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Is there a way to detect whether or not a user is using a mobile device in jQuery? Something similar to the CSS @media attribute? I would like to run a different script if the browser is on a handheld device.

The jQuery $.browser function is not what I am looking for.

TylerH
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superUntitled
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    Provide a mobile URL specifically for mobile devices. This is how most major sites handle mobile devices. See http://m.google.com. – user229044 Aug 18 '10 at 17:27
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    jQuery does not, and cannot do everything. It is provides cross-browser DOM traversal and manipulation, simple animation and ajax between browsers, and creates a skeleton framework for plugins to build upon. Please be aware of jQuery's limitations before asking *specifically* for a jQuery solution. – Yi Jiang Aug 22 '10 at 05:38
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    I just noticed that Modernizr supports "CSS3 like" Media Queries: http://www.modernizr.com/docs/#mq – Bart Aug 10 '11 at 21:32
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    User agents are constantly moving targets, everyone reading this post should be very wary of user agent sniffing – Rob Jan 09 '12 at 10:38
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    What's a 'mobile' device? Is it a device that supports touch (including Chrome Pixels and Windows 8 laptops with mice)? Is it a device with a small screen (what about retina iPads)? Is it a device with a slow CPU? Or a device with a slow internet connection? Depending on what you want to do the answer to this question will vary. To target screen resolution or touch is easy. If you want to serve up smaller content or less intensive JS for some devices, then there's no silver bullet. Test for window.navigator.connection and fall back to (nasty, bad, ill-advised) userAgent sniffing. My 2 cents. – David Gilbertson Jul 09 '13 at 04:42
  • @DavidGilbertson Why would a slow internet connection make it a mobile device? For all you know, I could be using a satellite internet connection (ex: Google Loon) for my home network. – Cole Tobin Aug 19 '13 at 02:24
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    @Cole"Cole9"Johnson My point exactly. 'Mobile' seems to be used as an umbrella term for touch, slow CPU, slow network and small screen. But none of these are perfect assumptions. I believe that considering these individually will result in a better product than designing for some vague concept of 'mobile'. Hence me posing that question to the OP. – David Gilbertson Aug 20 '13 at 02:38
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    @DavidGilbertson for me, "mobile" encompasses phones, iPods, and anything that really fits in your pocket. A NetBook (if you remember what those are) isn't "mobile" because you can't fit it in your pocket. It's _portable_, but it's not mobile. – Cole Tobin Aug 20 '13 at 03:15
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    @DavidGilbertson I would classify a mobile device as something that isn't meant to function as a fully-featured PC (i.e. Windows, OSX, or countless Linux distros). I know that the line gets rather blurry with Ubuntu Mobile and Linux dual-boots on Android devices, but the distinction is usually most easily made by the OS running on the device (Android isn't a fully featured desktop OS, while Windows 8 is generally not the mobile-oriented one). – Claudia Jan 19 '14 at 01:54
  • I think that [Interaction Media Features](https://www.w3.org/TR/mediaqueries-4/#mf-interaction) are the solution here. (See [my answer](http://stackoverflow.com/a/42835826/703717) to this [similar question](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/12469875/how-to-code-css-media-queries-targeting-all-mobile-devices-and-tablets/42835826#42835826)) – Danield Mar 16 '17 at 14:07
  • Related: [What's the best way to detect a 'touch screen' device using JavaScript?](https://stackoverflow.com/q/4817029/55075) – kenorb Jul 17 '17 at 15:43
  • use cdn `https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/jquery-browser/0.1.0/jquery.browser.js` then in your code where you want to check for mobile just use `$.browser.mobile` it will return true if current device is a mobile. To check for desktop use `$.browser.desktop` – Laksh Goel Jan 19 '18 at 07:18
  • Instead of trying to detect a "mobile device", I would try and detect a small screen size. After all, you want to optimize for screen size, right? – Elijah Mock Dec 05 '19 at 00:02
  • Let me guess, the problem is not really to detect if user is on mobile or not, but to layout elements on the page? I guess width/height will give the most reliable solutions. – Bitterblue Jan 06 '20 at 13:52
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    I have scrolled down on all answers and none of them seems to be good. How is this possible? still no solution ? – Dimitri Kopriwa Apr 28 '20 at 10:33
  • @DimitriKopriwa **TL;DR: `let isMobile = /mobi/i.test(navigator.userAgent);`** – Andrew Feb 22 '21 at 21:23
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    The answer depend greatly of what "mobile" means in your scenario. A small screen? In that case tablets (that are actually mobile devices), will not be detected Running a mobile OS/Browser? In that case, Chromebooks and Desktops running Android = mobile, but devices running GNU/Linux or similar will be not. Have touchscreen? Some notebooks and desktop also have it! Every possible case have exceptions. Decide what you need and go for it. – Renascienza Oct 03 '21 at 20:03

64 Answers64

2305

Editor's note: user agent detection is not a recommended technique for modern web apps. See the comments below this answer for confirmation of this fact. It is suggested to use one of the other answers using feature detection and/or media queries.


Instead of using jQuery you can use simple JavaScript to detect it:

if( /Android|webOS|iPhone|iPad|iPod|BlackBerry|IEMobile|Opera Mini/i.test(navigator.userAgent) ) {
 // some code..
}

Or you can combine them both to make it more accessible through jQuery...

$.browser.device = (/android|webos|iphone|ipad|ipod|blackberry|iemobile|opera mini/i.test(navigator.userAgent.toLowerCase()));

Now $.browser will return "device" for all above devices

Note: $.browser removed on jQuery v1.9.1. But you can use this by using jQuery migration plugin Code


A more thorough version:

var isMobile = false; //initiate as false
// device detection
if(/(android|bb\d+|meego).+mobile|avantgo|bada\/|blackberry|blazer|compal|elaine|fennec|hiptop|iemobile|ip(hone|od)|ipad|iris|kindle|Android|Silk|lge |maemo|midp|mmp|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|phone)|xda|xiino/i.test(navigator.userAgent) 
    || /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.test(navigator.userAgent.substr(0,4))) { 
    isMobile = true;
}
iambriansreed
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sweets-BlingBling
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    Can we use `navigator.userAgentData.mobile`? – A.Anvarbekov Apr 15 '22 at 07:14
  • Nope. It does not work in firefox. UserAgentData is undefined in FF. – Piyush May 31 '22 at 16:19
  • @A.Anvarbekov would not be the best solution since is not supported on many browsers. You can check this over there: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/Navigator/userAgentData#browser_compatibility – Mihai Nov 05 '22 at 12:10
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    Please, in 2023, do not try to create separate versions of your website for phones. Instead, use feature detection to determine input mechanism and viewport size. User-Agent sniffing is an awful solution anyway, and not future-proof. – Jake Jan 28 '23 at 03:37
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    @Jake It's useful to keep this answer here for explaining why historically, this solution has been picked, and, together with its starting note, why this solution is to be avoided, if anybody would later think that this is a good idea. Remove the answer, and you risk having somebody later figure out that this is a great way to engineer their websites. It should be unmarked as the correct answer, though. And please, everyone, upvote the other answers instead. – Andreas is moving to Codidact May 30 '23 at 04:44
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    @Jake Also; I see you've pasted the same two comments over multiple answers. This is not really helpful. Provide a link to the correct solution instead. Endless scrolling through answers, reading "this is an appalling solution; use feature detection" is not that useful. Where's the answer that explains how to use feature detection? And why exactly are these other answers not sufficient? When do they not work? – Andreas is moving to Codidact May 30 '23 at 04:47
658

For me small is beautiful so I'm using this technique:

In CSS file:

/* Smartphones ----------- */
@media only screen and (max-width: 760px) {
  #some-element { display: none; }
}

In jQuery/JavaScript file:

$( document ).ready(function() {      
    var is_mobile = false;

    if( $('#some-element').css('display')=='none') {
        is_mobile = true;       
    }

    // now I can use is_mobile to run javascript conditionally

    if (is_mobile == true) {
        //Conditional script here
    }
 });

My objective was to have my site "mobile-friendly". So I use CSS Media Queries do show/hide elements depending on the screen size.

