ubuntu-phone team mailing list archive

[Olivier Tilloy <olivier.tilloy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Mon, Jun 1, 2015 at 11:00 AM, Vicamo Yang <vicamo.yang@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTTP/Gecko_user_agent_string_reference
>
> Maybe any string contains "Mobile" would be enough?
> FirefoxOS uses "Mobile" without the OS part, so probably Ubuntu Phone can
> have "Ubuntu; Mobile" instead.

We experimented quite extensively with that in the past (our initial
approach was, as suggested by mozilla, a minimal UA string), and
unfortunately it didn’t cut it. Mozilla has taken the hard route, and
their effort is admirable, but it’s an uphill battle that we can’t
afford to fight now (I hope this changes in the future). We’ve chosen
a pragmatic approach. Note that the browser advertises itself as
"Ubuntu like Android", meaning that it still allows for proper
detection.


> On Mon, Jun 1, 2015 at 4:19 PM, Olivier Tilloy
> <olivier.tilloy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>>
>> On Mon, Jun 1, 2015 at 9:12 AM, Vincent JOBARD <vinzjobard@xxxxxxxxx>
>> wrote:
>> > Hi,
>> >
>> > I think that comes because oxyde, the webbroser use an Android-Chrome
>> > user-agent.
>> >
>> > Cheers,
>> > Winael
>> >
>> >
>> > Le lun. 1 juin 2015 08:59, Gareth France <gareth.france@xxxxxxxxx> a
>> > écrit :
>> >>
>> >> I'm curious to know about how the world sees Ubuntu. I recently went to
>> >> check my emails using the gmail app only to find myself logged out. I
>> >> didn't
>> >> think much of it and entered my details. It let me in but the result
>> >> was an
>> >> email being sent to me containing the following:
>> >>
>> >> Hi Gareth,Your Google Account gareth.france@xxxxxxxxx was just used to
>> >> sign in on Android.
>> >>
>> >> So why does Google think Ubuntu is Android? Is this how the web as a
>> >> whole
>> >> sees our phones? Is there not a way to report back a Linux or Ubuntu?
>>
>>
>> Hi Gareth, Vincent,
>>
>> Aside from the minor confusion (oxide is the web rendering engine, not
>> the browser itself), this is mostly correct. The webbrowser
>> application advertises a user-agent string that contains an "Android"
>> token, which causes most websites and webapps to serve
>> android-specific content.
>> Without this trick, most websites and webapps would serve content that
>> is not adapted for mobile/touch.
>>
>> See https://launchpad.net/bugs/1328183 for details about the rationale
>> for choosing such a UA string.
>>
>> HTH,
>>
>>  Olivier
>>
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>
>
>
>
> --
> Vicamo Yang