How to find serial number of Android device?

Question

I need to use a unique ID for an Android app and I thought the serial number for the device would be a good candidate. How do I retrieve the serial number of an Android device in my app ?

Answer 1

As Dave Webb mentions, the Android Developer Blog has an article that covers this.

I spoke with someone at Google to get some additional clarification on a few items. Here's what I discovered that's NOT mentioned in the aforementioned blog post:

• ANDROID_ID is the preferred solution. ANDROID_ID is perfectly reliable on versions of Android <=2.1 or >=2.3. Only 2.2 has the problems mentioned in the post.
• Several devices by several manufacturers are affected by the ANDROID_ID bug in 2.2.
• As far as I've been able to determine, all affected devices have the same ANDROID_ID, which is 9774d56d682e549c. Which is also the same device id reported by the emulator, btw.
• Google believes that OEMs have patched the issue for many or most of their devices, but I was able to verify that as of the beginning of April 2011, at least, it's still quite easy to find devices that have the broken ANDROID_ID.

Based on Google's recommendations, I implemented a class that will generate a unique UUID for each device, using ANDROID_ID as the seed where appropriate, falling back on TelephonyManager.getDeviceId() as necessary, and if that fails, resorting to a randomly generated unique UUID that is persisted across app restarts (but not app re-installations).

import android.content.Context;
import android.content.SharedPreferences;
import android.provider.Settings.Secure;
import android.telephony.TelephonyManager;

import java.io.UnsupportedEncodingException;
import java.util.UUID;

public class DeviceUuidFactory {

    protected static final String PREFS_FILE = "device_id.xml";
    protected static final String PREFS_DEVICE_ID = "device_id";
    protected static volatile UUID uuid;

    public DeviceUuidFactory(Context context) {
        if (uuid == null) {
            synchronized (DeviceUuidFactory.class) {
                if (uuid == null) {
                    final SharedPreferences prefs = context
                            .getSharedPreferences(PREFS_FILE, 0);
                    final String id = prefs.getString(PREFS_DEVICE_ID, null);
                    if (id != null) {
                        // Use the ids previously computed and stored in the
                        // prefs file
                        uuid = UUID.fromString(id);
                    } else {
                        final String androidId = Secure.getString(
                            context.getContentResolver(), Secure.ANDROID_ID);
                        // Use the Android ID unless it's broken, in which case
                        // fallback on deviceId,
                        // unless it's not available, then fallback on a random
                        // number which we store to a prefs file
                        try {
                            if (!"9774d56d682e549c".equals(androidId)) {
                                uuid = UUID.nameUUIDFromBytes(androidId
                                        .getBytes("utf8"));
                            } else {
                                final String deviceId = ((TelephonyManager) 
                                        context.getSystemService(
                                            Context.TELEPHONY_SERVICE))
                                            .getDeviceId();
                                uuid = deviceId != null ? UUID
                                        .nameUUIDFromBytes(deviceId
                                                .getBytes("utf8")) : UUID
                                        .randomUUID();
                            }
                        } catch (UnsupportedEncodingException e) {
                            throw new RuntimeException(e);
                        }
                        // Write the value out to the prefs file
                        prefs.edit()
                                .putString(PREFS_DEVICE_ID, uuid.toString())
                                .commit();
                    }
                }
            }
        }
    }

