diff --git a/service/api/types.go b/service/api/types.go
index 95e55b945cc8caf441c8862fd9b0a54ef58cbf8d..cc2117ffb6b3860f1890fb756dee6002e7471d0e 100644
--- a/service/api/types.go
+++ b/service/api/types.go
@@ -415,6 +415,7 @@ type GetVersionIn struct {
 type GetVersionOut struct {
 	DelveVersion string
 	APIVersion   int
+	Backend      string // backend currently in use
 }
 
 // SetAPIVersionIn is the input for SetAPIVersion.
diff --git a/service/debugger/debugger.go b/service/debugger/debugger.go
index 7f2531e8dbbf8bb37e1ef8592549a2aa7708fb18..1aee669cc57c2bc0d93891dd7f0fa03ede4515ab 100644
--- a/service/debugger/debugger.go
+++ b/service/debugger/debugger.go
@@ -1207,6 +1207,27 @@ func (d *Debugger) ListDynamicLibraries() []api.Image {
 	return r
 }
 
+func (d *Debugger) GetVersion(out *api.GetVersionOut) error {
+	if d.config.CoreFile != "" {
+		if d.config.Backend == "rr" {
+			out.Backend = "rr"
+		} else {
+			out.Backend = "core"
+		}
+	} else {
+		if d.config.Backend == "default" {
+			if runtime.GOOS == "darwin" {
+				out.Backend = "lldb"
+			} else {
+				out.Backend = "native"
+			}
+		} else {
+			out.Backend = d.config.Backend
+		}
+	}
+	return nil
+}
+
 func go11DecodeErrorCheck(err error) error {
 	if _, isdecodeerr := err.(dwarf.DecodeError); !isdecodeerr {
 		return err
diff --git a/service/rpccommon/server.go b/service/rpccommon/server.go
index 470b49141f1ae09a228c6e7da737c7fa5602f2c8..3d624389c6f3b9bf9c7acb1c077ea031071bbfd9 100644
--- a/service/rpccommon/server.go
+++ b/service/rpccommon/server.go
@@ -387,7 +387,7 @@ func (cb *RPCCallback) Return(out interface{}, err error) {
 func (s *RPCServer) GetVersion(args api.GetVersionIn, out *api.GetVersionOut) error {
 	out.DelveVersion = version.DelveVersion.String()
 	out.APIVersion = s.s.config.APIVersion
-	return nil
+	return s.s.debugger.GetVersion(out)
 }
 
 // Changes version of the API being served.