Question on release specific improvements

[nvysyaraju-sift]

Hello @nielsbasjes, just have a couple of questions on the improvements here.

• V 7.21.0
  • New/improved detections:
    • Report Samsung DEX (Desktop Experience) as Tablet
• V 7.26.0
  • New/improved detections:
    • Report the agent version 'NULL' as '??'

As part of 7.21.0, one of the detection improvements say that the UA string with Samsung DEX as device are considered under Tablet DeviceClass but I do see it being detected as Tablet and Phone in older UA versions such as 7.19.1 (I tried parsing it with this older version using the docker based webservlet). Just for clarity, does it detect Samsung DEX as any other DeviceClass type before? Also does this improvement will detect it only as Tablet as opposed to other possible classes?

As part of 7.26.0, one of the improvments is reporting NULL agent version as ??, unknown versions are always represented as ?? right? When do we see NULL version cases from the parser before this version update?

[nielsbasjes]

The Samsung DEX change is one of those really strange edgecases. When I actually got an S22 from work I was able to record and test what really happens when you activate DEX.

• Before this change it would have always been reported as a Phone ... because technically it IS a phone.
• After this change; when DEX is active (i.e. you have connected the phone to a desktop screen and the whole thing is behaving as a tablet) it is now reported as a Tablet instead because you have physically modified the device and you are now using it with a big screen.

The NULL version change:

• There are actually useragents like this Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; rv:68.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/NULL which put NULL as the version and create this effect.

[nvysyaraju-sift]

Also can you give context on what does Samsung Browser 24 now does Frozen UA mean?

7.26.1
- New/improved detections:
- Samsung Browser 24 now does Frozen UA

[nielsbasjes]

The Samsung browser changed the behavior since that version so thar needed to be handled.

And yes, the null is reported as ?? because it is a different way of not knowing the version.

[nvysyaraju-sift]

The Samsung browser changed the behavior since that version so thar needed to be handled.

Ohh okay but what did the improvement mean? Particularly what does Samsung Browser 24 now does Frozen UA mean in that improvment?

[nielsbasjes]

The Chromium based browsers have been changing the UserAgent to reduce the information encoded in it. For example the OS version has been frozen to a fixed value. With this version this browser started to use the same "frozen" pattern.

[nielsbasjes]

See this https://yauaa.basjes.nl/expect/manipulations/#reducingfreezing-the-useragent