How to remove/ignore :hover css style on touch devices

tl;dr use this: https://jsfiddle.net/57tmy8j3/

If you're interested why or what other options there are, read on.

Quick'n'dirty - remove :hover styles using JS

You can remove all the CSS rules containing :hover using Javascript. This has the advantage of not having to touch CSS and being compatible even with older browsers.

function hasTouch() {
  return 'ontouchstart' in document.documentElement
         || navigator.maxTouchPoints > 0
         || navigator.msMaxTouchPoints > 0;
}

if (hasTouch()) { // remove all the :hover stylesheets
  try { // prevent exception on browsers not supporting DOM styleSheets properly
    for (var si in document.styleSheets) {
      var styleSheet = document.styleSheets[si];
      if (!styleSheet.rules) continue;

      for (var ri = styleSheet.rules.length - 1; ri >= 0; ri--) {
        if (!styleSheet.rules[ri].selectorText) continue;

        if (styleSheet.rules[ri].selectorText.match(':hover')) {
          styleSheet.deleteRule(ri);
        }
      }
    }
  } catch (ex) {}
}

Limitations: stylesheets must be hosted on the same domain (that means no CDNs). Disables hovers on mixed mouse & touch devices like Surface or iPad Pro, which hurts the UX.

CSS-only - use media queries

Place all your :hover rules in a @media block:

@media (hover: hover) {
  a:hover { color: blue; }
}

or alternatively, override all your hover rules (compatible with older browsers):

a:hover { color: blue; }

@media (hover: none) {
  a:hover { color: inherit; }
}

Limitations: works only on iOS 9.0+, Chrome for Android or Android 5.0+ when using WebView. hover: hover breaks hover effects on older browsers, hover: none needs overriding all the previously defined CSS rules. Both are incompatible with mixed mouse & touch devices.

The most robust - detect touch via JS and prepend CSS :hover rules

This method needs prepending all the hover rules with body.hasHover. (or a class name of your choice)

body.hasHover a:hover { color: blue; }

The hasHover class may be added using hasTouch() from the first example:

if (!hasTouch()) document.body.className += ' hasHover'

However, this whould have the same drawbacks with mixed touch devices as previous examples, which brings us to the ultimate solution. Enable hover effects whenever a mouse cursor is moved, disable hover effects whenever a touch is detected.

function watchForHover() {
  // lastTouchTime is used for ignoring emulated mousemove events
  let lastTouchTime = 0

  function enableHover() {
    if (new Date() - lastTouchTime < 500) return
    document.body.classList.add('hasHover')
  }

  function disableHover() {
    document.body.classList.remove('hasHover')
  }

  function updateLastTouchTime() {
    lastTouchTime = new Date()
  }

  document.addEventListener('touchstart', updateLastTouchTime, true)
  document.addEventListener('touchstart', disableHover, true)
  document.addEventListener('mousemove', enableHover, true)

  enableHover()
}

watchForHover()

This should work basically in any browser and enables/disables hover styles as needed.

Here's the full example - modern: https://jsfiddle.net/57tmy8j3/
Legacy (for use with old browsers): https://jsfiddle.net/dkz17jc5/19/

2020 Solution - CSS only - No Javascript

Use media hover with media pointer will help you resolve this issue. Tested on chrome Web and android mobile. I known this old question but I didn't find any solution like this.

@media (hover: hover) and (pointer: fine) {
  a:hover { color: red; }
}

<a href="#" >Some Link</a>

Pointer adaptation to the rescue!

Since this hasn't been touched in awhile, you can use:

a:link, a:visited {
   color: red;
}

a:hover {
   color:blue;
}

@media (hover: none) {
   a:link, a:visited {
      color: red;
   }
}

See this demo in both your desktop browser and your phone browser. Supported by modern touch devices.

Note: Keep in mind that since a Surface PC's primary input (capability) is a mouse, it will end up being a blue link, even if it's a detached (tablet) screen. Browsers will (should) always default to the most precise input's capability.

I have encountered the same problem (in my case with Samsung mobile browsers) and therefore I stumbled upon this question.

Thanks to Calsal's answer I found something that I believe will exclude virtually all desktop browsers because it seems to be recognized by the mobile browsers I tried (see screenshot from a compiled table: CSS pointer feature detection table ).

MDN web docs state that

The pointer CSS @media feature can be used to apply styles based on whether the user's primary input mechanism is a pointing device, and if so, how accurate it is

.

What I discovered is that pointer: coarse is something that is unknown to all desktop browsers in the attached table but known to all mobile browsers in the same table. This seems to be most effective choice because all other pointer keyword values give inconsistent results.

Hence you could construct a media query like Calsal described but slightly modified. It makes use of a reversed logic to rule out all touch devices.

Sass mixin:

@mixin hover-supported {    
    /* 
     * https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/@media/pointer 
     * coarse: The primary input mechanism includes a pointing device of limited accuracy.
     */
    @media not all and (pointer: coarse) {
        &:hover {
            @content;
        }
    }
}

a {
    color:green;
    border-color:blue;

    @include hover-supported() {
        color:blue;
        border-color:green;
    }
}

Compiled CSS:

a {
  color: green;
  border-color: blue;
}
@media not all and (pointer: coarse) {
  a:hover {
    color: blue;
    border-color: green;
  }
}

It is also described in this gist I created after researching the problem. Codepen for empirical research.

UPDATE (2018): As of writing this update, 2018-08-23, and pointed out by @DmitriPavlutin this technique no longer seems to work with Firefox desktop.

UPDATE (2021): It has been pointed out to me that it seems to work as of Firefox 87.