What Are Non-Web Referrers?

Answer

Non-web referrers are traffic sources that come from non-website environments such as apps or documents.

Definition

Most of the referral traffic we receive usually comes from another website. However, links can also be opened from other places, like a mobile device’s operating system, an app, a PDF, or an email. In many of these cases, the browser may not send us a standard referrer, but we do still pick up some information—especially from Android devices. These referrals don’t look like normal web addresses. Instead, they might appear as something like android-app://com.google.android.googlequicksearchbox/.