The User-Agent freeze
After 1 February 2023, your free, open-source, or internal User-Agent solutions may not be accurate
As part of the Privacy Sandbox, Google is reducing device information within Chrome User-Agents. Instead, device model information will only be sent via the new User Agent Client Hints. Google has already started removing device information, and the next phase of the removal will be 1 February 2023.
Before February, you need to update your websites and products to prepare for the change. Without support for User Agent Client Hints, your existing internal, paid, or free open source User-Agent parsers may no longer be able to tell what device Chrome users are on.
Doing nothing may pose a huge risk to your business operations, websites, or products for over 64% of your audience. You can contact us to see how we can help you.
Detect User Agent Client Hints
51Degrees can help you identify the User-Agent alongside other HTTP headers to give an accurate device detection.
We've been preparing for Google's User-Agent reduction since it was announced in early 2020. Now, Version 4.4 of our service contains full support for the User-Agent reduction and User Agent Client Hints.
You can use our free, open-source User-Agent parser to detect devices with User Agent Client Hints alongside the User-Agent.
Get started
If you have just a few User-Agents or other HTTP request headers (such as User Agent Client Hints) to parse, you can input them to our User-Agent tester to see the detection results.
If you'd prefer to integrate our User-Agent parser within your products for free, you can find the code on GitHub, or use our cloud solution.
Take a look at our pricing plans to see which one suits you: we have both free or paid, on-premise or cloud options. If you purchase a pricing plan, you will receive a License Key – this gives you access to the full range of 51Degrees properties.
Cloud users: you will need to generate a Resource Key with our Cloud Configurator and add three properties to your Resource Key for full User Agent Client Hints support.
On-premise users: you will need to install our latest packages for your programming language and use the latest data files.
On-premise users: you can download the free data file to trial the UA-CH data. Then, you will need to follow the migration guide for your programming language. If you like what you see and are ready to upgrade to Version 4, please contact us or email sales@51degrees.com.
Cloud users: you will need to regenerate your Resource Key with our Cloud Configurator and add three new properties for UA-CH support. If you wish to upgrade to Version 4, please contact us or email sales@51degrees.com.
On-premise users: ensure you have installed our latest packages for your programming language, turned on UA-CH, and are using the latest data files.
Cloud users: you will need to regenerate your Resource Key with our Cloud Configurator and include three new UA-CH properties. You will also need to activate UA-CH.
Further reading
If you still have questions on the User-Agent reduction and User Agent Client Hints, please read the below resources. Alternatively, please drop us a message and we'd be happy to help.