Identify a cell phone by user-agent

Question

Is there a good way to identify a cell phone or any other mobile device (which may be subject to a limited data plan) through the user agent or similar, easily accessible methods?

Answer 1

Yes: WURFL, the Wireless Universal Resource File: "The WURFL is an XML configuration file which contains information about capabilities and features of many mobile devices."

Answer 2

You'd want to look in the User Agent for specific browsers and keywords like 'Mobile', 'Skyfire', etc. That should be a pretty reliable way. You'd want to do a Google Search for Mobile Browser UserAgents. Someone probably has made a list.

Answer 3

I think you cannot be certain of the exact phone used in many cases because many phones share the same user-agent string (and even use the same browser). BUt you can certainly narrow the possible candidates enough as to serve tailored content.

Check these related questions as well

• Auto detect mobile browser (via user-agent?)
• How can I redirect mobile devices to a different URL?
• Standard way to detect mobile browsers in a web application based on the http request

Answer 4

The iPhone UA signature is:

/Apple.*Mobile.*Safari/