How does the Reddit app detect Safari’s Private Browsing mode when opening a Universal Link?

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I’m trying to understand how the Reddit app knows to open in its anonymous mode when a link is opened from Safari’s Private Browsing mode.

Does Safari explicitly pass any flag or metadata indicating the request originated from Private Browsing?

Or is it inferred by the absence of shared cookies, session tokens, or other stateful data?

If the detection is based on the absence of cookies, could this logic misidentify other stateless scenarios as ‘private’?

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Answer 1

Engineer OP

Apple

2h

The only way to know precisely what Reddit does, would be to ask them directly. You also have the option to use a proxy and inspect the request / response flow between a regular page and a private browsing tab. Apple does not have API(s) to do this, but you may be able to uncover additional information on what the app is doing.

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