Summary of iOS/Android Browser User-Agent Differences and Parsing Methods

User-Agent (UA for short) may look like a messy string, but it actually serves as an important “browser ID card.”

More importantly, the UA of iOS and Android differs greatly. If you don’t understand it well, it’s easy to run into issues when debugging WebView, detecting device models, or performing browser fingerprinting.

Next, let’s take a closer look at the differences between iOS/Android browser User-Agents, common UA parsing methods, and how to check mobile browser User-Agent.

1. What is User-Agent and why is it so important?

Simply put, a User-Agent is a string sent by the browser each time it requests a webpage—basically reporting its “identity.”

Developers often use it to determine device type, screen size, and browser capabilities, which helps decide whether to return a mobile page or enable certain features.

2. What are the key differences between iOS and Android User-Agents?

1. Whether browser engine information is displayed

• Android UA contains more detailed information: It usually includes the browser engine (such as Chrome/95.xx, WebView) and specific version numbers.
• iOS UA is relatively simplified: Most iOS browsers “pretend to be Safari,” making their UA strings nearly identical.

Example:

Android:

iOS (whether in WeChat or Chrome):

As you can see: iOS UAs almost always end with the Safari identifier, which is why different iOS browsers are hard to distinguish via UA alone.

2. Device model display differs

① Android UA displays the specific device model (Pixel, Xiaomi, Samsung, etc.)
② iPhone never displays its actual model in UA
③ iOS UA only shows “iPhone” or “iPad,” never revealing whether it’s an iPhone 13 or iPhone 15

This means:

• Android allows more precise device identification
• iOS requires more professional ToDetect fingerprinting methods

3. Differences in WebView behaviors

Many in-app browsers are actually WebViews.

• Android WebView
  Usually includes the App identifier, such as MicroMessenger, Weibo, etc.
• iOS WebView
  Because of system-level management, App identifiers may be inconsistent and require deeper UA parsing to identify.

3. How to quickly check the mobile browser UA?

Use UA checking tools directly in the browser

① ToDetect browser fingerprint check (supports UA + more fingerprint data)
② Various online UA checker pages
③ Browser debugging tools (Safari on iOS requires a Mac connection)

Among them, ToDetect browser fingerprint checking can view UA plus canvas, WebGL, fonts, and more—very useful for debugging or risk control research.

4. How to parse mobile User-Agent?

1. Detect the OS platform

Check for strings like: Android, iPhone, iPad, Windows, Mac.

2. Detect browser type

Chrome / Safari / Firefox / Edge.

In-app browsers (like Alipay, WeChat) can be detected via identifiers such as MicroMessenger.

3. Detect device model

• Android: Model can be extracted directly from the UA string
• iOS: Impossible to detect model from UA; requires JS capability tests or fingerprinting

4. Detect WebView

• Android: Version/4.0, wv, Chrome/... Mobile Safari/...
• iOS: Check for missing Safari identifiers or presence of special WebView-related fields

You can use regex, UA-parser libraries, or custom rules to extract these fields.

5. Practical advice: How to use mobile UA correctly?

① Do not rely solely on UA when doing mobile adaptation
② iOS Chrome and Safari UAs are nearly identical—use feature detection instead
③ Use Android model fields when handling Android compatibility
④ For anti-scraping and risk control, UA alone is insufficient—combine it with fingerprinting and behavioral data
⑤ If you need to distinguish in-app WebViews, collect lots of UA samples to refine rules

Summary

The biggest difference between iOS and Android User-Agent is: Android is more transparent, while iOS is more conservative.

In real development, UA alone is far from enough; combining it with browser fingerprinting leads to much more stable identification.

Whether you're doing frontend adaptation, crawler identification, data analysis, or debugging in-app WebViews, understanding UA structure and limitations—and using tools like ToDetect—will make your work much smoother.