For example, in my mobile version I don't want to activate the Facebook Like Box, because it loads all those profile images and stuff. And that's not good for mobile visitors. So, besides hiding the container element, I also do this inside the jQuery code block (above):

if(!is_mobile) {
    (function(d, s, id) {
        var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];
        if (d.getElementById(id)) return;
        js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id;
        js.src = "//connect.facebook.net/pt_PT/all.js#xfbml=1&appId=210731252294735";
        fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);
    }(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk'));
}

You can see it in action at http://lisboaautentica.com

I'm still working on the the mobile version, so it's still not looking as it should, as of writing this.

Update by dekin88

There is a JavaScript API built-in for detecting media. Rather than using the above solution simply use the following:

$(function() {      
    let isMobile = window.matchMedia("only screen and (max-width: 760px)").matches;

    if (isMobile) {
        //Conditional script here
    }
 });

Browser Supports: http://caniuse.com/#feat=matchmedia

The advantage of this method is that it's not only simpler and shorter, but you can conditionally target different devices such as smartphones and tablets separately if necessary without having to add any dummy elements into the DOM.

Gonçalo Peres
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    -1 The [`screen.width` property](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/DOM/window.screen.width) is a global. There's no need to arbitrarily add an element to the DOM and unnecessarily bring in CSS media queries. Plus, if the browser is on a desktop and the user resizes the window, `$is_mobile` is not going to be updated. – merv Nov 09 '12 at 15:46
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    Why not: `if( screen.width <= 480 ) { // is mobile }` – andrewrjones Jan 20 '13 at 01:05
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    You've just reinvented `window.matchMedia`: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/Window.matchMedia – Paul Irish Feb 26 '14 at 19:27
  • The bootstrap/jquery technique is very good if it's put in a function. Just call on screenorientation changed or when size change. – The concise Feb 18 '22 at 18:55
  • This breaks in landscape mode (pixel 5, Firefox and Chrome). I suggest editing it like so: `window.matchMedia('only screen and ((max-width: 767px) or (max-height: 767px))').matches` – Zach Dec 23 '22 at 11:37
  • Please, in 2023, do not try to create separate versions of your website for phones. Instead, use feature detection to determine input mechanism and viewport size. User-Agent sniffing is an awful solution anyway, and not future-proof. – Jake Jan 28 '23 at 03:38
295

While Mozilla's Browser detection using the user agent now recommends against this solution:

Note: It's worth re-iterating: it's very rarely a good idea to use user agent sniffing. You can almost always find a better, more broadly compatible way to solve your problem!

it used to recommend:

In summary, we recommend looking for the string “Mobi” anywhere in the User Agent to detect a mobile device.

Like this:

if (/Mobi/.test(navigator.userAgent)) {
    // mobile!
}

This will match all common mobile browser user agents, including mobile Mozilla, Safari, IE, Opera, Chrome, etc.

Update for Android

EricL recommends testing for Android as a user agent also, as the Chrome user agent string for tablets does not include "Mobi" (the phone versions do however):

if (/Mobi|Android/i.test(navigator.userAgent)) {
    // mobile!
}
Ryan M
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Daniel Hanrahan
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    The linked article mentions: _If the device is large enough that it's not marked with “Mobi”, you should serve your desktop site (which, as a best practice, should support touch input anyway, as more desktop machines are appearing with touchscreens)._ – Daniel Hanrahan Jun 09 '16 at 13:27
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    Please, in 2023, do not try to create separate versions of your website for phones. Instead, use feature detection to determine input mechanism and viewport size. User-Agent sniffing is an awful solution anyway, and not future-proof. – Jake Jan 28 '23 at 03:38
  • If you need to support "Opera Mini" (which hopefully is not the case), then you have to include exactly that in the regex as well, since the user agent contains neither "Mobi" nor "Android". – RiZKiT Jul 05 '23 at 13:08
109

A simple and effective one-liner:

function isMobile() { return ('ontouchstart' in document.documentElement); }

However above code doesn't take into account the case for laptops with touchscreen. Thus, I provide this second version, based on @Julian solution:

function isMobile() {
  try{ document.createEvent("TouchEvent"); return true; }
  catch(e){ return false; }
}
kenorb
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sequielo
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74

It's not jQuery, but I found this: http://detectmobilebrowser.com/

It provides scripts to detect mobile browsers in several languages, one of which is JavaScript. That may help you with what you're looking for.

However, since you are using jQuery, you might want to be aware of the jQuery.support collection. It's a collection of properties for detecting the capabilities of the current browser. Documentation is here: http://api.jquery.com/jQuery.support/

Since I don't know what exactly what you're trying to accomplish, I don't know which of these will be the most useful.

All that being said, I think your best bet is to either redirect or write a different script to the output using a server-side language (if that is an option). Since you don't really know the capabilities of a mobile browser x, doing the detection, and alteration logic on the server side would be the most reliable method. Of course, all of that is a moot point if you can't use a server side language :)

K.Dᴀᴠɪs
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Ender
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    There IS a jQuery version there, and it works perfectly, but for tablet detection you must add `|android|ipad|playbook|silk` as described in the [about section](http://detectmobilebrowsers.com/about) (it's by design) – cprcrack Aug 02 '13 at 20:15
50

Sometimes it is desired to know which brand device a client is using in order to show content specific to that device, like a link to the iPhone store or the Android market. Modernizer is great, but only shows you browser capabilities, like HTML5, or Flash.

Here is my UserAgent solution in jQuery to display a different class for each device type:

/*** sniff the UA of the client and show hidden div's for that device ***/
var customizeForDevice = function(){
    var ua = navigator.userAgent;
    var checker = {
      iphone: ua.match(/(iPhone|iPod|iPad)/),
      blackberry: ua.match(/BlackBerry/),
      android: ua.match(/Android/)
    };
    if (checker.android){
        $('.android-only').show();
    }
    else if (checker.iphone){
        $('.idevice-only').show();
    }
    else if (checker.blackberry){
        $('.berry-only').show();
    }
    else {
        $('.unknown-device').show();
    }
}

This solution is from Graphics Maniacs http://graphicmaniacs.com/note/detecting-iphone-ipod-ipad-android-and-blackberry-browser-with-javascript-and-php/

K.Dᴀᴠɪs
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genkilabs
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47

Found a solution in: http://www.abeautifulsite.net/blog/2011/11/detecting-mobile-devices-with-javascript/.

var isMobile = {
    Android: function() {
        return navigator.userAgent.match(/Android/i);
    },
    BlackBerry: function() {
        return navigator.userAgent.match(/BlackBerry/i);
    },
    iOS: function() {
        return navigator.userAgent.match(/iPhone|iPad|iPod/i);
    },
    Opera: function() {
        return navigator.userAgent.match(/Opera Mini/i);
    },
    Windows: function() {
        return navigator.userAgent.match(/IEMobile/i);
    },
    any: function() {
        return (isMobile.Android() || isMobile.BlackBerry() || isMobile.iOS() || isMobile.Opera() || isMobile.Windows());
    }
};

And then to verify if its a Mobile, you can test using:

if(isMobile.any()) {
   //some code...
}
Gabriel
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32

If by "mobile" you mean "small screen," I use this:

var windowWidth = window.screen.width < window.outerWidth ?
                  window.screen.width : window.outerWidth;
var mobile = windowWidth < 500;

On iPhone you'll end up with a window.screen.width of 320. On Android you'll end up with a window.outerWidth of 480 (though that can depend on the Android). iPads and Android tablets will return numbers like 768 so they'll get the full view like you'd want.

