CODEWITHSUNDEEP
javascriptconnectionnavigator
spongebob
spongebob

Reputation: 181

Is there a way to detect whether user is on wifi or cellular data with javascript?

I want the video to autoplay on the website only if the user is connected to the wifi. I know about the navigator.connection api - but it's not available on safari, and besides it only tells you about the speed of the connection not the type.

Upvotes: 8

Views: 3840

Answers (1)

s3cur3
s3cur3

Reputation: 3025

As of December 2020, Safari has made no moves to implement the Network Information API, which as you've noted, provides the navigator.connection NetworkInformation object. That's a shame, because other browsers have supplied this for years.

This means there is no equivalent of the iOS-native Reachability APIs on mobile Safari (or desktop Safari, for that matter), so the best you can do is to use a very rough hack like:

  • looking up the user's public IP and trying to match it to a database of cell providers, or
  • making a test download to roughly gauge connection speed.

For the sake of completeness, according to the MDN, the browsers that do provide navigator.connection as of December 2020, are:

  • Desktop:
    • Chrome 61+
    • Edge 79+
    • Firefox, but only if the user has enabled the dom.netinfo.enabled preference
    • Opera
  • Mobile:
    • Android WebView 50+
    • Chrome Android 38+
    • Firefox Android 14+ (same caveat as desktop)
    • Opera Android 37+
    • Samsung Internet 3+

(Safari and Internet Explorer are the only major browsers conspicuously missing support.)

Upvotes: 5

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