The Key Concepts of App Tracking for Developers 2016

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T HE KE Y CO NCE P T S O F AP P T R AC KI NG F O R DE V E L O P E RS S E R G I I Z H U K @ D R O I D C O N K R A K Ó W 0 8 - 1 2 - 2 0 1 6

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2 HELLO! My name is Sergii Zhuk • Android Engineer @ Zalando SE • Author of Android Digest for Ukrainian Developers Community • In Berlin since August 2015 • twitter.com/sergiizhuk • medium.com/@sergii

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3 ZALANDO SE • Europe’s leading online fashion platform • 11,000+ employees in Europe • ~ EUR 3bn revenue in 2015 • ~ 65% of shop traffic came from mobile • 10M+ downloads Android app

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4 AGENDA • What is the app tracking and why do you need it • When to track the data • Which tools you can use • Dev challenges and patterns

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5 TRACKING: WHY?

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6 TRACKING AND ANALYTICS • Application • Tracking Tools • Analytics Tools & Dashboards

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7 WHY TRACKING Do users know about FAB?

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8 WHEN TO TRACK

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9 WHEN TO TRACK: INTERACTION • Open the app, different entry points • Screen View • Click/swipe etc.

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10 WHEN TO TRACK: APPLICATION • User sessions • Application performance • Exceptions, crashes

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11 WHEN TO TRACK: APPLICATION • User sessions • Application performance • Exceptions, crashes and bread crumbs

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12 TRACK SPECIFIC CASES • Application install/uninstall/reinstall • System and account information

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13 TRACKING TOOLS

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14 TRACKING TOOLS Rank Company Market share 1 Google Analytics 91.58% 2 Flurry 4.81% 3 Umeng 1.11% 4 Crashlytics 0.61% 5 Localytics 0.34% 6 Mixpanel 0.30% 7 HockeyApp 0.23% Source: “Mobile App Analytics: What Winning Mobile Developers Use” by John Koetsier. December 2015. Firebase Analytics wasn’t released yet.

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15 TRACKING TOOLS Flurry • One of the oldest tracking tools • The market leader for iOS • Mobile-only • Acquired by Yahoo in 2014 • Free

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16 TRACKING TOOLS Google Analytics • Mobile & Web • Free for not high load projects • Google BigQuery available for enterprise projects • No significant mobile SDK updates since the end of 2015

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17 TRACKING TOOLS Firebase Analytics • Mobile only • Active development, new features are coming • Free, but limited amount of custom types can be tracked • Google BigQuery available • Does not officially support devices without Play Services

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18 TRACKING TOOLS Self-made solutions • Custom data formats • Integration with other systems for input & output • Realtime data (complex!)

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19 PATTERNS & CHALLENGES

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20 SOMETHING YOU SHOULD KNOW ABOUT TOOLS • Most of tools don’t send the data immediately, but collect it in batches • Usually you won’t be able to see the data at the dashboard immediately even if it was sent • Usually documentation is poor and doesn’t suggest any design patterns.

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21 EXPECT TRACKING REQUIREMENTS TO COME • Expect tracking requirements to come from the beginning • Estimate initial release to include tracking implementation

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22 BE READY TO SCALE • Design architecture to expect 2nd, 3rd and N+1 tracking tool to be integrated • Isolate the tracking logic from the UI

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23 BE READY TO SCALE: TRACKING FACADE

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24 CHECK TRACKING PERFORMANCE • Check batching configuration • Minimize the amount of data being sent • Make sure you have a separate token/configuration for debug

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25 DEFINE TRACKING STANDARDS • Dev and Marketing teams should never be “blind” • Define minimum amount of tracking events every feature should have (screen view, click etc.) • Define proper constants to indicate empty value

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26 CUSTOMER PRIVACY • Make sure you don’t send data that allows to identify the user • Make sure you mask the IP of user • Make sure that user has an option to switch off tracking

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27 CUSTOMER PRIVACY • Make sure you don’t send data that allows to identify the user • Make sure you mask the IP of user • Make sure that user has an option to switch off tracking • Why the most of tracking tools are free?

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28 HOW TO TEST TRACKING OUTPUT

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30 TRACKING OUTPUT: PRINT LOGS • Slows down the app • Hard to read • Not always consistent with data being sent to the server (data enriching) • Not available for the release app build

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31 TRACKING OUTPUT: PROXY NETWORK TRAFFIC

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32 TRACKING OUTPUT: FIREBASE DEBUGVIEW

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33 DEMO

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34 TRACKING DEMO • Demo app with three tracking tools configured • Google Analytics, Firebase, Flurry • Details on how to setup proper accounts • And proxy to debug the output https://github.com/sergiiz/GroceryStore

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35 CONCLUSION • Collect meaningful data to take decisions • Check cross-platform availability for your tracking tools • Be ready to scale • Respect customer privacy

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36 THANKS! • tech.zalando.com/jobs • @sergiizhuk • medium.com/@sergii