What's the best way to detect a 'touch screen' device using JavaScript?

Question

I\'ve written a jQuery plug-in that\'s for use on both desktop and mobile devices. I wondered if there is a way with JavaScript to detect if the device has touch screen capa

Answer 1

Many of these work but either require jQuery, or javascript linters complain about the syntax. Considering your initial question asks for a "JavaScript" (not jQuery, not Modernizr) way of solving this, here's a simple function that works every time. It's also about as minimal as you can get.

function isTouchDevice() {
    return !!window.ontouchstart;
}

console.log(isTouchDevice());

One last benefit I'll mention is that this code is framework and device agnostic. Enjoy!