How to get started with Siteimprove App Analytics

Article Overview

• What is a Mobile Tracking SDK?
• Step 1: Register your app within Siteimprove App Analytics 
• Step 2: Implementing the Mobile Tracking SDK 
• Step 3: Configure app tracking setup within the Siteimprove platform 

What is a Mobile Tracking SDK?

A Mobile Tracking SDK (Software Development Kit) is a toolkit integrated into mobile apps to collect data on user behavior, in-app events, and app performance. It helps app owners understand how users interact with their app and enables tracking for analytics and user experience improvements.

Key Features:

• User Behavior Tracking: Track interactions such as clicks, screen views, and app open/close
• In-App Events: Log custom actions such as purchases, signups, and completed levels
• Device & Session Data: Collect device information and monitor both session lengths and navigation patterns
• Crash Reporting: Identify and report on app crashes

Step 1: Register your app within Siteimprove App Analytics 

The first thing you need to do is to register your app within the Siteimprove platform in order to generate an API key that will be used to implement the SDK. 

Navigate to App Analytics > App Analytics settings > App registrations Click “Create app registration”

Fill out the details of the app that you would like to track and analyze data for. 

Note:  You will need to create a registration for each language/mobile platform your app is available in. For example, seprate registrations are needed for iOS and for Android.

Add “App Store app ID” (this field is mandatory) and “App Store API key” to get data from the app delivery platform such as the Apple App Store or Google Play.

Once the registration is completed, an API key is automatically generated for the app and is visible when expanding the “API keys” column in the App registrations table. The API key is used by the developers when implementing the SDK into the app. The API key is used by Siteimprove to identify and map the app owner to their Siteimprove account.

Step 2: Implementing the Mobile Tracking SDK 

Implementing the SDK into your native app is typically a task for developers building and maintaining the app. 

1. Select the SDK: Choose the SDK for iOS or Android. For detailed steps on implementing the SDK, you can review our platform-specific guides 
   1. iOS SDK Integration Guide (github) Note: this link opens in a new tab
   2. Download the Android SDK Integration Guide Note: this link downloads a markdown file
2. Add to Project: Integrate the SDK into your app
3. Configure: Set up tracking events and initialize the SDK
4. Test (optional): Verify that data is correctly captured before release 
5. Publish: Publish the updated version of your app

Once the version of the app that contains the tracking SDK is published and users update to that version, data will be sent securely to Siteimprove.

Step 3: Configure app tracking setup within the Siteimprove platform 

Once the SDK is implemented and data starts to flow into Siteimprove databases, the final step is to configure information about how you want that data displayed within the Siteimprove platform. 

Navigate to App Analytics > App Analytics settings > App configurations 

Click “Create app” – this will create an app view within the Siteimprove platform that functions similarly to how a “Site” works for web analytics.

Select the app registration(s) you want the App “view” to show data for. If you have, for example, both an iOS version and an Android version of your app but want to analyze data as one united app they should both be selected here.

Set up your time zone configuration. If you select “dynamic,” the data displayed will reflect that of the app user’s time zone, whereas “custom” will always display data in the selected user's time zone.

Example: A user from Denmark and a user from the New York City open the app at the exact same time. In Denmark the time is 11am while the local time of the US app user is 5am. 

With dynamic time zone configuration, one display session will say 5am and the other will say it's 11am 

With custom time zone configuration set to “+1 Western Europe” both sessions will display the time as 11am 

Note:  IP anonymization is enabled by default and cannot be disabled in the current version of App Analytics. Similarly, data retention for App Analytics is locked at 36 months for active accounts.