Twitter thinks your Nintendo Switch is running Apple’s Safari web browser

By Brad Jones March 3, 2017

how to set up two-factor authentication for your Nintendo Account — Mike Epstein/Digital Trends

Friday marks the worldwide launch of the Nintendo Switch, and many early adopters are logging into Twitter on their brand-new hardware to show off their fancy new system. It seems, however, that the social media platform doesn’t know too much about Nintendo’s latest release.

When Twitter users log into the service on a new device, they’re sent an email to confirm that they really are who they say they are. This message contains information about how and where they logged in, so that anything suspicious can be reported.

However, when users log in via the Switch, it’s being reported as a device using Apple’s web browser Safari, according to a report from Nintendo Life. Of course, this is not the case — but there’s a reason that the console is causing some confusion for Twitter’s automated email system.

WebKit is one of several engines used to power modern web browsers. It was used to create Safari, and it seems that it’s used to help the Switch post content to Twitter. Whatever method Twitter’s login protection system uses to detect what device the user is working with, it seems that it’s not currently set up to acknowledge the Switch.

A fork of WebKit is also used to power Google Chrome and Opera, so it seems that Twitter should be able to discern between different browsers using the engine. The mostly likely explanation is that the service hasn’t got around to adding an identifier for the Switch just yet, which isn’t surprising, given that it’s only been on shelves for a matter of hours.

Whatever Twitter’s emails might claim, the Nintendo Switch isn’t running Safari, even if there are some similarities under the hood. Nintendo and Apple may have looked pretty friendly around the reveal of Super Mario Run for iOS, but the Switch isn’t being welcomed into the Apple ecosystem just yet.

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Brad is an English-born writer currently splitting his time between Edinburgh and Pennsylvania. You can find him on Twitter…

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