Parsed from your User-Agent string using UAParser.js
The browser name is extracted from the User-Agent string through parsing. Unlike direct API values, this requires interpretation of the UA string to determine which browser is being used. This identifier reveals:
Browser identification has been part of the web since its inception. The User-Agent header was designed to let servers know what browser was requesting content, so they could send appropriate HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.
In the early web (1990s-2000s), browsers had wildly different capabilities:
Developers needed to know the browser name to send compatible code. This led to "browser sniffing"—serving different content based on User-Agent.
Today's browsers are much more standardized, but differences remain:
| Browser | Engine | Vendor | Market Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| Chrome | Blink (Chromium) | ~65% | |
| Safari | WebKit | Apple | ~20% |
| Edge | Blink (Chromium) | Microsoft | ~5% |
| Firefox | Gecko | Mozilla | ~3% |
| Opera | Blink (Chromium) | Opera Software | ~2% |
Since there's no direct navigator.browserName API, detection requires parsing the User-Agent string:
// Example User-Agent strings
Chrome: "Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/120.0.0.0 Safari/537.36"
Firefox: "Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64; rv:121.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/121.0"
Safari: "Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 14_1) AppleWebKit/605.1.15 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/17.1 Safari/605.1.15"
Edge: "Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/120.0.0.0 Safari/537.36 Edg/120.0.0.0"Libraries like UAParser.js use pattern matching to extract browser names from these strings.
Vendor: Google
Detection: Looks for "Chrome" in UA (but not "Edg" or other Chromium variants)
Usage: Most popular browser worldwide, especially on desktop and Android
Vendor: Apple
Detection: "Safari" without "Chrome" (since Chrome includes Safari in UA)
Usage: Default on macOS and iOS, second most popular globally
Vendor: Mozilla Foundation
Detection: "Firefox" in UA string
Usage: Independent browser, strong privacy focus
Vendor: Microsoft
Detection: "Edg/" or "Edge/" in UA
Usage: Default on Windows, Chromium-based since 2020
These browsers use Google's open-source Chromium engine but add their own features:
Chromium-based browser with aggressive tracker blocking and built-in ad blocking
Modified Firefox designed for anonymous browsing through Tor network
Mobile-first browser with strong privacy defaults (iOS/Android)
Use case: Applying workarounds for known browser bugs
// Example: Safari has issues with date input
if (browserName === 'Safari') {
// Use custom date picker instead of native input
useFallbackDatePicker();
}Use case: When feature detection alone isn't sufficient
// Some features may be technically supported but buggy
if (browserName === 'Firefox' && version < 100) {
// Use polyfill for this feature
}Use case: Understanding which browsers your users prefer
Use case: Identifying suspicious browser patterns
Use case: Leveraging browser-specific features
Since most browsers now use Chromium (Chrome, Edge, Opera, Brave, Vivaldi), distinguishing them is harder:
| Browser | UA Detection Token | Challenge |
|---|---|---|
| Chrome | "Chrome/" (but no other markers) | Base case—check for Chrome last |
| Edge | "Edg/" or "Edge/" | Easy to detect |
| Opera | "OPR/" or "Opera/" | Easy to detect |
| Brave | No unique token! | Indistinguishable from Chrome via UA |
| Vivaldi | "Vivaldi/" | Easy to detect |
Brave, DuckDuckGo, and others intentionally report as generic Chrome to prevent fingerprinting. This makes them indistinguishable from Chrome via User-Agent alone.
The same browser may report differently on mobile:
Google is gradually reducing UA granularity to prevent fingerprinting:
Browser name is a significant component of browser fingerprinting, revealing user preferences and behavior patterns.
Certain browsers are OS-specific:
Browser choice signals privacy consciousness:
Some browsers indicate technical knowledge:
Browser name is combined with other attributes for fingerprinting:
If you use a rare browser (like Vivaldi or Tor), you stand out more. While these browsers offer better privacy features, their rarity makes you more unique in fingerprints.
Advertisers can use consistent browser identification across sites:
What it is: Changing your User-Agent string to appear as a different browser
Browser Extensions:
Changing your UA may cause sites to serve incompatible content (e.g., iOS-only code to your desktop). Use with caution.
These browsers reduce fingerprinting by default:
Strategy: Reports generic Chrome UA, randomizes some API responses
Pros: Good balance of privacy and compatibility
Strategy: All users report identical UA (Firefox on Windows)
Pros: Maximum anonymity through uniformity
Cons: Slower, some sites block Tor
Strategy: Enable in about:config → privacy.resistFingerprinting = true
Effect: Reports generic Firefox UA, spoofs timezone, reduces API precision
Paradoxically, using the most popular browser increases anonymity:
Running old browser versions makes you more unique: