UUID. randomUUID() method generates an unique identifier for a specific installation. You have just to store that value and your user will be identified at the next launch of your application. If you only target smartphones, you can take profit of the fact that the device have telephony services.
All smartphones and tablets are identified by a unique device ID. The Android unique device ID is called the Android Advertising ID (AAID). It's an anonymized string of numbers and letters generated for the device upon initial setup. None of the user's personal information is included in an Android ID.
A device ID is a unique 16-byte number used to uniquely identify a device within OEM Cloud. Most device IDs are derived from the device MAC address, IMEI number, or ESN number. If a device does not have an assigned MAC, IMEI, or ESN, OEM Cloud generates and assigns a random 16-byte number for the device ID.
Update: 19 -11-2019
The below answer is no more relevant to present day.
So for any one looking for answers you should look at the documentation linked below
https://developer.android.com/training/articles/user-data-ids
Old Answer - Not relevant now. You check this blog in the link below
http://android-developers.blogspot.in/2011/03/identifying-app-installations.html
ANDROID_ID
import android.provider.Settings.Secure;
private String android_id = Secure.getString(getContext().getContentResolver(),
Secure.ANDROID_ID);
The above is from the link @ Is there a unique Android device ID?
More specifically, Settings.Secure.ANDROID_ID. This is a 64-bit quantity that is generated and stored when the device first boots. It is reset when the device is wiped.
ANDROID_ID seems a good choice for a unique device identifier. There are downsides: First, it is not 100% reliable on releases of Android prior to 2.2 (“Froyo”). Also, there has been at least one widely-observed bug in a popular handset from a major manufacturer, where every instance has the same ANDROID_ID.
The below solution is not a good one coz the value survives device wipes (“Factory resets”) and thus you could end up making a nasty mistake when one of your customers wipes their device and passes it on to another person.
You get the imei number of the device using the below
TelephonyManager telephonyManager = (TelephonyManager)getSystemService(Context.TELEPHONY_SERVICE);
telephonyManager.getDeviceId();
http://developer.android.com/reference/android/telephony/TelephonyManager.html#getDeviceId%28%29
Add this is manifest
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.READ_PHONE_STATE"/>
I use following code to get Android id.
String android_id = Secure.getString(this.getContentResolver(),
Secure.ANDROID_ID);
Log.d("Android","Android ID : "+android_id);
Please read this official blog entry on Google developer blog: http://android-developers.blogspot.be/2011/03/identifying-app-installations.html
Conclusion For the vast majority of applications, the requirement is to identify a particular installation, not a physical device. Fortunately, doing so is straightforward.
There are many good reasons for avoiding the attempt to identify a particular device. For those who want to try, the best approach is probably the use of ANDROID_ID on anything reasonably modern, with some fallback heuristics for legacy devices
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