Chris Moschini
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31

In one line of javascript:

var isMobile = ('ontouchstart' in document.documentElement && /mobi/i.test(navigator.userAgent));

If the user agent contains 'Mobi' (as per MDN) and ontouchstart is available then it is likely to be a mobile device.

EDIT: Updates the regex code in response to feedback in the comments. Using regex/mobi/i the i makes it case-insensitive, and mobi matches all mobile browsers. See https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTTP/Headers/User-Agent/Firefox

James Westgate
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22

I know this question has a lot of answers, but from what I saw nobody approaches the answer the way I would solve this.

CSS uses width (Media Queries) to determine which styles applied to the web document baseed on width. Why not use width in the JavaScript?

For instance in Bootstrap's (Mobile First) Media Queries, there exist 4 snap/break points:

  • Extra Small Devices are 768 pixels and under.
  • Small Devices range from 768 to 991 pixels.
  • Medium Devices range from 992 to 1199 pixels.
  • Large Devices are 1200 pixels and up.

We can use this to also solve our JavaScript issue as well.

First we will create a function that gets the window size and returns a value that allows us to see what size device is viewing our application:

var getBrowserWidth = function(){
    if(window.innerWidth < 768){
        // Extra Small Device
        return "xs";
    } else if(window.innerWidth < 991){
        // Small Device
        return "sm"
    } else if(window.innerWidth < 1199){
        // Medium Device
        return "md"
    } else {
        // Large Device
        return "lg"
    }
};

Now that we have the function set up, we can call it ans store the value:

var device = getBrowserWidth();

Your question was

I would like to run a different script if the browser is on a handheld device.

Now that we have the device information all that is left is an if statement:

if(device === "xs"){
  // Enter your script for handheld devices here 
}

Here is an example on CodePen: http://codepen.io/jacob-king/pen/jWEeWG

K.Dᴀᴠɪs
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Jacob King
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  • This worked best for me. Since I was using bootstrap for some mobile forward pages, this technique worked well to auto redirect away from a non-mobile forward (non-bootstrap) to a bootstrap page. Tip: I found one small problem in IE11 F12 tools: I had emulation turned on in F12 Dev Tools for a mobile device and it had trouble detecting the window size. I had re-sized it below the xs break point but it was detecting it as md. As soon I turned off emulating a phone and refreshed the page, it correctly detected the size and in my code I redirect away to a bootstrap page. – Jeff Mergler Feb 29 '16 at 18:53
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    @JacobKing you said `Small Devices range from 768 to 991 pixels.` this means it should be `window.innerWidth < 992` (991 is included) the same thing for 1199 it should be < 1200 instead – medBouzid Oct 01 '17 at 23:47
19

You can't rely on navigator.userAgent, not every device reveals its real OS. On my HTC for example, it depends on the settings ("using mobile version" on/off). On http://my.clockodo.com, we simply used screen.width to detect small devices. Unfortunately, in some Android versions there's a bug with screen.width. You can combine this way with the userAgent:

if(screen.width < 500 ||
 navigator.userAgent.match(/Android/i) ||
 navigator.userAgent.match(/webOS/i) ||
 navigator.userAgent.match(/iPhone/i) ||
 navigator.userAgent.match(/iPod/i)) {
alert("This is a mobile device");
}
K.Dᴀᴠɪs
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Ben H
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16

If you use Modernizr, it is very easy to use Modernizr.touch as mentioned earlier.

However, I prefer using a combination of Modernizr.touch and user agent testing, just to be safe.

var deviceAgent = navigator.userAgent.toLowerCase();

var isTouchDevice = Modernizr.touch || 
(deviceAgent.match(/(iphone|ipod|ipad)/) ||
deviceAgent.match(/(android)/)  || 
deviceAgent.match(/(iemobile)/) || 
deviceAgent.match(/iphone/i) || 
deviceAgent.match(/ipad/i) || 
deviceAgent.match(/ipod/i) || 
deviceAgent.match(/blackberry/i) || 
deviceAgent.match(/bada/i));

if (isTouchDevice) {
        //Do something touchy
    } else {
        //Can't touch this
    }

If you don't use Modernizr, you can simply replace the Modernizr.touch function above with ('ontouchstart' in document.documentElement)

Also note that testing the user agent iemobile will give you broader range of detected Microsoft mobile devices than Windows Phone.

Also see this SO question

Community
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j7m
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  • And the same in Dart: `TouchEvent.supported`. – Kai Sellgren Aug 02 '13 at 11:26
  • `('ontouchstart' in window)` is an alternative to `Modernizr.touch`, too, https://hacks.mozilla.org/2013/04/detecting-touch-its-the-why-not-the-how/ – JVE999 Jun 17 '14 at 18:22
  • You should really use RegEx `|` instead of many matches. You also don't need the `toLowerCase()` because you have the `i` modifier. Here: `var isTouchDevice = Modernizr.touch || /iphone|ipod|ipad|android|iemobile|iphone|ipad|ipod|blackberry|bada/i.test(navigator.userAgent);` – oriadam Dec 02 '15 at 17:03
14

I am surprised that no one pointed out a nice site: http://detectmobilebrowsers.com/ It has ready made code in different languages for mobile detection (including but not limited to):

  • Apache
  • ASP
  • C#
  • IIS
  • JavaScript
  • NGINX
  • PHP
  • Perl
  • Python
  • Rails

And if you need to detect the tablets as well, just check About section for additional RegEx parameter.

Android tablets, iPads, Kindle Fires and PlayBooks are not detected by design. To add support for tablets, add |android|ipad|playbook|silk to the first regex.

K.Dᴀᴠɪs
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Maksim Luzik
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12

If found that just checking navigator.userAgent isn't always reliable. Greater reliability can be achieved by also checking navigator.platform. A simple modification to a previous answer seems to work better:

if (/Android|webOS|iPhone|iPad|iPod|BlackBerry/i.test(navigator.userAgent) ||
   (/Android|webOS|iPhone|iPad|iPod|BlackBerry/i.test(navigator.platform))) {
    // some code...
}
K.Dᴀᴠɪs
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Mark
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12

If you're not particularly worried about small displays you could use width/height detection. So that way if width is under a certain size, the mobile site is thrown up. It may not be the perfect way, but it will probably be the easiest to detect for multiple devices. You may need to put in a specific one for the iPhone 4 (large resolution).

MoDFoX
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9

To add an extra layer of control I use the HTML5 storage to detect if it is using mobile storage or desktop storage. If the browser does not support storage I have an array of mobile browser names and I compare the user agent with the browsers in the array.

It is pretty simple. Here is the function:

// Used to detect whether the users browser is an mobile browser
function isMobile() {
    ///<summary>Detecting whether the browser is a mobile browser or desktop browser</summary>
    ///<returns>A boolean value indicating whether the browser is a mobile browser or not</returns>

    if (sessionStorage.desktop) // desktop storage 
        return false;
    else if (localStorage.mobile) // mobile storage
        return true;

    // alternative
    mobile = ['iphone','ipad','android','blackberry','nokia','opera mini','windows mobile','windows phone','iemobile','tablet','mobi']; 
    var ua=navigator.userAgent.toLowerCase();
    for (var i in mobile) if (ua.indexOf(mobile[i]) > -1) return true;

    // nothing found.. assume desktop
    return false;
}
tormuto
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Rasmus Søborg
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    your assumption based on localStorage is quite interesting, can you provide a range of supported device or browsers that correctly match your script? I'm interested in [finding a solution for this question](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/16873883/detect-max-video-resolution-support-for-a-mobile-device-on-responsive-website) I asked, and trying to detect mobile-tablet browsers can indeed be an interesting workaround – Gruber Jun 01 '13 at 17:08
9

I advise you check out http://wurfl.io/

In a nutshell, if you import a tiny JavaScript file:

<script type='text/javascript' src="//wurfl.io/wurfl.js"></script>

You will be left with a JSON object that looks like:

{
 "complete_device_name":"Google Nexus 7",
 "is_mobile":true,
 "form_factor":"Tablet"
}

(That's assuming you are using a Nexus 7, of course) and you will be able to do things like:

if(WURFL.is_mobile) {
    //dostuff();
}

This is what you are looking for.

