
'/win95/i' => 'Windows 95',
'/win16/i' => 'Windows 3.11',
'/macintosh|mac os x/i' => 'Mac OS X',
'/mac_powerpc/i' => 'Mac OS 9',
'/linux/i' => 'Linux',
'/ubuntu/i' => 'Ubuntu',
'/iphone/i' => 'iPhone',
'/ipod/i' => 'iPod',
'/ipad/i' => 'iPad',
'/android/i' => 'Android',
'/blackberry/i' => 'BlackBerry',
'/webos/i' => 'Mobile'
Browsers
'/msie/i' => 'Internet Explorer',
'/firefox/i' => 'Firefox',
'/safari/i' => 'Safari',
'/chrome/i' => 'Chrome',
'/opera/i' => 'Opera',
'/netscape/i' => 'Netscape',
'/maxthon/i' => 'Maxthon',
'/konqueror/i' => 'Konqueror',
'/mobile/i' => 'Handheld Browser'

Robert Lee
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As you go you can output what $_SERVER['HTTP_USER_AGENT'] output but basically inside of the first section you can add the name of the Platform. – Robert Lee Mar 05 '13 at 16:40
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This script should work:
<?php
$useragent=$_SERVER['HTTP_USER_AGENT'];
if(preg_match('/(android|bb\d+|meego).+mobile|avantgo|bada\/|blackberry|blazer|compal|elaine|fennec|hiptop|iemobile|ip(hone|od)|iris|kindle|lge |maemo|midp|mmp|mobile.+firefox|netfront|opera m(ob|in)i|palm( os)?|phone|p(ixi|re)\/|plucker|pocket|psp|series(4|6)0|symbian|treo|up\.(browser|link)|vodafone|wap|windows ce|xda|xiino/i',$useragent)||preg_match('/1207|6310|6590|3gso|4thp|50[1-6]i|770s|802s|a wa|abac|ac(er|oo|s\-)|ai(ko|rn)|al(av|ca|co)|amoi|an(ex|ny|yw)|aptu|ar(ch|go)|as(te|us)|attw|au(di|\-m|r |s )|avan|be(ck|ll|nq)|bi(lb|rd)|bl(ac|az)|br(e|v)w|bumb|bw\-(n|u)|c55\/|capi|ccwa|cdm\-|cell|chtm|cldc|cmd\-|co(mp|nd)|craw|da(it|ll|ng)|dbte|dc\-s|devi|dica|dmob|do(c|p)o|ds(12|\-d)|el(49|ai)|em(l2|ul)|er(ic|k0)|esl8|ez([4-7]0|os|wa|ze)|fetc|fly(\-|_)|g1 u|g560|gene|gf\-5|g\-mo|go(\.w|od)|gr(ad|un)|haie|hcit|hd\-(m|p|t)|hei\-|hi(pt|ta)|hp( i|ip)|hs\-c|ht(c(\-| |_|a|g|p|s|t)|tp)|hu(aw|tc)|i\-(20|go|ma)|i230|iac( |\-|\/)|ibro|idea|ig01|ikom|im1k|inno|ipaq|iris|ja(t|v)a|jbro|jemu|jigs|kddi|keji|kgt( |\/)|klon|kpt |kwc\-|kyo(c|k)|le(no|xi)|lg( g|\/(k|l|u)|50|54|\-[a-w])|libw|lynx|m1\-w|m3ga|m50\/|ma(te|ui|xo)|mc(01|21|ca)|m\-cr|me(rc|ri)|mi(o8|oa|ts)|mmef|mo(01|02|bi|de|do|t(\-| |o|v)|zz)|mt(50|p1|v )|mwbp|mywa|n10[0-2]|n20[2-3]|n30(0|2)|n50(0|2|5)|n7(0(0|1)|10)|ne((c|m)\-|on|tf|wf|wg|wt)|nok(6|i)|nzph|o2im|op(ti|wv)|oran|owg1|p800|pan(a|d|t)|pdxg|pg(13|\-([1-8]|c))|phil|pire|pl(ay|uc)|pn\-2|po(ck|rt|se)|prox|psio|pt\-g|qa\-a|qc(07|12|21|32|60|\-[2-7]|i\-)|qtek|r380|r600|raks|rim9|ro(ve|zo)|s55\/|sa(ge|ma|mm|ms|ny|va)|sc(01|h\-|oo|p\-)|sdk\/|se(c(\-|0|1)|47|mc|nd|ri)|sgh\-|shar|sie(\-|m)|sk\-0|sl(45|id)|sm(al|ar|b3|it|t5)|so(ft|ny)|sp(01|h\-|v\-|v )|sy(01|mb)|t2(18|50)|t6(00|10|18)|ta(gt|lk)|tcl\-|tdg\-|tel(i|m)|tim\-|t\-mo|to(pl|sh)|ts(70|m\-|m3|m5)|tx\-9|up(\.b|g1|si)|utst|v400|v750|veri|vi(rg|te)|vk(40|5[0-3]|\-v)|vm40|voda|vulc|vx(52|53|60|61|70|80|81|83|85|98)|w3c(\-| )|webc|whit|wi(g |nc|nw)|wmlb|wonu|x700|yas\-|your|zeto|zte\-/i',substr($useragent,0,4)))
{
//echo "mobile";
}
else{
// echo "desktop";
}
?>
I came across it here: http://detectmobilebrowsers.com/ .

Mwangi Thiga
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There are many great open source projects that make detection a lot easier. To name two:

poitroae
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<?php //-- Very simple variant
$useragent = $_SERVER['HTTP_USER_AGENT'];
$iPod = stripos($useragent, "iPod");
$iPad = stripos($useragent, "iPad");
$iPhone = stripos($useragent, "iPhone");
$Android = stripos($useragent, "Android");
$iOS = stripos($useragent, "iOS");
//-- You can add billion devices
$DEVICE = ($iPod||$iPad||$iPhone||$Android||$iOS||$webOS||$Blackberry||$IEMobile||$OperaMini);
if ($DEVICE !=true) {?>
<!-- What you want for all non-mobile devices. Anything with all HTML codes-->
<?php }else{ ?>
<!-- What you want for all mobile devices. Anything with all HTML codes -->
<?php } ?>

WebSon
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This is very clean and easy to follow, especially after using one with `preg_match` but which no longer works as the world has moved beyond it. On the above, I would have thought that Mobile would find iPad's Firefox and Safari but neither is detected. The Opera browser is the only one I have where this works even after adding more devices to the list. From what I gather, `Mobile` should work for both Safari and Firefox. – DonP Jul 10 '20 at 06:49