Seeking Guidance: Obtaining IMEI Number Programmatically in iOS

Dear iOS Community, I am currently working on an iOS application and facing a challenge in fetching the IMEI (International Mobile Equipment Identity) number programmatically. I understand that accessing the IMEI number directly is not allowed in iOS due to privacy restrictions. Therefore, I am seeking your expertise and advice on alternative methods or workarounds to obtain a unique identifier for the device in a privacy-compliant manner. It's important for my app to comply with all Apple guidelines and policies. If you have any insights, best practices, or code examples on how to fetch a device identifier in iOS programmatically, I would be immensely grateful for your assistance.

iPhone 14

Posted on Aug 6, 2023 12:47 AM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Aug 6, 2023 9:26 AM

IMEI, Wi-Fi MAC, and other such are intentionally not accessible, as those values were misused by app developers.


Within an MDM environment, what you seek is readily available. Outside, not so much.


You can push an identifier from your servers to your app and use that, of course. A browser cookie is an example of this.


Within the Apple frameworks, Apple offers IdentifierForVendor.


More generally…


Apple has various privacy-related videos and materials which can provide background on Apple expectations:

Search - Apple Developer


I would encourage your organization’s lawyers to review the applicable Apple agreements before proceeding.



1 reply
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Aug 6, 2023 9:26 AM in response to gaurav0401

IMEI, Wi-Fi MAC, and other such are intentionally not accessible, as those values were misused by app developers.


Within an MDM environment, what you seek is readily available. Outside, not so much.


You can push an identifier from your servers to your app and use that, of course. A browser cookie is an example of this.


Within the Apple frameworks, Apple offers IdentifierForVendor.


More generally…


Apple has various privacy-related videos and materials which can provide background on Apple expectations:

Search - Apple Developer


I would encourage your organization’s lawyers to review the applicable Apple agreements before proceeding.



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Seeking Guidance: Obtaining IMEI Number Programmatically in iOS

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