Disclaimer: I work for the company that offers this free service.

K.Dᴀᴠɪs
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Luca P.
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  • Something isn't right about the Nexus 7. Are you sure you didn't have the Nexus spoof the UA string in the settings? as far as iPad mini is concerned, yes, that's very hard to distinguish from the other iPad, but it was still recognised as an iPad, right? Is it you that downvoted my post? – Luca P. Apr 03 '14 at 13:48
  • No, the ipad mini was detected as a desktop device – Jacob Apr 03 '14 at 13:50
9

I know it's very old question about this kind of detection.

My solution is based on scroller width (is exist or not).

// this function will check the width of scroller
// if scroller width is 0px it's mobile device

//function ismob() {
    var dv = document.getElementById('divscr');
    var sp=document.getElementById('res');
    if (dv.offsetWidth - dv.clientWidth == 10) {sp.innerHTML='Is mobile'; //return true; 
    } else {
    sp.innerHTML='It is not mobile'; //return false;
    }
//}
<!-- put hidden div on very begining of page -->
<div id="divscr" style="position:fixed;top:0;left:0;width:50px;height:50px;overflow:hidden;overflow-y:scroll;z-index:-1;visibility:hidden;"></div>
<span id="res"></span>
nelek
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  • I like this solution, are there any reason why we shouldn't use this? – James Jan 27 '20 at 11:47
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    Absolutely BRILLIANT! And it's totally cross-browser. Thank you! Edit: it's better to check for `(dv.offsetWidth - dv.clientWidth) == 0` because the scrollbar gets smaller than 10px if the window is zoomed in, which is the case in most modern laptops with high resolution but small screen (ie. 4k resolution on a 15.6 inch screen) – Ivan May 03 '20 at 07:51
  • what a unique solution. i havent seen this anywhere else yet. i can see this running into issues whereby the scrollbar is hidden (e.g. `::-webkit-scrollbar { display: none }`) has anybody tested that yet? – oldboy Nov 13 '20 at 07:44
  • @oldboy try to set visible `scrollbar` for `div` (`id="divscr")`. I don't use chrome and doesn't want install it just for testing purpose. Anyone? – nelek Jan 05 '21 at 07:39
  • Great solution! I just removed the need for an existing div: `function is_mobile() { var div = document.createElement('div'); div.style.position = 'fixed'; div.style.left = 0; div.style.top = 0; div.style.width = '50px'; div.style.height = '50px'; div.style.overflowY = 'scroll'; document.body.append(div); if (div.offsetWidth - div.clientWidth == 0) { var ret = true; } else { var ret = false; } div.remove(); return ret; }` – Spider IT Sep 10 '22 at 07:57
  • You are testing overlay scrollbars here, nothing more. They are also active on desktop safari browsers, but will change if you attach a mouse into that device. So not a good marker for desktops... – HolgerJeromin Jan 19 '23 at 12:07
9

Great answer thanks. Small improvement to support Windows phone and Zune:

if (navigator.userAgent.match(/Android/i) ||
  navigator.userAgent.match(/webOS/i) ||
  navigator.userAgent.match(/iPhone/i) ||
  navigator.userAgent.match(/iPad/i) ||
  navigator.userAgent.match(/iPod/i) ||
  navigator.userAgent.match(/BlackBerry/) ||
  navigator.userAgent.match(/Windows Phone/i) ||
  navigator.userAgent.match(/ZuneWP7/i)
) {
  // some code
  self.location = "top.htm";
}
Narendra
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Victor Juri
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  • I would say this is the simplest (maybe not best) fix if you are trying to handle hover/dragging events for mobile devices. I use something like this to create a "isMobile" boolean that is then checked for every hover/mouseover event. Thats my two cents, anyways. Adding more js libraries or code that requires user interaction doesn't make too much sense to me; correct me if I am wrong though. – MeanMatt Mar 01 '12 at 00:54
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    Since you're using regular expressions, actually use them: `if (navigator.userAgent.match(/Android|webOS|iPhone|iPad|etc/)){self.location = "top.htm"}` – foobarbecue Aug 10 '19 at 22:55
8

You can use media query to be able to handle it easily.

isMobile = function(){
    var isMobile = window.matchMedia("only screen and (max-width: 760px)");
    return isMobile.matches ? true : false
}
nescafe
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7

Check out this post, it gives a really nice code snippet for what to do when touch devices are detected or what to do if touchstart event is called:

$(function(){
  if(window.Touch) {
    touch_detect.auto_detected();
  } else {
    document.ontouchstart = touch_detect.surface;
  }
}); // End loaded jQuery
var touch_detect = {
  auto_detected: function(event){
    /* add everything you want to do onLoad here (eg. activating hover controls) */
    alert('this was auto detected');
    activateTouchArea();
  },
  surface: function(event){
    /* add everything you want to do ontouchstart here (eg. drag & drop) - you can fire this in both places */
    alert('this was detected by touching');
    activateTouchArea();
  }
}; // touch_detect
function activateTouchArea(){
  /* make sure our screen doesn't scroll when we move the "touchable area" */
  var element = document.getElementById('element_id');
  element.addEventListener("touchstart", touchStart, false);
}
function touchStart(event) {
  /* modularize preventing the default behavior so we can use it again */
  event.preventDefault();
}
Safran Ali
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  • `'ontouchstart' in document.documentElement` is probably a better test for touch support than `window.Touch`. Even better, use Modernizr.js (http://modernizr.com) because have spent a lot of thought trying to get touch detection right. You can see their touch detection code in http://modernizr.com/downloads/modernizr.js if you view the development code and search on "touch". – robocat Sep 13 '12 at 01:44
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    Touch detection has gotten me into trouble, because some new Windows 8 laptops detect as touchscreens in Chrome, leading to odd results. – JWarner May 02 '14 at 17:12
6

Use this:

/**  * jQuery.browser.mobile (http://detectmobilebrowser.com/)  * jQuery.browser.mobile will be true if the browser is a mobile device  **/ (function(a){jQuery.browser.mobile=/android.+mobile|avantgo|bada\/|blackberry|blazer|compal|elaine|fennec|hiptop|iemobile|ip(hone|od)|iris|kindle|lge |maemo|midp|mmp|netfront|opera m(ob|in)i|palm( os)?|phone|p(ixi|re)\/|plucker|pocket|psp|symbian|treo|up\.(browser|link)|vodafone|wap|windows (ce|phone)|xda|xiino/i.test(a)||/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|e\-|e\/|\-[a-w])|libw|lynx|m1\-w|m3ga|m50\/|ma(te|ui|xo)|mc(01|21|ca)|m\-cr|me(di|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|xda(\-|2|g)|yas\-|your|zeto|zte\-/i.test(a.substr(0,4))})(navigator.userAgent||navigator.vendor||window.opera);

Then use this:

if(jQuery.browser.mobile)
{
   console.log('You are using a mobile device!');
}
else
{
   console.log('You are not using a mobile device!');
}
NCoder
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6

All answers use user-agent to detect the browser but device detection based on user-agent is not very good solution, better is to detect features like touch device (in new jQuery they remove $.browser and use $.support instead).

