Guidelines

What are user agent strings?

What are user agent strings?

A browser’s user agent string (UA) helps identify which browser is being used, what version, and on which operating system. Like all other browsers, Chrome for Android sends this information in the User-Agent HTTP header every time it makes a request to any site.

How does user agent string work?

The User-Agent request header is a characteristic string that lets servers and network peers identify the application, operating system, vendor, and/or version of the requesting user agent.

What is user agent in HTTP request?

The HTTP headers User-Agent is a request header that allows a characteristic string that allows network protocol peers to identify the Operating System and Browser of the web-server. Your browser sends the user agent to every website you connect to. The data of the header field varies from browser to browser.

What is the user agent string for Internet Explorer?

Get latest user agents for Internet Explorer via API

Browser OS Latest Internet Explorer User Agent
Internet Explorer 11 Windows 8.1 Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.3; Trident/7.0; rv:11.0) like Gecko
Internet Explorer 11 Windows 10 Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Trident/7.0; rv:11.0) like Gecko

What is the most common user agent?

Common User Agent List

  • HTC Mozilla/5.0 (Linux; Android 7.0; HTC 10 Build/NRD90M) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/58.0.3029.83 Mobile Safari/537.36.
  • Curl curl/7.35.0.
  • Wget Wget/1.15 (linux-gnu)
  • Lynx Lynx/2.8.8pre.4 libwww-FM/2.14 SSL-MM/1.4.1 GNUTLS/2.12.23.

What is an example of a user agent?

User-Agent list for different device types. For example, a Chrome browser on an iPhone 6 will introduce itself using a different UA than a Safari browser on the same phone. Every device type, including phones, tablets, desktops, may come with its own UA that makes it possible to detect this device for any purpose.

Is a user agent unique?

User-Agents also provides one of the data points for fingerprinting users without the use of cookies. It’s included with every HTTP request and can potentially be very long and unique to a user in certain uncommon situations.

How do I use user agent?

Select the “Advanced” tab and enable the “Show Develop menu in menu bar” option at the bottom of the window. Click Develop > User Agent and select the user agent you want to use in the list. If the user agent you want to use isn’t shown here, select “Other” and you can provide a custom user agent.

Is a user agent string unique?

What is a custom user agent?

Custom UserAgent String is an extension that enables you to easily change your browser’s user-agent by adding site-specific user-agent strings from the Options page. User agents can be added to the options page (more than 100 sample user-agent strings are also provided).

How do I add user agent to Internet Explorer?

Microsoft Edge and Internet Explorer Click the “Emulation” tab and choose a user agent from the “User agent string” box. You can also select the “Custom” option in the User agent string list and type a custom user agent into the box. You can find extensive lists of user agents on various websites, such as this one.

What is User-Agent example?

User-Agent list for different device types. There are millions of User-Agent combinations given that UAs change with the software and hardware. For example, a Chrome browser on an iPhone 6 will introduce itself using a different UA than a Safari browser on the same phone.

Why do we need a user agent string?

The User-Agent string enables many legitimate use cases, and serves an important purpose for developers and site owners. However, it is also critical that users’ privacy is protected against covert tracking methods, and sending UA information by default goes against that goal.

Can a bot be omitted from a user agent string?

Parts that are not applicable can be omitted. If you run an automated agent, please consider following the Internet-wide convention of including the string “bot” in the User-Agent string, in any combination of lowercase or uppercase letters.

How many user agent strings are there in chrome?

There are millions of User-Agent combinations given that UAs change with the software and hardware. For example, a Chrome browser on an iPhone 6 will introduce itself using a different UA than a Safari browser on the same phone.

Is it safe to send an empty user agent string?

However, for anonymous surfing, it is recommended to send a generic User-Agent string, instead of suppressing it or sending an empty string. Note that other features are much more likely to identify you to a website — if you are interested in protecting your privacy, visit the Panopticlick project .