diff --git a/goldens/material/tooltip/index.api.md b/goldens/material/tooltip/index.api.md
index fd219dd1dc81..bcf5273172e6 100644
--- a/goldens/material/tooltip/index.api.md
+++ b/goldens/material/tooltip/index.api.md
@@ -92,7 +92,7 @@ export class MatTooltip implements OnDestroy, AfterViewInit {
 
 // @public
 export interface MatTooltipDefaultOptions {
-    detectHoverCapability?: boolean;
+    detectHoverCapability?: boolean | (() => boolean);
     disableTooltipInteractivity?: boolean;
     hideDelay: number;
     position?: TooltipPosition;
diff --git a/src/material/tooltip/tooltip.ts b/src/material/tooltip/tooltip.ts
index 7902004be6e3..2058f39a8d46 100644
--- a/src/material/tooltip/tooltip.ts
+++ b/src/material/tooltip/tooltip.ts
@@ -140,12 +140,23 @@ export interface MatTooltipDefaultOptions {
   tooltipClass?: string | string[];
 
   /**
-   * Whether the tooltip should use a media query to detect if the device is able to hover.
-   * Note that this may affect tests that run in a headless browser which reports that it's
-   * unable to hover. In such cases you may need to include an additional timeout, because
-   * the tooltip will fall back to treating the device as a touch screen.
+   * By default the tooltip attempts to detect whether the user's device is able to hover by
+   * consulting the `Platform` provider that was created a long time ago and is based on
+   * some data points that may not be entirely accurate anymore (e.g. user agent string and
+   * Android/iOS-specific APIs), however changing them will break existing users. You can use this
+   * config property to opt into a more modern detection mechanism.
+   *
+   * The supported values include:
+   *
+   * - `false` - Default value. Detection is based on the `Platform` provider.
+   * - `true` - The tooltip will use the `any-hover` media query for more accurate detection.
+   * Note that this may break existing unit tests running in a headless browser.
+   * - `() => boolean` - If the automatic detection doesn't work properly in your case (e.g. the
+   * `any-hover` media query isn't supported) and you're able to detect more accurately, you can
+   * pass in a function that will be used for detection instead. It should return `true` if the
+   * device **has the ability to hover**, or `false` if it cannot.
    */
-  detectHoverCapability?: boolean;
+  detectHoverCapability?: boolean | (() => boolean);
 }
 
 /**
@@ -855,6 +866,12 @@ export class MatTooltip implements OnDestroy, AfterViewInit {
   }
 
   private _isTouchPlatform(): boolean {
+    const detectHoverCapability = this._defaultOptions?.detectHoverCapability;
+
+    if (typeof detectHoverCapability === 'function') {
+      return !detectHoverCapability();
+    }
+
     if (this._platform.IOS || this._platform.ANDROID) {
       // If we detected iOS or Android, it's definitely supported.
       return true;
@@ -863,10 +880,7 @@ export class MatTooltip implements OnDestroy, AfterViewInit {
       return false;
     }
 
-    return (
-      !!this._defaultOptions?.detectHoverCapability &&
-      this._mediaMatcher.matchMedia('(any-hover: none)').matches
-    );
+    return !!detectHoverCapability && this._mediaMatcher.matchMedia('(any-hover: none)').matches;
   }
 
   /** Disables the native browser gestures, based on how the tooltip has been configured. */