Android Detection with JavaScript or PHP

I've noticed that two of my blog posts continue to get more popular each week:  iPad Detection with JavaScript or PHP and iPhone and iPad detection with JavaScript or PHP. What's obvious is that Android development is a hot topic that will only grow.  Here are a few methods by which you can detect iOS' main competitor:  Android.


The JavaScript
Searching the user agent string for "Android" is the quickest method:

var ua = navigator.userAgent.toLowerCase();
var isAndroid = ua.indexOf("android") > -1; //&& ua.indexOf("mobile");
if(isAndroid) {
// Do something!
// Redirect to Android-site?
window.location = 'http://android.davidwalsh.name';
}
The PHP
Again, we'll use PHP's strstr function to search for Android in the user agent:

$ua = strtolower($_SERVER['HTTP_USER_AGENT']);
if(stripos($ua,'android') !== false) { // && stripos($ua,'mobile') !== false) {
header('Location: http://android.davidwalsh.name');
exit();
}
Bonus!  .htaccess Detection
We can even use .htaccess directives to detect and react to Android devices!

RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^.*Android.*$
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://android.davidwalsh.name [R=301]
And there you have it:  three different Android device detection!  Have fun with your mobile development!