Is there anyway to detect OS language using javascript?

Question

I need to detect OS language using javascript so I can view my page depending on the language.

I know that we can detect the browser language but that is not enough for me.

I need Operation System language

Thanks in advance

Answer 1

There is no cross-browser way to do this. Internet Explorer supports the following:

• navigator.browserLanguage: browser language
• navigator.systemLanguage: Windows system language
• navigator.userLanguage: Windows user-specific language

But there is no way to access these settings from any other browsers (that I can tell) so don't use them: stick to the standard navigator.language (corresponding to the browser language) if you want to maintain cross-browser functionality. If you do use them you will tie your web site to a specific family of operating systems (i.e. Windows) and a specific browser (i.e. Internet Explorer). Do you really want to do this?

Why is the browser language insufficient for your application?

Answer 2

You may just guess OS language considering few factors:

Windows OS

Internet Explorer

• navigator.browserLanguage: IE language (menu, help and etc.), the same as OS display language (if user hasn't change it). As in Control Panel -> Region and Language -> Keyboards and Lanugages -> Display language
• navigator.systemLanguage: as in Control Panel -> Region and Language -> Location
• navigator.userLanguage: as in Control Panel -> Region and Language -> Formats

ECMAScript Internationalization API

var d=new Date(Date.UTC(2014,1,26,3,0,0));
var dateFormat={weekday:"long",year:"numeric",month:"long",day:"numeric"};
var result = d.toLocaleDateString("i-default",dateFormat);
alert(result);
//e.g. for Russian format ( Control Panel -> Region and Language -> Formats ) 
//result == 'среда, 26 февраля 2014 г.'

Then search result on your server over preliminary generated set of formatted dates in different languages.

NB! Chrome returns date formatted in its UI language.

Adobe Flash

If you desperately need to know OS language — embed flash in your page and exploit flash.system.Capabilities.language:

NB! Chrome doesn't allow the trick — Chrome's Flash always shows browser.language, I think because it has own Flash.

Firefox and Chrome

navigator.language tells you a browser's UI language (menu, help and etc.) and you may assume that in overwhelming majority of cases it matches OS language (especially for home computers): while downloading FF or Chrome a download page is displayed according user's then browser — on Windows it is IE in the same language as OS.

It is very strange indeed that Chrome is thing in itself when dealing with browser's environment parameters, alas.

Answer 3

You can use the user agent. However, it can be spoofed easily, it is not guaranteed to contain language information, and navigator.language and navigator.browserLanguage will probably be more reliable.

Answer 4

One thing for everyone here to consider, not all users know how to set their browser language preferences. So if you're making a site you WANT people to see, it's your problem if they land on it in a different language than one they're comfortable with, as it increases the change they will leave. A lot of it depends on the demographic you're targeting, but for a web page I think it's good to detect the system language IF you can at least, then then fall back on the browser language if you can't. It's more likely to be accurate.