
Here at ScientiaMobile, we have built our login with the future of technology in mind. Starting in July 2018, with the WURFL API 1.9.5.0, we developed the digital assistant matcher. We continue to improve upon this with every iteration on WURFL API and we are proud to announce today’s update of WURFL API 1.11.7.0, which offers new device updates for smart assistance and connected devices. You can log in, download, and install the latest API from your my.scientiamobile.com account. If you need help or have questions, then our enterprise support team is always here to help you get optimal performance from your WURFL solution.
What’s new with WURFL API 1.11.7.0?
In today’s API release, we have added new support for some brand new digital assistant and connected speaker devices as well as expanded support for smartTVs, STBs, and other OTT devices. This keeps our device intelligence up-to-date and improves detection speeds for our clients.
Added support for:
- New digital assistant and connected speaker devices
Expanded support for:
- UC Browser User-Agents
- iOS versions and devices
- App detection via is_app, advertised_app_name
- SmartTVs, STBs, and other OTT devices
- Chromium based browsers and web clients
How Does Detecting Digital Assistants or Connected Speakers Help?
We can detect if a request comes from Siri/Alexa/Google Assistant based on the user agent and HTTP headers. The same goes for connected speakers like home pod or Sonos devices. For assistants, we can tell what service originated the request eg. Amazon Alexa. For connected speakers we can tell what brand the device is e.g. Sonos. So what?
If an advertiser knows that a search request came from Alexa or Google Home device, then it can make other inferences to target the bidding process like displaying competitive ads if a user owns one device but not the other or a higher priced item making inferences based on their income.
Another example would be If an advertiser knows the device you are serving content to, it will help content providers keep track of the devices that their content is being played on for content protection/DRM purposes. For example, if an audiobook provider like Audible expects only Amazon Echo traffic, they would be able to use WURFL to only allow Amazon Alexa traffic or to analyze their logs to see if other smart devices are able to access the service as well.
For more ideas on how advertisers/providers can use WURFL capabilities, see our more than 500 capabilities here.