wp_is_mobile() includes tablets

[Looimaster]

Android tablets have "Android" in user agent and Android mobile phones have "Android" and "Mobile". I use this to distinguish what is tablet and what is a mobile phone.

​http://core.trac.wordpress.org/browser/tags/3.5.1/wp-includes/vars.php

[johnbillion]

This is expected behaviour. Or rather, in core this is what it expects anyway.

In core, wp_is_mobile() is used as a synonym for "is a touch device". It's used to un-hide various links that are only shown on mouseover for non-touch devices, by adding a 'mobile' class to the body.

These days it would probably better to do this client-side with JavaScript (testing for the touch event) rather than applying the CSS class server-side.

The difference between a mobile device and a non-mobile device is much less clear than it was in the past. Maybe wp_is_mobile() needs to be deprecated and replaced with is_touch_device().

[johnbillion]

Related: #21667, #24252

[Looimaster]

Yes, I think that MODERNIZR should become a part of WordPress instead :)

[webord]

Replying to Looimaster:

Yes, I think that MODERNIZR should become a part of WordPress instead :)

Question, I can't see Modernizr been used the way is_wp_mobile().

[johnbillion]

#26215 was marked as a duplicate.

[johnbillion]

#26215 was marked as a dupe but has a patch. Note my first comment on this ticket that talks about expected behaviour and client-side detection.

[celloexpressions]

Replying to johnbillion:

In core, wp_is_mobile() is used as a synonym for "is a touch device". It's used to un-hide various links that are only shown on mouseover for non-touch devices, by adding a 'mobile' class to the body.

The difference between a mobile device and a non-mobile device is much less clear than it was in the past. Maybe wp_is_mobile() needs to be deprecated and replaced with is_touch_device().

+1. Most Windows devices are now touch-enabled by default, so an increasingly large percentage of laptop and desktop users need touch-friendly components now.

[swissspidy]

The function description of wp_is_mobile() is very clear:

Test if the current browser runs on a mobile device (smart phone, tablet, etc.)

Generally speaking, user-agent sniffing is considered bad practice and should be avoided whenever possible. On the client side, there are great libraries like Modernizr which you can use to test for availability of individual features, not browsers.