I’m a huge fan of Google Analytics and I use the service almost every day to monitor this site. It helps me understand where traffic is coming from to identify what is hot and helps me improve the site. I knew it was only a matter of time before Google released a similar service for Android and they finally made it official on their blog today.
Google Analytics for Mobile Apps will offer the same advanced tracking abilities of the web service, except developers will be required to disclose when they are using it.
You must indicate to your users, either in the application itself or in your terms of service, that you reserve the right to anonymously track and report a user’s activity inside of your app.
Mobile analytics is heating up and Google will have to compete in an already crowded space. Flurry, AdMob, and Motally also offer analtyics services for Android applications.
I only have experience with Flurry, so I would love to hear from some developers as to how the other services compare.
Redfin, an online brokerage for buying and selling homes, recently tested Google Analytics on their mobile application. Watch this video to learn more about their experience:
To get started using Google Analytics to understand and optimize how people use your Android mobile app, check out the SDK and technical documentation.
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Taylor Wimberly
Taylor is the founder of Android and Me. He loves playing with all kinds of gadgets, but most importantly cell phones. His other hobbies include cooking (BBQ hero!), politics, football, and watching every MMA event possible.
8 Comments
Nice move, Google! This can only result in better apps.
Now, they need a similar service for tracking stats on the Android Market.
Curiously, in the original announcement of the Android Market ( http://android-developers.blogspot.com/2008/08/android-market-user-driven-content.html ), Google had alluded to a detailed dashboard and analytics for Android developers. I guess that never happened.
The important thing here is that per the terms of this service, one MUST disclose that they may be collecting anonymous data. I am not sure if the other services also require this but I can tell you that I haven’t ever seen an app disclose it. I have, however, seen several instances of people incredibly upset to find out that Flurry (specifically, but I am sure the others too) was being included in apps without disclosure.
if google makes this a feature of the android SDK, it will definitely be required to add in the manifest.
Most definitely. And it should be separate from the Full Internet permission so that developers can include it without having to ask for full internet access which, when we are talking about collecting data, is a scary permission to grant.
Very good point. This is a very useful tool for developers to have under their belt, but the last thing they want is for put people to be put off from installing their apps because of a misleading warning.