On the iPad, how do I tell what version of Mobile Safari I have?

Question

I'd like to know what precise version of Mobile Safari the iPad I'm using has. Is there any way to find out (preferably from the device itself)? There doesn't seem to be any menu in Safari Mobile, and thus none to choose "About" from. If you go to Settings | Safari, you see various useful things, but no "About" or "Version" or similar, which surprised me.

+1 good question. Apparently Safari does not support any of the about: pages http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/About_URI_scheme — Thilo, Nov 10 '11 at 04:53

T.J. Crowder · Answer 1 · 2022-07-14T06:48:46.993

20

2022 update: The easiest way these days it to look at what iOS version you're using (Settings > General > Software Update), because it appears that the iOS Safari version is now synced to iOS version (iOS version 15.4's Safari reports it's Version 15.4, 15.5's Safari reports it's Version 15.5, etc.). (Can't find a citation for that, though, sadly.)

~~The only way I've found~~ Ross McNab's way was much better but sadly no longer works (thanks, Apple); Billy Moon's way works but is a bit awkward for one-off checks.

Another way to do this is to use an external website (there are plenty to choose from, just search on "what's my browser"), which will report my user-agent string back to me.

So for instance, these sites will report back to me that my user-agent string is:

Mozilla/5.0 (iPad; U; CPU OS 4_3_5 like Mac OS X; en-gb) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8L1 Safari/6533.18.5

...the Version/5.0.2 part tells me I'm using Mobile Safari 5.0.2.

Note: See Jim Grisham's answer — while this will tell you Safari version, the WebKit version it shows you is apparently no longer accurate.

edited Jul 14 '22 at 06:48

answered Nov 09 '11 at 16:27

T.J. Crowder

716

I didn't even realize you were answering your own question, but to confirm: yes that would be the only way. You could condense a list of iOS versions and installed Mobile Safari and use that for reference, if no one else has done it already... – Gerry Nov 09 '11 at 16:45
@T.J.Crowder, you should probably accept your own answer - it's the best way of doing what you asked. – JW8 Nov 09 '11 at 23:39
Sadly, even this will no longer work: for privacy reasons, all versions of iOS after version 11.4.1 report a maximum WebKit version of 605.1.15. – Jim Grisham Jul 14 '22 at 03:21
(clarification to my previous comment) ~ In February 2018, Apple loosened their policy a bit: WebKit version would still be frozen, but major iOS & Safari versions would remain in the reported user-agent http header string; see: Release notes; Safari 11.1 (for iOS 11.3 and macOS 13.4); also, note that “Safari builds upon whatever user-agent string provided by WebKit.”. – Jim Grisham Jul 14 '22 at 19:30

score 11 · Accepted Answer · edited Jul 14 '22 at 19:49

11

Since Ross McNab's answer appears to no longer work...

Bookmark this (or any) page - then edit the bookmark - call it what you like, but change the url to...

javascript:alert(navigator.userAgent)

Now you can check your user agent any time you feel like conveniently from your bookmarks. For iOS 15 you might get a result like this:

Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 15_5 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/605.1.15 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/15.5 Mobile/15E148 Safari/604.1

Or if it's just a quick one-off check you want and you're connected to the 'net, do what T.J. originally posted.

edited Jul 14 '22 at 19:49

bmike

235,889

answered Mar 03 '15 at 15:52

Billy Moon

1,084

2

This no longer works, as current versions of safari block javascript from being executed in the address bar. – r3wt Apr 27 '18 at 20:59
2

@r3wt - This works just fine in Safari on iOS. Note that Billy's answer doesn't have you executing from the address bar. It has you creating a bookmarklet, then running it. That still works, where writing the above directly in the address bar does not. – T.J. Crowder Sep 23 '19 at 09:33
Sadly, this no longer works because running JavaScript from the address bar is prohibited now in the latest version. Ironically, I'm still trying to find out what version that actually is... :) – Thomas Jul 05 '21 at 12:37
@Thomas - Works for me on iOS 15.5, which my phone says is the latest. Note this is using a bookmarklet, not (directly) writing JavaScript in the address bar. (The whole point of this answer is that a previous one wrote directly in the address bar and stopped working.) Mind you, the "Safari" version is now just synced to the iOS version, so you can just go look what iOS version you're on. – T.J. Crowder Jul 14 '22 at 06:23

score 8 · Answer 3 · answered Feb 26 '14 at 15:36

8

You can get the userAgent string without visiting an external website, by typing the following in the Safari address bar (where you would normally type a URL):

javascript:alert(navigator.userAgent)

You must type it exactly as it appears here, matching case and punctuation.