    /**
     * Returns a unique UUID for the current android device. As with all UUIDs,
     * this unique ID is "very highly likely" to be unique across all Android
     * devices. Much more so than ANDROID_ID is.
     * 
     * The UUID is generated by using ANDROID_ID as the base key if appropriate,
     * falling back on TelephonyManager.getDeviceID() if ANDROID_ID is known to
     * be incorrect, and finally falling back on a random UUID that's persisted
     * to SharedPreferences if getDeviceID() does not return a usable value.
     * 
     * In some rare circumstances, this ID may change. In particular, if the
     * device is factory reset a new device ID may be generated. In addition, if
     * a user upgrades their phone from certain buggy implementations of Android
     * 2.2 to a newer, non-buggy version of Android, the device ID may change.
     * Or, if a user uninstalls your app on a device that has neither a proper
     * Android ID nor a Device ID, this ID may change on reinstallation.
     * 
     * Note that if the code falls back on using TelephonyManager.getDeviceId(),
     * the resulting ID will NOT change after a factory reset. Something to be
     * aware of.
     * 
     * Works around a bug in Android 2.2 for many devices when using ANDROID_ID
     * directly.
     * 
     * @see http://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=10603
     * 
     * @return a UUID that may be used to uniquely identify your device for most
     *         purposes.
     */
    public UUID getDeviceUuid() {
        return uuid;
    }
}

Answer 2

For a simple number that is unique to the device and constant for its lifetime (barring a factory reset or hacking), use Settings.Secure.ANDROID_ID.

String id = Secure.getString(getContentResolver(), Secure.ANDROID_ID);

To use the device serial number (the one shown in "System Settings / About / Status") if available and fall back to Android ID:

String serialNumber = Build.SERIAL != Build.UNKNOWN ? Build.SERIAL : Secure.getString(getContentResolver(), Secure.ANDROID_ID);

Answer 3

Build.SERIAL is the simplest way to go, although not entirely reliable as it can be empty or sometimes return a different value (proof 1, proof 2) than what you can see in your device's settings.

There are several ways to get that number depending on the device's manufacturer and Android version, so I decided to compile every possible solution I could found in a single gist. Here's a simplified version of it :

public static String getSerialNumber() {
    String serialNumber;

    try {
        Class<?> c = Class.forName("android.os.SystemProperties");
        Method get = c.getMethod("get", String.class);

        serialNumber = (String) get.invoke(c, "gsm.sn1");
        if (serialNumber.equals(""))
            serialNumber = (String) get.invoke(c, "ril.serialnumber");
        if (serialNumber.equals(""))
            serialNumber = (String) get.invoke(c, "ro.serialno");
        if (serialNumber.equals(""))
            serialNumber = (String) get.invoke(c, "sys.serialnumber");
        if (serialNumber.equals(""))
            serialNumber = Build.SERIAL;

        // If none of the methods above worked
        if (serialNumber.equals(""))
            serialNumber = null;
    } catch (Exception e) {
        e.printStackTrace();
        serialNumber = null;
    }

    return serialNumber;
}

Answer 4

Since no answer here mentions a perfect, fail-proof ID that is both PERSISTENT through system updates and exists in ALL devices (mainly due to the fact that there isn't an individual solution from Google), I decided to post a method that is the next best thing by combining two of the available identifiers, and a check to chose between them at run-time.

Before code, 3 facts:

1. TelephonyManager.getDeviceId() (a.k.a.IMEI) will not work well or at all for non-GSM, 3G, LTE, etc. devices, but will always return a unique ID when related hardware is present, even when no SIM is inserted or even when no SIM slot exists (some OEM's have done this).

2. Since Gingerbread (Android 2.3) android.os.Build.SERIAL must exist on any device that doesn't provide IMEI, i.e., doesn't have the aforementioned hardware present, as per Android policy.

3. Due to fact (2.), at least one of these two unique identifiers will ALWAYS be present, and SERIAL can be present at the same time that IMEI is.

