Detecting iOS / Android Operating system

I've done some research, and this question has come up, but not in the way I intend. I'm building a page for a client that is a QR code landing, which is a place to download an application. So he doesn't have to print out 2 QR codes on a page, I'd like to detect the current operating system (Apple/Android/Other[not supported]) and modify my elements based on that value.

I've looked at the script "detectmobilebrowsers" and that is just aimed at telling whether or not the user is mobile at all, whereas I would like to figure out what operating system the user is running and suggest the best application version.

Other answers I found similar to this question seemed either outdated or unreliable (has no detection for Android tablet browsers), so I'm in search of something new. How can I achieve this? (Preferably using jQuery - Javascript - PHP in that order).

You can test the user agent string:

/**
 * Determine the mobile operating system.
 * This function returns one of 'iOS', 'Android', 'Windows Phone', or 'unknown'.
 *
 * @returns {String}
 */
function getMobileOperatingSystem() {
    var userAgent = navigator.userAgent || navigator.vendor || window.opera;

    // Windows Phone must come first because its UA also contains "Android"
    if (/windows phone/i.test(userAgent)) {
        return "Windows Phone";
    }

    if (/android/i.test(userAgent)) {
        return "Android";
    }

    // iOS detection from: http://stackoverflow.com/a/9039885/177710
    if (/iPad|iPhone|iPod/.test(userAgent) && !window.MSStream) {
        return "iOS";
    }

    return "unknown";
}

Solution 1: User Agent Sniffing

For Android and iPhone:

if( /Android|webOS|iPhone|iPad|iPod|Opera Mini/i.test(navigator.userAgent) ) {
 // run your code here
}

If you wanna detect all mobile devices including blackberry and Windows phone then you can use this comprehensive version:

var deviceIsMobile = false; //At the beginning we set this flag as false. If we can detect the device is a mobile device in the next line, then we set it as true.


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))) {
   deviceIsMobile = true;
}

if(deviceIsMobile){
    // run your code here
}

Cons: User agent strings are changing and getting updated as new phones and brands are coming day by day. So you need to keep this list updated if you wanna support all mobile devices.

Solution 2: mobile detect JS library

You can use the mobile detect JS library to do this.

Cons: These JavaScript-based device detection features may ONLY work for the newest generation of smartphones, such as the iPhone, Android and Palm WebOS devices. These device detection features may NOT work for older smartphones which had poor support for JavaScript, including older BlackBerry, PalmOS, and Windows Mobile devices.

One can use navigator.platform to get the operating system on which browser is installed.

function getPlatform() {
   var platform = ["Win32", "Android", "iOS"];

   for (var i = 0; i < platform.length; i++) {

       if (navigator.platform.indexOf(platform[i]) >- 1) {

           return platform[i];
       }
   }
}

getPlatform();

This issue has already been resolved here : https://stackoverflow.com/questions/3514784/what-is-the-best-way-to-detect-a-handheld-device-in-jquery.

On the accepted answer, they basically test if it's an iPhone, an iPod, an Android device or whatever to return true. Just keep the ones you want for instance if( /Android/i.test(navigator.userAgent) ) { // some code.. } will return true only for Android user-agents.

However, user-agents are not really reliable since they can be changed. The best thing is still to develop something universal for all mobile platforms.

If you're using React Js for your website, use https://www.npmjs.com/package/react-device-detect

You can also Achieve this with user agent on php:

$userAgent = strtolower($_SERVER['HTTP_USER_AGENT']);

if(stripos($userAgent,'android') !== false) { // && stripos($userAgent,'mobile') !== false) {
  header('Location: http://oursite.com/download/yourApp.apk');

exit();

}

Here's a simple js script (in html tags), that detects the type of device then redirects to the right Store.

<script>
var userAgent = navigator.userAgent || navigator.vendor || window.opera;

    // Huawei Phone must come first because its UA also contains "Android"
    if (userAgent.includes("HUAWEI")) {
       window.location.replace("https://appgallery.huawei.com/app/C101184875");
    } else if (userAgent.includes("Android")) {
        window.location.replace("https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.telegram.messenger&hl=en&gl=US");
    } else if (userAgent.includes("iPhone")) {
        window.location.replace("https://apps.apple.com/us/app/telegram-messenger/id686449807");
    } else {
        //cant be sure about device, so redirect to home page
        window.location.replace("https://google.ro");
    }
</script>

You also can create Firbase Dynamic links which will work as per your requirement. It supports multiple platforms. This link can be created, manually as well as via programming. You can then embed this link in QR code.

If the target app is installed, the link will redirect user to app. If its not installed it will redirect to Play Store/App store/Any other configured website.

For this and other kind of client detections I suggest this js library: http://hictech.github.io/navJs/tester/index.html

For your specific answer use:

navJS.isIOS() || navJS.isAndroid()

Using the cordova-device-plugin, you can detect

device.platform

will be "Android" for android, and "windows" for windows. Works on device, and when simulating on browser. Here is a toast that will display the device values:

    window.plugins.toast.showLongTop(
    'Cordova:     ' + device.cordova + '\n' +
    'Model:       ' + device.model + '\n' +
    'Platform:    ' + device.platform + '\n' +
    'UUID:        ' + '\n' +
                      device.uuid + '\n' +
    'Version:     ' + device.version + '\n' +
    'Manufacturer ' + device.manufacturer + '\n' +
    'isVirtual    ' + device.isVirtual + '\n' +
    'Serial       ' + device.serial);

function getOS() {
  var uA = navigator.userAgent || navigator.vendor || window.opera;
  if ((/iPad|iPhone|iPod/.test(uA) && !window.MSStream) || (uA.includes('Mac') && 'ontouchend' in document)) return 'iOS';

  var i, os = ['Windows', 'Android', 'Unix', 'Mac', 'Linux', 'BlackBerry'];
  for (i = 0; i < os.length; i++) if (new RegExp(os[i],'i').test(uA)) return os[i];
}

You can use it now like:

alert(getOS());

Working snippet:

function getOS() { var uA = navigator.userAgent || navigator.vendor || window.opera; if ((/iPad|iPhone|iPod/.test(uA) && !window.MSStream) || (uA.includes('Mac') && 'ontouchend' in document)) return 'iOS';

var i, os = ['Windows', 'Android', 'Unix', 'Mac', 'Linux', 'BlackBerry']; for (i = 0; i < os.length; i++) if (new RegExp(os[i],'i').test(uA)) return os[i]; }

console.log(getOS());