An alert popup will appear with the full useragent string, which contains the version number of Safari and iOS.

answered Feb 26 '14 at 15:36

Ross McNab

181

4

Sadly, this has stopped working, as noted by Billy Moon. Nowadays you have to create a bookmark, go back and edit it to change the location to the javascript:alert(navigator.userAgent) bit, and then follow the bookmark -- that still works. – T.J. Crowder Mar 03 '15 at 10:31

score 8 · Answer 4 · edited Feb 27 '17 at 12:58

8

None of the javascript answers worked for me. I found an easier way! There are several "what's my IP address?" pages out there, such as this one. These pages tell you your IP address and, in some cases, what your browser is, what your operating system is, and if your browser is up to date.

edited Feb 27 '17 at 12:58

T.J. Crowder

716

answered Jan 28 '15 at 04:33

John

81
1
1

Jim Grisham · Answer 5 · 2024-01-02T22:29:15.963

2

2022 update:

For privacy reasons, Mobile Safari on any devices with iOS / iPadOS 11.4.1 or later will only report a maximum WebKit version of 605.1.15 in the User-Agent string (I imagine something similar is true for anything accessible via JavaScript).

If you know the iOS version of the device, the ‘Safari version history’ chart (or this archived version) at Wikipedia is probably the easiest place to look. (That page contains references for the underlying data sources.)

Example:

iOS 12.5.5: Safari 12.1.2 / WebKit 607.1.40
iOS 13.7: Safari 13.1 / WebKit 609.1.20
iOS 14.7: Safari 14.1.2 / WebKit 611.1.21
iOS 15.4: Safari 15.4 / WebKit 613.1.17

edited Jan 02 '24 at 22:29

answered Jul 14 '22 at 03:38

Jim Grisham

573

The question is about Safari version, not WebKit version, but this WebKit aspect is still useful info. – T.J. Crowder Jul 14 '22 at 06:24
Do you have a link for the thing about capping the WebKit version? I believe you, I just like primary sources. :-D – T.J. Crowder Jul 14 '22 at 06:41
Since iOS versions, Safari, and WebKit versions are linked, it is important to know the reported WebKit version is frozen; see: “On iOS, a publicly released version of WebKit always implies a new rev of the OS; => the version information is more meaningful.” and “Safari builds upon whatever user-agent string provided by WebKit.”. – Jim Grisham Jul 14 '22 at 18:59
@T.J.Crowder: See comment #4 on WebKit bug #212937. I believe(?) Chrome was the first to propose this as an anti-‘passive fingerprinting’ measure.) – Jim Grisham Jul 14 '22 at 19:03
1

History:
December 2017: publicly announced freeze of user-agent in Release Notes for Safari Technology Preview 46 & February 2018: policy loosened somewhat due to community pushback. WebKit version would be frozen, but iOS & Safari version would remain; see: Release notes; Safari 11.1 (for iOS 11.3 and macOS 13.4)
– Jim Grisham Jul 14 '22 at 19:03
Replacements for user-agent detections:
1. Implementing feature detection @ mdn web docs
A current draft proposal for ‘ua-client-hints’ is not currently being developed for WebKit / Safari; see: Bug 241749: Implement User-Agent Client Hints).
– Jim Grisham Jul 14 '22 at 19:05
1

The version history table is no longer there, it was removed from the wikipedia article in December 2022‎ – chrki Nov 29 '23 at 08:47
Thanks, @chrki; I’ve added an alternate link to help folks (until the English-language Wikipedia editors resolve their ‘edit war’ over version history table policy). – Jim Grisham Jan 02 '24 at 22:30

score 0 · Answer 6 · answered Nov 21 '14 at 04:17

0

Handy alternative if you want to copy paste this info / you're already there: plug your iPad into your mac (assuming platform!) and in OSX Safari, remote debug the device, and copy the User Agent from the Resource Panel under Request Headers.

Enable remote debugging:

In OSX Safari’s Preferences pane under Advanced, check the Show Develop menu in the menu bar checkbox.
On iDevice: Settings > Safari > Advanced

http://moduscreate.com/enable-remote-web-inspector-in-ios-6/

answered Nov 21 '14 at 04:17

ptim

1,053

1

Thanks for this. It took me a while to figure the Resource Panel is on the right edge of the screen (not the Resources tab). – akauppi Jul 24 '16 at 20:48
Unfortunately, I still didn't get any precise versions this way. Just iOS 9.3.2 which I knew anyways. So while I enjoyed your answer, I'm not necessarily recommending it to others. Hope you understand. ,o – akauppi Jul 25 '16 at 11:14

Melvin Roest · Answer 7 · 2019-09-23T11:09:38.180

0

For some reason javascript:alert(navigator.userAgent) did not work. I tried it but got an error from Safari saying it was not allowed (tested on iOS 12).

I happened to be on jsfiddle.net, typing it in there did work :)

jsfiddle.net is an online website where you can type in JavaScript. And since the JavaScript is coming from the page and not directly from the browser, it is allowed to display.

edited Sep 23 '19 at 11:09

answered Sep 23 '19 at 09:16

Melvin Roest

185

score 0 · Answer 8 · answered May 09 '13 at 11:02

0

You can visit http://spiderip.com to check the user agent and version of safari

answered May 09 '13 at 11:02

justintjacob

27

2

Could you explain why this works, not just a link. Just goiving a link makes me think of viruses and trojans etc. – mmmmmm May 09 '13 at 12:17
This works because on every request the browser send this information to the webserver. But usually you just do not see this and this webpage just "reflects" the information passed via the request. – Mar 11 '14 at 09:50

On the iPad, how do I tell what version of Mobile Safari I have?

8 Answers8