Google Analytics and native mobile Apps - Android and iOS SDK

Question

We have an native iOS application using Google Analystics iOS SDK to track "page views" and events.

We are preparing to launch an Android version as well.

We have an event on "app launch" that records device information including device and OS version.

Ideally, I want to be able to "slice and dice" just about everything by whether it is our iOS or Android application - including down to the level of individual events.

It seems to me there are a couple of different ways to do this: - Look at data and divide up by "Operating System". How accurate is this for native applications? I have seen "Windows / Internet Explorer" show up for an app that is purely iOS so this makes me nervous...

• Create a custom Advanced Segment based on our "app launch" event - but this seems to "blow up" GA if I think try to drill down to the detail level. For example, if I create a segment for iPhone and one for Android, I can pick between them but can't see them both.

Other ideas?

Answer 1

Google recommends tracking different platforms of the same app (ie, MyApp for Android and MyApp for iOS), using the same property.

https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/2587087

You can further drill down and view analytics for different platforms using different views. So for this property create three views.

• Complete Stats -- this view has traffic from all platforms. Useful for creating cumulative reports irrespective of platforms.
• Stats for iOS -- this view has traffic only from iOS (iPhone/iPad apps)
• Stats for Android -- this view has traffic from Android (phones and tablets)

By default, when you create a property, Google analytics creates a default view. this is the Complete stats view. By default this does not have any filters and segments. Keeping this view untouched is important, because by adding filters to this view you will lose data.

To create Stats for iOS view, go to View settings for "Complete Stats" and click on "Copy View" and rename it to "Stats for iOS". In the new view. Go to Segments>Conditions and add

Operating System matches Regex ^(iOS|iPad|iPhone|iPod)$ and save it. Your new View has only traffic for iOS.

For the third view, follow similar steps, but add

Operating System does not match Regex ^(iOS|iPad|iPhone|iPod)$ in the advanced segment filter conditions.

Now you have three views for your app data. One cumulative, and others for different platforms.

Happy tracking!!

Answer 2

I've found the "Operating System" that you mentioned to be a "good enough" way to track what you're looking for. I too see entries that don't make any sense in there (Windows / IE) but it's such a small number that I just ignore it.

That said, if you want greater control, "Custom Variables" is a great way to go. Until recently, the analytics SDKs didn't support this, but I believe both IOS and Android SDKs now support it. More info here in these links (grep for "custom variables"):

http://analytics.blogspot.com/2010/12/custom-variables-for-your-android.html

http://code.google.com/mobile/analytics/docs/iphone/

http://code.google.com/mobile/analytics/docs/android/

They are defined as: "Custom variables are name-value pair tags that you can insert in your tracking code in order to refine Google Analytics tracking. With custom variables, you can define additional segments to apply to your visitors other than the ones already provided by Analytics."