NavigatorID.appVersion

Deprecated
This feature has been removed from the Web standards. Though some browsers may still support it, it is in the process of being dropped. Do not use it in old or new projects. Pages or Web apps using it may break at any time.

Returns the version of the browser as a string. It may be either a plain version number, like "5.0", or a version number followed by more detailed information. The HTML5 specification also allows any browser to return "4.0", for compatibility reasons.

Note: Do not rely on this property to return the correct browser version. In Gecko-based browsers (like Firefox) and WebKit-based browsers (like Chrome and Safari) the returned value starts with "5.0" followed by platform information. In Opera 10 and newer the returned version does not match the actual browser version, either.

Syntax

window.navigator.appVersion 

Value

ver is the version number of the browser as a DOMString.

Example

alert("Your browser version is reported as " + navigator.appVersion);

Notes

The window.navigator.userAgent property may also contain the version number (for example "Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Win98; en-US; rv:0.9.2) Gecko/20010725 Netscape 6/6.1"), but you should be aware of how easy it is to change the user agent string and "spoof" other browsers, platforms, or user agents, and also how cavalier the browser vendor themselves are with these properties.

The window.navigator.appVersion, window.navigator.appName and window.navigator.userAgent properties have been used in "browser sniffing" code: scripts that attempt to find out what kind of browser you are using and adjust pages accordingly. This lead to the current situation, where browsers had to return fake values from these properties in order not to be locked out of some websites.

Specifications

Specification Status Comment
WHATWG HTML Living Standard
The definition of 'NavigatorID.appVersion' in that specification.
Living Standard Initial definition

Browser compatibility

Feature Chrome Firefox (Gecko) Internet Explorer Opera Safari
Basic support (Yes) (Yes) (Yes) (Yes) (Yes)
Feature Android Chrome for Android Firefox Mobile (Gecko) IE Mobile Opera Mobile Safari Mobile
Basic support (Yes) (Yes) (Yes) (Yes) (Yes) (Yes)

 

Document Tags and Contributors

 Last updated by: teoli,