To detect mobile you can check for touch events:

function is_touch_device() {
  return 'ontouchstart' in window // works on most browsers 
      || 'onmsgesturechange' in window; // works on ie10
}

Taken from What's the best way to detect a 'touch screen' device using JavaScript?

Community
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jcubic
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    Unfortunately, this is not reliable and anyway it returns `true` on desktop PCs with touchscreens. http://www.stucox.com/blog/you-cant-detect-a-touchscreen/ – JustAMartin May 20 '14 at 07:03
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    Don't forget laptops with touchscreens and full browser experiences. :-) – Mike Kormendy Jul 13 '15 at 05:17
  • this may not be the way to go to check whether it's a mobile-device or not but as the name of your function states it's perfect to check for touch-enabled devices. +1 from me ;-) – Kathara Jun 25 '19 at 13:55
6

I would be suggesting to use following combo of strings, to check if device type being used.

As per Mozilla documentation string Mobi is recommended. But, some of the old tablets doesn't return true if only Mobi is used, hence we should use Tablet string too.

Similarly, for being on the safe side iPad and iPhone strings could also be used to check the device type.

Most of the new devices would return true for Mobi string alone.

if (/Mobi|Tablet|iPad|iPhone/.test(navigator.userAgent)) {
    // do something
}
Sanjay Joshi
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    I had to add "android" in there to get working on tablets. I'll have to tweak but I like the approach. – Andy May 04 '17 at 03:18
6

I know this old question and there is a lot of answer but I think this function is simple and will help for detect all mobile, Tablet and computer browser it work like a charm.

function Device_Type() 
{
    var Return_Device; 
    if(/(up.browser|up.link|mmp|symbian|smartphone|midp|wap|phone|android|iemobile|w3c|acs\-|alav|alca|amoi|audi|avan|benq|bird|blac|blaz|brew|cell|cldc|cmd\-|dang|doco|eric|hipt|inno|ipaq|java|jigs|kddi|keji|leno|lg\-c|lg\-d|lg\-g|lge\-|maui|maxo|midp|mits|mmef|mobi|mot\-|moto|mwbp|nec\-|newt|noki|palm|pana|pant|phil|play|port|prox|qwap|sage|sams|sany|sch\-|sec\-|send|seri|sgh\-|shar|sie\-|siem|smal|smar|sony|sph\-|symb|t\-mo|teli|tim\-|tosh|tsm\-|upg1|upsi|vk\-v|voda|wap\-|wapa|wapi|wapp|wapr|webc|winw|winw|xda|xda\-) /i.test(navigator.userAgent))
    {
        if(/(tablet|ipad|playbook)|(android(?!.*(mobi|opera mini)))/i.test(navigator.userAgent)) 
        {
            Return_Device = 'Tablet';
        }
        else
        {
            Return_Device = 'Mobile';
        }
    }
    else if(/(tablet|ipad|playbook)|(android(?!.*(mobi|opera mini)))/i.test(navigator.userAgent)) 
    {
        Return_Device = 'Tablet';
    }
    else
    {
        Return_Device = 'Desktop';
    }

    return Return_Device;
}
K.Dᴀᴠɪs
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Mohamad Hamouday
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5

Simple function based on http://detectmobilebrowser.com/

function isMobile() {
    var a = navigator.userAgent||navigator.vendor||window.opera;
    return /(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|phone)|xda|xiino/i.test(a)||/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.test(a.substr(0,4));
}
lucasls
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5
<script>
  function checkIsMobile(){
      if(navigator.userAgent.indexOf("Mobile") > 0){
        return true;
      }else{
        return false;
      }
   }
</script>

If you goto any browser and if you try to get navigator.userAgent then we'll be getting the browser information something like following

Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10_13_1) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/64.0.3282.186 Safari/537.36

The same thing if you do in mobile you'll be getting following

Mozilla/5.0 (Linux; Android 8.1.0; Pixel Build/OPP6.171019.012) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/61.0.3163.98 Mobile Safari/537.36

Every mobile browser will have useragent with string containing "Mobile" So I'm using above snippet in my code to check whether current user agent is web/mobile. Based on the result I'll be doing required changes.

K.Dᴀᴠɪs
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Vishnu Prasanth G
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5

Here's a function you can use to get a true/false answer as to whether you're running on a mobile browser. Yes, it is browser-sniffing, but sometimes that is exactly what you need.

function is_mobile() {
    var agents = ['android', 'webos', 'iphone', 'ipad', 'blackberry'];
    for(i in agents) {
        if(navigator.userAgent.match('/'+agents[i]+'/i')) {
            return true;
        }
    }
    return false;
}
Jonathon Hill
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    That will fail to detect many mobile browsers, especially mobile Chrome. It will also probably fail on some of: Opera Mobile, Firefox mobile, Opera Mini, various popular Chinese mobile browsers, etc etc. – robocat Sep 13 '12 at 01:37
  • You don't need `for` for this! +You forgot to create a RegExp. Here's a simpler one: `return !!navigator.userAgent.match(new RegExp(agents.join('|'),'i'))` – oriadam Dec 02 '15 at 17:09
4

I use this

if(navigator.userAgent.search("mobile")>0 ){
         do something here
}
Rich
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Yene Mulatu
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4

How about mobiledetect.net?

Other solutions seem too basic. This is a lightweight PHP class. It uses the User-Agent string combined with specific HTTP headers to detect the mobile environment. You can also benefit from Mobile Detect by using any of the 3rd party plugins available for: WordPress, Drupal, Joomla, Magento, etc.

K.Dᴀᴠɪs
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4

An ES6 solution that uses several detection techniques within a try/catch block

The function consists of creating a "TouchEvent", seeking support for the "ontouchstart" event or even making a query to the mediaQueryList object.

Purposely, some queries that fail will throw a new error because as we are in a try/catch block we can use it as a fall back to consult the user agent.

I have no usage tests and in many cases it can fail as well as point out false positives.

It should not be used for any kind of real validation but, in a general scope for analysis and statistics where the volume of data can "forgive" the lack of precision, it may still be useful.

const isMobile = ((dc, wd) => {
    // get browser "User-Agent" or vendor ... see "opera" property in `window`
    let ua = wd.userAgent || wd.navigator.vendor || wd.opera;
    try {
        /**
         * Creating a touch event ... in modern browsers with touch screens or emulators (but not mobile) does not cause errors.
         * Otherwise, it will create a `DOMException` instance
         */
        dc.createEvent("TouchEvent");

        // check touchStart event
        (('ontouchstart' in wd) || ('ontouchstart' in dc.documentElement) || wd.DocumentTouch && wd.document instanceof DocumentTouch || wd.navigator.maxTouchPoints || wd.navigator.msMaxTouchPoints) ? void(0) : new Error('failed check "ontouchstart" event');

        // check `mediaQueryList` ... pass as modern browsers
        let mQ = wd.matchMedia && matchMedia("(pointer: coarse)");
        // if no have, throw error to use "User-Agent" sniffing test
        if ( !mQ || mQ.media !== "(pointer: coarse)" || !mQ.matches ) {
            throw new Error('failed test `mediaQueryList`');
        }

        // if there are no failures the possibility of the device being mobile is great (but not guaranteed)
        return true;
    } catch(ex) {
        // fall back to User-Agent sniffing
        return /(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.test(ua) || /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.test(ua.substr(0,4));
    }
})(document, window);


// to show result
let container = document.getElementById('result');

container.textContent = isMobile ? 'Yes, your device appears to be mobile' : 'No, your device does not appear to be mobile';
<p id="result"></p>

The regex used to test the user agent is a little old and was available on the website http://mobiledetect.com which is no longer in operation.

Maybe there is a better pattern but, I don't know.


Fonts:


PS:

As there is no way to identify with 100% accuracy neither by checking features, nor by examining the user agent string with regular expressions. The code snippet above should be seen only as: "one more example for this issue", as well as: "not recommended for use in production".

