Locating Mobile Device Identifiers

Each mobile device has what is known as a mobile device identifier, which is a string of letters and numbers unique to that device. The mobile device identifier is used to associate that specific device to app-related data and thereby the specific user. This document describes the process for locating the device IDs for both iOS and Android.

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Locating iOS Device IDs

Apple’s device ID know as the Identifier for Advertisers (IDFA) was created back in 2012 and replaced the Unique Device Identifier (UDID). The UDID was associated with the hardware of the device where as the IDFA is an anonymous and easily-resettable value. With the announcement of iOS 14, Apple announced new privacy measures which require all apps to obtain user consent before that user’s specific IDFA can be collected and used for data collection.

In order to locate a device’s IDFA, Kochava has created an app called My Device Identifiers which provides the ability to experiment with ATT (AppTrackingTransparency) to view and copy device identifiers such as the IDFA and IDFV.

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Locating Android Device IDs

Android’s device ID known as the Advertising ID can be located in Settings > System > About phone > Status.

Your Advertising Identifier will be listed near the bottom of the phone screen.