Note: Fact (1.) and (2.) are based on Google statements

SOLUTION

With the facts above, one can always have a unique identifier by checking if there is IMEI-bound hardware, and fall back to SERIAL when it isn't, as one cannot check if the existing SERIAL is valid. The following static class presents 2 methods for checking such presence and using either IMEI or SERIAL:

import java.lang.reflect.Method;

import android.content.Context;
import android.content.pm.PackageManager;
import android.os.Build;
import android.provider.Settings;
import android.telephony.TelephonyManager;
import android.util.Log;

public class IDManagement {

    public static String getCleartextID_SIMCHECK (Context mContext){
        String ret = "";

        TelephonyManager telMgr = (TelephonyManager) mContext.getSystemService(Context.TELEPHONY_SERVICE);

        if(isSIMAvailable(mContext,telMgr)){
            Log.i("DEVICE UNIQUE IDENTIFIER",telMgr.getDeviceId());
            return telMgr.getDeviceId();

        }
        else{
            Log.i("DEVICE UNIQUE IDENTIFIER", Settings.Secure.ANDROID_ID);

//          return Settings.Secure.ANDROID_ID;
            return android.os.Build.SERIAL;
        }
    }


    public static String getCleartextID_HARDCHECK (Context mContext){
        String ret = "";

        TelephonyManager telMgr = (TelephonyManager) mContext.getSystemService(Context.TELEPHONY_SERVICE);
        if(telMgr != null && hasTelephony(mContext)){           
            Log.i("DEVICE UNIQUE IDENTIFIER",telMgr.getDeviceId() + "");

            return telMgr.getDeviceId();    
        }
        else{
            Log.i("DEVICE UNIQUE IDENTIFIER", Settings.Secure.ANDROID_ID);

//          return Settings.Secure.ANDROID_ID;
            return android.os.Build.SERIAL;
        }
    }


    public static boolean isSIMAvailable(Context mContext, 
            TelephonyManager telMgr){

        int simState = telMgr.getSimState();

        switch (simState) {
        case TelephonyManager.SIM_STATE_ABSENT:
            return false;
        case TelephonyManager.SIM_STATE_NETWORK_LOCKED:
            return false;
        case TelephonyManager.SIM_STATE_PIN_REQUIRED:
            return false;
        case TelephonyManager.SIM_STATE_PUK_REQUIRED:
            return false;
        case TelephonyManager.SIM_STATE_READY:
            return true;
        case TelephonyManager.SIM_STATE_UNKNOWN:
            return false;
        default:
            return false;
        }
    }

    static public boolean hasTelephony(Context mContext)
    {
        TelephonyManager tm = (TelephonyManager) mContext.getSystemService(Context.TELEPHONY_SERVICE);
        if (tm == null)
            return false;

        //devices below are phones only
        if (Build.VERSION.SDK_INT < 5)
            return true;

        PackageManager pm = mContext.getPackageManager();

        if (pm == null)
            return false;

        boolean retval = false;
        try
        {
            Class<?> [] parameters = new Class[1];
            parameters[0] = String.class;
            Method method = pm.getClass().getMethod("hasSystemFeature", parameters);
            Object [] parm = new Object[1];
            parm[0] = "android.hardware.telephony";
            Object retValue = method.invoke(pm, parm);
            if (retValue instanceof Boolean)
                retval = ((Boolean) retValue).booleanValue();
            else
                retval = false;
        }
        catch (Exception e)
        {
            retval = false;
        }

        return retval;
    }


}

I would advice on using getCleartextID_HARDCHECK. If the reflection doesn't stick in your environment, use the getCleartextID_SIMCHECK method instead, but take in consideration it should be adapted to your specific SIM-presence needs.

P.S.: Do please note that OEM's have managed to bug out SERIAL against Google policy (multiple devices with same SERIAL), and Google as stated there is at least one known case in a big OEM (not disclosed and I don't know which brand it is either, I'm guessing Samsung).

Disclaimer: This answers the original question of getting a unique device ID, but the OP introduced ambiguity by stating he needs a unique ID for an APP. Even if for such scenarios Android_ID would be better, it WILL NOT WORK after, say, a Titanium Backup of an app through 2 different ROM installs (can even be the same ROM). My solution maintains persistence that is independent of a flash or factory reset, and will only fail when IMEI or SERIAL tampering occurs through hacks/hardware mods.