Android HTTP User Agent

Question

How do I get the real device in http_user_agent? When I use a WebView, I can get the real value like this:

[HTTP_USER_AGENT] => Mozilla/5.0(Linux; U; Android 2.2; en-gb; LG-P500 Build/FRF91) 
AppleWebKit/533.0 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0 Mobile Safari/533.1

But when I use an Apache connection, the result is different:

[HTTP_USER_AGENT] => Apache-HttpClient/UNAVAILABLE(java 1.4).

What's the problem?

Maragues · Answer 1 · 2013-04-18T08:26:35.157

75

To complete the accepted answer, if you want the default user agent use System.getProperty("http.agent")

client.getParams().setParameter(CoreProtocolPNames.USER_AGENT,
                                System.getProperty("http.agent"));

edited Apr 18 '13 at 08:26

answered Jan 25 '13 at 14:54

Maragues

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this one is the better answer than the answers above! thanks! – Lukas Olsen Mar 20 '13 at 15:09
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The other answers don't answer the question. Thanks! – dtbarne Feb 21 '14 at 15:46

score 60 · Accepted Answer · edited Mar 22 '13 at 13:49

60

If you don't want to call setHeader() for every request you create you can set the http client parameter CoreProtocolPNames.USER_AGENT. After doing this HTTP client will automatically add this header parameter to each request.

Something like:

client.getParams().setParameter(CoreProtocolPNames.USER_AGENT, "Custom user agent");

when you create your HttpClient.

edited Mar 22 '13 at 13:49

James Donnelly

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answered Oct 11 '10 at 10:54

Nic Strong

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score 13 · Answer 3 · answered Oct 11 '10 at 08:23

13

If you want to set your own user agent header then you have to use the setHeader method.

In case of a HTTP Post request you just set it like this.

private String url = "http://myfancyurl.com/";
private String ua = "My Custom UA Header String";

private HttpPost post = new HttpPost(url);
post.setHeader("User-Agent", ua);

This was just a short explanation how to set a custom user agent string. Your code might look different. The important part is the setHeader method.

answered Oct 11 '10 at 08:23

Octavian Helm

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In this case, i didn't want to set my own user agent. I want it to be automatic like i get in WebView. Is there any solution? Thanks. – user430926 Oct 11 '10 at 08:57
Actually you shouldn't use other http clients User Agents, as some server serve different content depending on the user agent (i.e. optimized content for that browser) – Tseng Oct 11 '10 at 09:58
Well if you have a special case where you have a service depending on a custom user agent string then there is no way around. – Octavian Helm Oct 11 '10 at 10:57

score 0 · Answer 4 · edited May 30 '18 at 23:19

0

You can read useragent using webview:

new WebView(this).getSettings().getUserAgentString();

Or using system property:

System.getProperty("http.agent")

Source: https://stackoverflow.com/a/50610164/3317927

edited May 30 '18 at 23:19

Grant Miller

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answered May 30 '18 at 17:18

Jesudas Lobo

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Android HTTP User Agent

4 Answers4

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