Lauro Moraes
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  • so then what do u suggest using for "real" validation?? – oldboy Nov 13 '20 at 07:47
  • In CSS4 you can use [`@media (any-pointer: coarse)`](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/@media/any-pointer) or [`@media (pointer: coarse)`](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/@media/pointer) to detect touch devices. And in JS you can use `matchMedia` with the preceding argument. +1. This is generally the right approach. – Jake Feb 06 '23 at 01:16
3

This is my code I'm using in my projects:

function isMobile() {
 try {
    if(/Android|webOS|iPhone|iPad|iPod|pocket|psp|kindle|avantgo|blazer|midori|Tablet|Palm|maemo|plucker|phone|BlackBerry|symbian|IEMobile|mobile|ZuneWP7|Windows Phone|Opera Mini/i.test(navigator.userAgent)) {
     return true;
    };
    return false;
 } catch(e){ console.log("Error in isMobile"); return false; }
}
K.Dᴀᴠɪs
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3

Depending on what for you want to detect mobile (meaning this suggestion won't suit everyone's needs), you might be able to achieve a distinction by looking at the onmouseenter-to-onclick millisecond difference, like I described in this answer.

WoodrowShigeru
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  • In CSS4 you can use `@media (any-pointer: coarse)` or `@media (pointer: coarse)` to detect touch devices. And in JS you can use `matchMedia` with either of the preceding arguments. +1. This is generally the right approach. – Jake Feb 06 '23 at 01:54
3

You could do simple thing very simple like this

(window.screen.width < 700) {
    //The device is a Mobile
} else {
    //The device is a Desktop
}
Tyler2P
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    Just because the viewport is < 700 does not make the device mobile – sea26.2 Sep 10 '20 at 23:40
  • @sea26.2 This is true. However, for our purposes, it actually works better, because we want our javascript to interact correctly with our CSS media queries. – Eliezer Berlin Jun 03 '21 at 07:47
  • Isn't this code supposed to check if it's portrait or landscape? Or just how few pixels in general? Why not `if (window.screen.width < window.screen.height)` ? – Typewar Jul 02 '21 at 12:01
2

I tried some of the ways and then I decided to fill a list manually and do a simple JS check. And in the end the user has to confirm. Because some checks gave false positive or negative.

var isMobile = false;
if (/Android|webOS|iPhone|iPad|iPod|BlackBerry|IEMobile|Opera Mini|Opera Mobile|Kindle|Windows Phone|PSP|AvantGo|Atomic Web Browser|Blazer|Chrome Mobile|Dolphin|Dolfin|Doris|GO Browser|Jasmine|MicroB|Mobile Firefox|Mobile Safari|Mobile Silk|Motorola Internet Browser|NetFront|NineSky|Nokia Web Browser|Obigo|Openwave Mobile Browser|Palm Pre web browser|Polaris|PS Vita browser|Puffin|QQbrowser|SEMC Browser|Skyfire|Tear|TeaShark|UC Browser|uZard Web|wOSBrowser|Yandex.Browser mobile/i.test(navigator.userAgent) && confirm('Are you on a mobile device?')) isMobile = true;

Now, if you want to use jQuery to set the CSS, you could do the following:

$(document).ready(function() {
  if (isMobile) $('link[type="text/css"]').attr('href', '/mobile.css');
});

Since the borders between mobile and fixed devices become fluent and mobile browers are already powerful, checking width and user confirmation will probably be the best for the future (assuming that width in some cases will still be important). Because touches are already converted into mouse-ups and downs.

And concerning the mobile movability, I suggest you to think about Yoav Barnea's idea:

if(typeof window.orientation !== 'undefined'){...}
Community
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Albert
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    Any sort of required user confirmation for something that should be internal and not bother him in any way is a tragic user experience detail. – zrooda May 27 '14 at 20:06
2

This seems to be a comprehensive, modern solution:

https://github.com/matthewhudson/device.js

It detects several platforms, smartphone vs. tablets, and orientation. It also adds classes to the BODY tag so detection takes place only once and you can read what device you're on with a simple series of jQuery hasClass functions.

Check it out...

[DISCLAIMER: I've got nothing to do with the person who wrote it.]

Paolo Mioni
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  • +1 for the small and neat device.js. But I wouldn't exactly call it a "modern solution", at it's core it uses [user agent](https://github.com/matthewhudson/device.js/blob/e485d719b3a88ba96c331ee01efa712148b5f259/src/device.coffee#L18) sniffing. I also wouldn't call it "comprehensive", [ua-parser](https://github.com/tobie/ua-parser) on the other hand is. – Anthony Hatzopoulos Sep 13 '14 at 16:59
  • Please use feature detection, rather than targetting specific devices. – Jake Feb 06 '23 at 01:08
2

Adding:

In some versions of iOS 9.x, Safari does not present the "iPhone" in navigator.userAgent, but show it in navigator.platform.

var isMobile = /Android|webOS|iPhone|iPad|iPod|BlackBerry/i.test(navigator.userAgent);
    if(!isMobile){
        isMobile=/iPhone|iPad|iPod/i.test(navigator.platform);
    }
K.Dᴀᴠɪs
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NikitOn
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  • That should not matter, because you should be using feature detection rather than `User-Agent` sniffing. – Jake Feb 06 '23 at 01:09
2

The screen may be on desktop with a small resolution or a mobile with a wide resolution, as so, combining two answers found here in this question

const isMobile = window.matchMedia("only screen and (max-width: 760px)");
if (/Mobi|Tablet|iPad|iPhone/i.test(navigator.userAgent) || isMobile.matches) {
    console.log('is_mobile')
}
Diego Favero
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2

The following answer was adapted from the answer at https://attacomsian.com/blog/javascript-detect-mobile-device.

To detect if the user is using a mobile device in JavaScript, we can use the userAgent property.

This property is part of the navigator object and sent by the browser in HTTP headers. It contains information about the name, version, and platform of the browser.

With the value of userAgent, we can use a regular expression to test if it contains some keywords or not and then decide the type of the device (mobile, tablet, or desktop). Optionally, you can also combine this test with the width of the current window.

Here is a function that returns the type of device, the user is currently on:

function deviceType() {
    const ua = navigator.userAgent;
    if (/(tablet|ipad|playbook|silk)|(android(?!.*mobi))/i.test(ua)) {
        return "tablet";
    }
    else if (/Mobile|Android|iP(hone|od)|IEMobile|BlackBerry|Kindle|Silk-Accelerated|(hpw|web)OS|Opera M(obi|ini)/.test(ua)) {
        return "mobile";
    }
    return "desktop";
};
console.log(deviceType());

Note: The above solution is not always reliable. The value of the userAgent can be easily changed. For example, when we use bots to scrape a website, we can pass a completely different user agent value to hide our identity. It will make it difficult to detect the actual device type.

topsoftwarepro
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2

MDN Suggests checking for touchable points available by using Navigator.maxTouchPoints. If > 0 , the device is tappable and most likely a phone or tablet. https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/Navigator/maxTouchPoints

Tantrik
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  • In CSS4 you can use [`@media (any-pointer: coarse)`](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/@media/any-pointer) or [`@media (pointer: coarse)`](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/@media/pointer) to detect touch devices. And in JS you can use `matchMedia` with the preceding argument. +1. This is generally the right approach. – Jake Feb 06 '23 at 01:39
1

You could also use server side script and set javascript variables from it.

Example in php

download http://code.google.com/p/php-mobile-detect/ and then set javascript variables.

