What's my friend's device?

How it works

Point any phone's camera at the square above. That phone opens a page showing what it is, and at the same moment it appears on this screen — make, model, operating system, browser, and the size of its screen.

There is nothing to press on either phone, nothing to install, and no account. It works between an iPhone and an Android in either direction.

The code stays up. It is not spent by the first person who uses it, so you can hold this screen out at a desk or a stand and let a queue go past it. Each phone adds a line, newest at the top. Press Show a fresh code whenever you want to start a new list.

Why the answer is better than the phone's own

A browser sends a short description of itself with every request, and on its own it says very little — every iPhone sends an identical one, and since 2023 Chrome has reported the same frozen Android 10 on every Android phone on earth. The name on this screen is not read off that description. It is matched against a catalogue of real hardware and then narrowed down in the other phone's browser, which is how it arrives at the actual model.

Want to know about the device you are reading this on instead? What is my device? answers that one, and it works on a television.

Questions

Does the other person have to install anything?

No. They point their camera at the code, their browser opens a page, and that is the whole of it. Nothing is installed and nothing is downloaded.

Can several people scan the same code?

Yes, and that is what it is for. The code goes on working while it is on this screen, and each phone adds its own line. The newest is at the top and in bold.

Is any of this stored?

Only for as long as the code is on screen. The make, model, operating system and browser of each phone are held in memory so that this screen can show them, and are discarded afterwards — nothing is written to permanent storage, and nothing else about the phone or the person holding it is kept. The Privacy Notice sets it out in Section 1.3.

Why does one of them say “Generic Android”?

That is the answer before the other phone's browser has finished narrowing it down, and it is normally replaced within a second. If it stays, that phone is blocking the script that identifies it — the line is still a real phone, just one that would not say which.