Detecting iOS / Android Operating system

Question

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 : What is the best way to detect a mobile 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.