<script>
//set defaults
var device_type = 'desktop';
</script>

<?php
require_once( 'Mobile_Detect.php');
$detect = new Mobile_Detect();
?>

<script>
device_type="<?php echo ($detect->isMobile() ? ($detect->isTablet() ? 'tablet' : 'mobile') : 'desktop'); ?>";
alert( device_type);
</script>
Pawel Dubiel
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  • The only clue you get server-side is the HTTP `User-Agent`. That is some random string, and you can't future-proof it. This is fundamentally the wrong approach, and use of this suggested library should be discouraged. Moreover, devices should not be categorized into 'mobile', 'tablet' or 'desktop'. What about a large phone, or a small tablet? Please use feature detection. – Jake Feb 06 '23 at 01:26
1

Also I recommend using the tiny JavaScript library Bowser, yes no r. It is based on the navigator.userAgent and quite well tested for all browsers including iPhone, Android etc.

https://github.com/ded/bowser

You can use simply say:

if (bowser.msie && bowser.version <= 6) {
  alert('Hello China');
} else if (bowser.firefox){
  alert('Hello Foxy');
} else if (bowser.chrome){
  alert('Hello Silicon Valley');
} else if (bowser.safari){
  alert('Hello Apple Fan');
} else if(bowser.iphone || bowser.android){
  alert('Hello mobile');
}
K.Dᴀᴠɪs
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arikan
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1

You can also detect it like below

$.isIPhone = function(){
    return ((navigator.platform.indexOf("iPhone") != -1) || (navigator.platform.indexOf("iPod") != -1));

};
$.isIPad = function (){
    return (navigator.platform.indexOf("iPad") != -1);
};
$.isAndroidMobile  = function(){
    var ua = navigator.userAgent.toLowerCase();
    return ua.indexOf("android") > -1 && ua.indexOf("mobile");
};
$.isAndroidTablet  = function(){
    var ua = navigator.userAgent.toLowerCase();
    return ua.indexOf("android") > -1 && !(ua.indexOf("mobile"));
};
K.Dᴀᴠɪs
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Nur Rony
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1
function isDeviceMobile(){
 var isMobile = {
  Android: function() {
      return navigator.userAgent.match(/Android/i) && navigator.userAgent.match(/mobile|Mobile/i);
  },
  BlackBerry: function() {
      return navigator.userAgent.match(/BlackBerry/i)|| navigator.userAgent.match(/BB10; Touch/);
  },
  iOS: function() {
      return navigator.userAgent.match(/iPhone|iPod/i);
  },
  Opera: function() {
      return navigator.userAgent.match(/Opera Mini/i);
  },
  Windows: function() {
      return navigator.userAgent.match(/IEMobile/i) || navigator.userAgent.match(/webOS/i) ;
  },
  any: function() {
      return (isMobile.Android() || isMobile.BlackBerry() || isMobile.iOS() || isMobile.Opera() || isMobile.Windows());
  }
};      
 return isMobile.any()
}
mohamed-ibrahim
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  • Please don't use `User-Agent` sniffing. It is not future-proof and your website will break without you doing anything. Please use feature detection instead. – Jake Feb 06 '23 at 01:28
1

http://www.w3schools.com/jsref/prop_nav_useragent.asp

Filter by platform name.

Ex:

x = $( window ).width();

platform = navigator.platform;

alert(platform);

if ( (platform != Ipad) || (x < 768) )  {


} 

^^

Allan Pereira
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1

User agent strings should not be trusted alone. Solution below will work in all situations.

function isMobile(a) {
  return (/(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.test(a) || /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.test(a.substr(0, 4)));
}

and call this function:

isMobile(navigator.userAgent || navigator.vendor || window.opera)
kaxi1993
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  • is `window.opera` necessary? what does it do exactly? – oldboy Nov 13 '20 at 07:39
  • You already admitted to the pitfall: "User agent strings should not be trusted alone." And yet your answer relies entirely on the `User-Agent`. Where do you think `navigator.vendor` and `window.opera` come from otherwise? – Jake Feb 06 '23 at 01:30
1

If by a mobile device you understand a touchable one, then you can determine it by checking existence of touch handlers:

let deviceType = (('ontouchstart' in window)
                 || (navigator.maxTouchPoints > 0)
                 || (navigator.msMaxTouchPoints > 0)
                 ) ? 'touchable' : 'desktop';

jQuery is not needed for it.

Daniel Kucal
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1

I use this solution and it works fine on all devices:

if (typeof window.orientation !== "undefined" || navigator.userAgent.indexOf('IEMobile') !== -1) {
   //is_mobile
}
Pinonirvana
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    I was considering this but then I thought about when a user requests the desktop site from the chrome menu, this is done through the User-Agent string and would no longer work. – Gaby_64 May 15 '20 at 19:00
  • window.orientation is unfortunately deprecated now, and its replacement works on desktop too - so no longer useful I'm afraid. :( – AnorZaken Oct 19 '21 at 09:56
1
var device = {
  detect: function(key) {
    if(this['_'+key] === undefined) {
      this['_'+key] = navigator.userAgent.match(new RegExp(key, 'i'));
    }
    return this['_'+key];
  },
  iDevice: function() {
    return this.detect('iPhone') || this.detect('iPod');
  },
  android: function() {
    return this.detect('Android');
  },
  webOS: function() {
    return this.detect('webOS');
  },
  mobile: function() {
    return this.iDevice() || this.android() || this.webOS();
  }
};

I've used something like this in the past. This is similar to a previous response, but it's technically more performant in that it caches the result of the match, especially if the detection is being used in an animation, scroll event, or the like.

Fran
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0

Checkout http://detectmobilebrowsers.com/ which provides you script for detecting mobile device in variety of languages including

JavaScript, jQuery, PHP, JSP, Perl, Python, ASP, C#, ColdFusion and many more

K.Dᴀᴠɪs
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Akshay Khale
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  • Please don't. Please use feature detection, rather than detecting specific device types. – Jake Feb 06 '23 at 01:35
0

Here is one more suggestion implemented with pure JavaScript (es6)

const detectDeviceType = () =>
    /Android|webOS|iPhone|iPad|iPod|BlackBerry|IEMobile|Opera Mini/i.test(navigator.userAgent)
        ? 'Mobile'
        : 'Desktop';

detectDeviceType();
K.Dᴀᴠɪs
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Gor
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  • absolutely no need for [`arrow-syntax`](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Reference/Functions/Arrow_functions) function. – mrReiha Jul 23 '19 at 01:19
  • @mrReiha No need for this at all, arrow-syntax or otherwise. `User-Agent` sniffing is the wrong approach. – Jake Feb 06 '23 at 01:37
0

Utilized previously mentioned sequielo solution and added the function for width/height check (to avoid screen rotation mistake). For selecting min/max borders for mobile viewport, I use this resource https://www.mydevice.io/#compare-devices

function isMobile() {
    try{ document.createEvent("TouchEvent"); return true; }
    catch(e){ return false; }
}

function deviceType() {
    var width = Math.max(document.documentElement.clientWidth, window.innerWidth || 0);
    var height = Math.max(document.documentElement.clientHeight, window.innerHeight || 0),screenType;
    if (isMobile()){
        if ((width <= 650 && height <= 900) || (width <= 900 && height <= 650))
            screenType = "Mobile Phone";
        else
            screenType = "Tablet";
    }
    else
        screenType = "Desktop";
  return screenType;
}
Twil
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-1

Check the user agent values.

function ismobile(){
   if(/android|webos|iphone|ipad|ipod|blackberry|opera mini|Windows Phone|iemobile|WPDesktop|XBLWP7/i.test(navigator.userAgent.toLowerCase())) {
       return true;
   }
   else
    return false;
}
Kareem
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  • This is the wrong approach, so we will not be updating your array. – Jake Feb 06 '23 at 01:41
  • @Jake I don't know who we are and what array updating you are talking about. This works regardless of the OS version. – Kareem Mar 18 '23 at 20:29
  • We is I. Your solution is totally unsustatainable, if you'd care to think about it. You might think it works now, but perhaps you are naieve. Please only post answers where you have a good understanding of the topic in hand. UA strings can be faked, or set via browser tools. They do not tell you what you are looking for. And if you are UA-sniffing, you don't even know what you are looking for yourself. – Jake Apr 16 '23 at 05:34
  • You put "help updating the array" in your 'answer'. Then said you didn't know "what array updating [I am] talking about". Really? – Jake Apr 26 '23 at 02:15
-1

Ya'll are doing way too much work.

if (window.screen.availWidth <= 425) {
   // do something
}

You can do this on page load through JS. No need to write long string lists to try and catch everything. Whoops, you missed one! Then you have to go back and change it/add it. The more popular phone sizes are about 425 in width or less (in portrait mode), tablets are around 700 ish and anything bigger is likely a laptop, desktop, or other larger device. If you need mobile landscape mode, maybe you should be working in Swift or Android studio and not traditional web coding.

