Unable to detect Firefox browser on iPad [Detecting as safari]

[umeshrenlty]

Description:
Issue:
We are encountering an issue where broswer name is giving safari for firefox in ipad

Steps to Reproduce:

Open the application in Firefox Ipad.
Retrieve broswer name.
Expected Behavior:
The application should accurately identify Firefox as the browser.

Actual Behavior:
Firefox is being incorrectly detected as Safari due to discrepancies

Additional Information:

Browser: Firefox
Device: Ipad
Detected Browser: Safari
Note:
This issue impacts the accurate identification of the browser and may lead to unintended behavior. Any insights or solutions to resolve this misidentification would be highly appreciated.

[cpeterso]

At this time, the Firefox UA string doesn't include "FxiOS" (in default/desktop mode) on iPad. This is Firefox iOS bug mozilla-mobile/firefox-ios#6620.

Safari on iPadOS 17.4:
Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10_15_7) AppleWebKit/605.1.15 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/17.4 Safari/605.1.15

Firefox 120.4 on iPadOS 17.4:
Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10_15_7) AppleWebKit/605.1.15 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/16.0 Safari/605.1.15

[janbrasna]

This is because @mozilla-mobile decided to hard-code their "view as desktop" (which is the default for most iPad Firefoxen) UAstring as "Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10_15_7) AppleWebKit/605.1.15 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/16.0 Safari/605.1.15" — not including any hint at Fx.

Source: https://github.com/mozilla-mobile/firefox-ios/blob/fb926b4d3f576c32fa7f1775730214da27d0dc85/BrowserKit/Sources/Shared/UserAgent.swift#L52-L55

[timoostrich]

So how to detect Firefox on iPadOS now?

[janbrasna]

Well, the wrong way would be by observing bugs, that differentiate it from Safari implementation. But that can also break at any point. (I can currently think about one in uastring, and one in viewport units — depends on how badly you need to know it's FxiOS.)

[timoostrich]

I used the "FxiOS" check to create workaround for printing a canvas on iPadOS / Firefox in my little App (https://handletteringlernen.de/generator/).

Looks like I just have to use the workaround for all iOS users now. As direct printing is not possible we need to open a new window, insert the image and display another print button. Can't believe I still need that in 2025.

[janbrasna]

This is getting OT — but quickly checking Brave or Focus also can't print the thing (while Safari can), so given the various WKWebKit browsers out there with not much to influence what the OS level APIs provide, you're better off being resilient in general and not relying on specific UA sniffing.

Also I wasn't able to quickly find any existing bug re. the canvas printing whether that's strictly @mozilla-mobile/firefox-ios issue or system woe — so ideally start by raising the issue there for visibility.

[timoostrich]

Yes, sorry. Thanks for the hint! I will check the modern possibilities.