Detecting touch screen devices with Javascript

Question

In Javascript/jQuery, how can I detect if the client device has a mouse?

I've got a site that slides up a little info panel when the user hovers their mouse over an item. I'm using jQuery.hoverIntent to detect the hover, but this obviously doesn't work on touchscreen devices like iPhone/iPad/Android. So on those devices I'd like to revert to tap to show the info panel.

Answer 1

var isTouchDevice = 'ontouchstart' in document.documentElement;

Note: Just because a device supports touch events doesn't necessarily mean that it is exclusively a touch screen device. Many devices (such as my Asus Zenbook) support both click and touch events, even when they doen't have any actual touch input mechanisms. When designing for touch support, always include click event support and never assume any device is exclusively one or the other.

Answer 2

For my first post/comment: We all know that 'touchstart' is triggered before click. We also know that when user open your page he or she will: 1) move the mouse 2) click 3) touch the screen (for scrolling, or ... :) )

Let's try something :

//--> Start: jQuery

var hasTouchCapabilities = 'ontouchstart' in window && (navigator.maxTouchPoints || navigator.msMaxTouchPoints);
var isTouchDevice = hasTouchCapabilities ? 'maybe':'nope';

//attach a once called event handler to window

$(window).one('touchstart mousemove click',function(e){

    if ( isTouchDevice === 'maybe' && e.type === 'touchstart' )
        isTouchDevice = 'yes';
});

//<-- End: jQuery

Have a nice day!

Answer 3

In jQuery Mobile you can simply do:

$.support.touch

Don't know why this is so undocumented.. but it is crossbrowser safe (latest 2 versions of current browsers).

Answer 4

if ("ontouchstart" in window || navigator.msMaxTouchPoints) {
    isTouch = true;
} else {
    isTouch = false;
}

Works every where !!

Answer 5

This works for me:

function isTouchDevice(){
    return true == ("ontouchstart" in window || window.DocumentTouch && document instanceof DocumentTouch);
}

Answer 6

If you use Modernizr, it is very easy to use Modernizr.touch as mentioned earlier.

However, I prefer using a combination of Modernizr.touch and user agent testing, just to be safe.

var deviceAgent = navigator.userAgent.toLowerCase();

var isTouchDevice = Modernizr.touch || 
(deviceAgent.match(/(iphone|ipod|ipad)/) ||
deviceAgent.match(/(android)/)  || 
deviceAgent.match(/(iemobile)/) || 
deviceAgent.match(/iphone/i) || 
deviceAgent.match(/ipad/i) || 
deviceAgent.match(/ipod/i) || 
deviceAgent.match(/blackberry/i) || 
deviceAgent.match(/bada/i));

if (isTouchDevice) {
        //Do something touchy
    } else {
        //Can't touch this
    }

If you don't use Modernizr, you can simply replace the Modernizr.touch function above with ('ontouchstart' in document.documentElement)

Also note that testing the user agent iemobile will give you broader range of detected Microsoft mobile devices than Windows Phone.

Also see this SO question