Operating system

The ‘Operating system’ dimension shows the operating system and version that the visitor used. If you have features on your web-property that are OS-specific, this dimension helps you understand which operating systems are most common.

Populate this dimension with data

This dimension references a lookup table internal to Adobe. The lookup value is based on the User-Agent HTTP header in image requests. Adobe partners with DeviceAtlas to maintain lookups between user agent and operating system.

  • For AppMeasurement implementations, this dimension works out of the box.
  • For Web SDK implementations, enable Device Lookup when configuring a datastream.

Dimension items

Dimension items include operating systems that visitors use. Examples include "Windows 10", "OS X 10.15", and "Android 9".

Changes in labeling and definition

Below is a list of specific issues with how operating system has been represented in the User Agent and in Adobe Analytics reporting.

Change to granularity of operating system

On March 2nd, 2023, we updated our reporting to include more detail in the operating system. After this date we include the operating system patch version. So for example a user with OS X 10.15.7 would have appeared as “OS X 10.15” prior to March 2nd. After March 2nd they will appear as “OS X 10.15.7”.

Change to naming convention for Apple operating system:

Starting with Version 11 we will use MacOS instead of OS X to refer to the Apple operating system.

Examples:

  • “OS X 10.15” (see note below about version 10.15.7 over representation in UA strings).
  • "MacOS 11.0.0

Mac OS version is incorrect in the User Agent after version 10.15.7

The User Agent on Apple computers shows the OS version as 10.15.7 even for newer versions. This was done because including version 11 in the UA apparently caused problems with some websites. This is true for all browsers and is not related Google’s ‘freezing’ of the User Agent on Chromium browsers.

Note that client hints include the correct version in the platform version hint (“Sec-CH-UA-Platform-Version”). This is a high-entropy hint so is not automatically collected by Adobe. See the Adobe Analytics Hints FAQ for details on how to collect high-entropy hints.

Windows version is incorrect in the User Agent starting with Windows 11

As of January 2023, The User Agent in all browsers shows represents Windows 11 as Windows 10.

Note that client hints include the correct version in the platform version hint (“Sec-CH-UA-Platform-Version”). This is a high-entropy hint so is not automatically collected by Adobe. See the Adobe Analytics Hints FAQ for details on how to collect high-entropy hints.

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