Side note: This may not have been an available solution when it was posted but it works now.

Sir Papilonius
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-1

you need to controll resize

var  is_mobile = false;
        $(window).resize(function() {

            if ($('#mobileNav').css('display') == 'block') {
                is_mobile = true;
            }

            if (is_mobile == true) {

                console.log('is_mobile')
                document.addEventListener(
                    "DOMContentLoaded", () => {
                        new Mmenu("#mainMenu", {
                            "offCanvas": {
                                "position": "right-front"
                            }
                        });
                    }
                );

            }

        }).resize();
Vahid Alvandi
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  • This answer is out of context. The OP does not have an element with ID `mobileNav`. – Jake Feb 06 '23 at 01:47
-1

What is the specific feature of a mobile device that means you want different behaviour?

Is it the input mechanism (touch and virtual keyboard vs mouse and physical keyboard), the smaller screen size, or something else?

For example, in CSS4 you can use @media (any-pointer: coarse) for touch-enabled devices and @media (pointer: coarse) for devices where the primary input is touch (i.e. phones and tablets whether or not an external keyboard is plugged in). CSS4 is mostly fully supported by modern browsers.

In JavaScript, you can use Window.matchMedia() to test for any CSS media query (including those above) as suggested in this SO answer. (I would have hoped for something more native by now, but couldn't find anything.)

Jake
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-2

I do this for my .NET applications.

In my shared _Layout.cshtml Page, I add this.

@{
    var isMobileDevice = HttpContext.Current.Request.Browser.IsMobileDevice;
}

<html lang="en" class="@((isMobileDevice)?"ismobiledevice":"")">

Then to check on any page in your site (jQuery):

<script>
var isMobile = $('html').hasClass('ismobiledevice');
</script>
K.Dᴀᴠɪs
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Mickey
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-2

Just copy the following function and it returns a boolean value. its regex is looks like the marked answer but it is has some difference:

const isMobile = () =>
  /(android|bb\d+|meego).+mobile|avantgo|bada\/|blackberry|blazer|compal|elaine|fennec|hiptop|iemobile|ip(hone|od)|ipad|iris|kindle|Android|Silk|lge |maemo|midp|mmp|netfront|opera m(ob|in)i|palm( os)?|phone|p(ixi|re)\/|plucker|pocket|psp|series([46])0|symbian|treo|up\.(browser|link)|vodafone|wap|windows (ce|phone)|xda|xiino/i.test(
    navigator.userAgent
  ) ||
  /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([ev])w|bumb|bw-([nu])|c55\/|capi|ccwa|cdm-|cell|chtm|cldc|cmd-|co(mp|nd)|craw|da(it|ll|ng)|dbte|dc-s|devi|dica|dmob|do([cp])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-([mpt])|hei-|hi(pt|ta)|hp( i|ip)|hs-c|ht(c([- _agpst])|tp)|hu(aw|tc)|i-(20|go|ma)|i230|iac([ \-/])|ibro|idea|ig01|ikom|im1k|inno|ipaq|iris|ja([tv])a|jbro|jemu|jigs|kddi|keji|kgt([ /])|klon|kpt |kwc-|kyo([ck])|le(no|xi)|lg( g|\/([klu])|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([- ov])|zz)|mt(50|p1|v )|mwbp|mywa|n10[0-2]|n20[2-3]|n30([02])|n50([025])|n7(0([01])|10)|ne(([cm])-|on|tf|wf|wg|wt)|nok([6i])|nzph|o2im|op(ti|wv)|oran|owg1|p800|pan([adt])|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([-01])|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([im])|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.test(
    navigator.userAgent.substr(0, 4)
  );
AmerllicA
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-2

This is what I do:

function checkMobile() {
  var os = GetOS();
  if (os == "Android OS" || os == "iOS") {
     // do what you wanna do
     return true
  }
}

and to redirect I add location.href="mobile.website.com" and then add this body tag

<body onload="checkMobile()"></body>
  • 1
    This is incomplete. You are relying on a function that is not included in the answer to do all the work. – oligofren Dec 16 '22 at 10:38
-2

if you use bootstrap, you can add this element to page and check its visibility:

      <div id="mobile-detect" class="d-sm-none d-md-block" > </div>


function is_mobile() {
   if( $('#mobile-detect').css('display')=='none') {
       return true;
   }
   return false
}
Ahmad
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  • Please don't use a CSS reset stylesheet. It is totally unnecessary in 2023, and makes your successor's job much harder, as they spend ages trying to figure out where some rogue CSS setting is coming from. – Jake Feb 06 '23 at 00:56
-3

navigator.userAgentData.mobile returns [true|false]

user1212212
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  • Might be good in future, but for now it's not supported by iOS Safari, among others: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/NavigatorUAData#browser_compatibility – James Aug 17 '22 at 04:59
  • @James It probably won't be any good in future, as it will likely be abused by lazy 'developers' (based on the evidence of the 'answers' here). It may have a use in detecting a device capable of making phone calls (e.g. for the `tel:` link). Feature detection is the way to go. – Jake Feb 06 '23 at 01:02
-4

If you want to test the user agent, the correct way is to, test the user agent, i.e. test navigator.userAgent.

If the user fakes this they are not due concern. If you test.isUnix() you should not subsequently have to worry if the system is Unix.

As a user changing userAgent is also fine, but you don't expect sites to render properly if you do.

If you wish to provide support for Microsoft browsers you should ensure the first few characters of the content includes and test every page you write.

Bottom line... Always code to the standards. Then hack it until it works in the current version of IE & don't expect it to look good. That's what GitHub does, and they just got given 100 million bucks.

K.Dᴀᴠɪs
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teknopaul
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-4

Window.matchMedia()

The Window interface's matchMedia() method returns a new MediaQueryList object that can then be used to determine if the document matches the media query string, as well as to monitor the document to detect when it matches (or stops matching) that media query.

Usage notes You can use the returned media query to perform both instantaneous and event-driven checks to see if the document matches the media query.

To perform a one-time, instantaneous check to see if the document matches the media query, look at the value of the matches property, which will be true if the document meets the media query's requirements.

If you need to be kept aware of whether or not the document matches the media query at all times, you can instead watch for the change event to be delivered to the object. There's a good example of this in the article on Window.devicePixelRatio.

let mql = window.matchMedia('(max-width: 767px)');
Ronnie Royston
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  • +1 for awareness and admitting that it will go pear-shaped if the desktop user resizes their window. Otherwise, a terrible solution. – Jake Feb 06 '23 at 01:05
-5

Use this

if( screen.width <= 480 ) { 
    // is mobile 
}
Chuck Le Butt
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sainanky
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    ...and what happens if I have my desktop browser less than 480 in size? Why 480 anyway. I'd imagine there are phones when in landscape are wider than 480. – Liam Aug 02 '17 at 12:33