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This is for a messaging web app. Is there a universal ID assigned to each device that can be pulled through a web browser, which is brand/operating software agnostic?

I'd like to grab a unique ID related to a user that visits my website and save it to my database as that unique user for that device. Is this possible?

My goal is to assign users based on them accessing through a given device rather than signing up with a username. Theoretically, everyone is a user as soon as they access the site.

It's a messaging app run through the mobile web browser only but I don't want to hassle users through a sign up or login process. The device accessing the site would prompt me to send them data based on their user profile.

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  • Yes, you can use something called Fingerprinting – Thanveer Shah Jun 17 '20 at 23:26
  • Device <> User. This sounds like a [XY problem](http://meta.stackexchange.com/questions/66377/what-is-the-xy-problem). What are you trying to accomplish with this? Knowing that makes it more likely that we can help. – Frank van Puffelen Jun 18 '20 at 00:39
  • My goal is to assign users based on them accessing through a given device rather than signing up with a username or other sign in methods – user3385829 Jun 18 '20 at 01:00
  • Have you considered a case where two or more users share a similar device e.g. public terminals? Wouldn't it be more efficient to just have users signing up with unique parameters? – danieln Jun 18 '20 at 01:05
  • Good point, the goal is to nudge users to use through mobile only and these days most of us don't do messaging apps on computers as much. As a test I want to allow it with this level of openness. I've got a way to lock the app, which becomes a way to 'sign out' if you will. – user3385829 Jun 18 '20 at 01:15
  • Does this answer your question? [Is there a unique Android device ID?](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/2785485/is-there-a-unique-android-device-id) – cutiko Jun 18 '20 at 01:16
  • Unfortunately no as that's for android and I'm working with all sorts of devices. I guess the question is, is there a universal ID assigned to each device, brand/operating software agnostic? – user3385829 Jun 18 '20 at 01:30

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signInAnonymously seems appropriate for that.

If there is already an anonymous user signed in, that user will be returned; otherwise, a new anonymous user identity will be created and returned. https://firebase.google.com/docs/reference/js/firebase.auth.Auth#signinanonymously

Due to the unauthenticated nature of this kind of user, they are not transferrable across devices. https://developers.google.com/android/reference/com/google/firebase/auth/FirebaseAuth#public-taskauthresult-signinanonymously

A user's UID never changes. So after you sign in a user anonymously, the UID will remain the same until you call signInAnonymously again or until you call signout. https://stackoverflow.com/a/47856853/11136299

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