Detect iPad users using jQuery?

Question

iPad Detection

You should be able to detect an iPad user by taking a look at the userAgent property:

var is_iPad = navigator.userAgent.match(/iPad/i) != null;

iPhone/iPod Detection

Similarly, the platform property to check for devices like iPhones or iPods:

function is_iPhone_or_iPod(){
     return navigator.platform.match(/i(Phone|Pod))/i)
}

Notes

While it works, you should generally avoid performing browser-specific detection as it can often be unreliable (and can be spoofed). It's preferred to use actual feature-detection in most cases, which can be done through a library like Modernizr.

As pointed out in Brennen's answer, issues can arise when performing this detection within the Facebook app. Please see his answer for handling this scenario.

Related Resources

• jQuery HowTo: Detect iPad users using JavaScript
• jQuery HowTo: Detecting & Redirecting iPad / iPhone Users
• David Walsh's Blog : Detecting iPad use
• Detecting iPad use via PHP

Although the accepted solution is correct for iPhones, it will incorrectly declare both isiPhone and isiPad to be true for users visiting your site on their iPad from the Facebook app.

The conventional wisdom is that iOS devices have a user agent for Safari and a user agent for the UIWebView. This assumption is incorrect as iOS apps can and do customize their user agent. The main offender here is Facebook.

Compare these user agent strings from iOS devices:

# iOS Safari
iPad: Mozilla/5.0 (iPad; CPU OS 5_1 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9B176 Safari/7534.48.3
iPhone: Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9A334 Safari/7534.48.3

# UIWebView
iPad: Mozilla/5.0 (iPad; CPU OS 5_1 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Mobile/98176
iPhone: Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/532.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Mobile/8B117

# Facebook UIWebView
iPad: Mozilla/5.0 (iPad; U; CPU iPhone OS 5_1_1 like Mac OS X; en_US) AppleWebKit (KHTML, like Gecko) Mobile [FBAN/FBForIPhone;FBAV/4.1.1;FBBV/4110.0;FBDV/iPad2,1;FBMD/iPad;FBSN/iPhone OS;FBSV/5.1.1;FBSS/1; FBCR/;FBID/tablet;FBLC/en_US;FBSF/1.0]
iPhone: Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 5_1_1 like Mac OS X; ru_RU) AppleWebKit (KHTML, like Gecko) Mobile [FBAN/FBForIPhone;FBAV/4.1;FBBV/4100.0;FBDV/iPhone3,1;FBMD/iPhone;FBSN/iPhone OS;FBSV/5.1.1;FBSS/2; tablet;FBLC/en_US]

Note that on the iPad, the Facebook UIWebView's user agent string includes 'iPhone'.

The old way to identify iPhone / iPad in JavaScript:

IS_IPAD = navigator.userAgent.match(/iPad/i) != null;
IS_IPHONE = navigator.userAgent.match(/iPhone/i) != null) || (navigator.userAgent.match(/iPod/i) != null);

If you were to go with this approach for detecting iPhone and iPad, you would end up with IS_IPHONE and IS_IPAD both being true if a user comes from Facebook on an iPad. That could create some odd behavior!

The correct way to identify iPhone / iPad in JavaScript:

IS_IPAD = navigator.userAgent.match(/iPad/i) != null;
IS_IPHONE = (navigator.userAgent.match(/iPhone/i) != null) || (navigator.userAgent.match(/iPod/i) != null);
if (IS_IPAD) {
  IS_IPHONE = false;
}

We declare IS_IPHONE to be false on iPads to cover for the bizarre Facebook UIWebView iPad user agent. This is one example of how user agent sniffing is unreliable. The more iOS apps that customize their user agent, the more issues user agent sniffing will have. If you can avoid user agent sniffing (hint: CSS Media Queries), DO IT.

I use this:

function fnIsAppleMobile() 
{
    if (navigator && navigator.userAgent && navigator.userAgent != null) 
    {
        var strUserAgent = navigator.userAgent.toLowerCase();
        var arrMatches = strUserAgent.match(/(iphone|ipod|ipad)/);
        if (arrMatches != null) 
             return true;
    } // End if (navigator && navigator.userAgent) 

    return false;
} // End Function fnIsAppleMobile


var bIsAppleMobile = fnIsAppleMobile(); // TODO: Write complaint to CrApple asking them why they don't update SquirrelFish with bugfixes, then remove

I use this:

//http://detectmobilebrowsers.com/ + tablets
(function(a) {
    if(/android|avantgo|bada\/|blackberry|blazer|compal|elaine|fennec|hiptop|iemobile|ip(ad|hone|od)|iris|kindle|lge |maemo|meego.+mobile|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|playbook|silk/i.test(a)
    ||
    /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(di|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(a.substr(0,4)))
    {
        window.location="yourNewIndex.html"
    }
})(navigator.userAgent||navigator.vendor||window.opera);