App / Screen Measurement

This guide describes how to set up screen event measurement with analytics.js

Overview

Screens in Google Analytics represent content users are viewing within an app. The equivalent concept for a website is pages. Measuring screen views allows you to see which content is being viewed most by your users, and how are they are navigating between different pieces of content.

Implementation

Screen hits can be sent using the send command and specifying a hitType of screenview. The send command has the following signature for the screenview hit type:

ga('send', 'screenview', [fieldsObject]);

Screen fields

Field Name	Value Type	Required	Description
screenName	text	yes	The name of the screen.

Screen data is typically sent to Google Analytics views of type "app" (rather than "web"), which means in addition to sending the screenName, you must also send at least the appName field.

The following table lists the app fields that can be sent to app views.

Field Name	Value Type	Required	Description
appName	text	yes	The name of the application.
appId	text	no	The Id of the application.
appVersion	text	no	The application version.
appInstallerId	text	no	The Id of the application installer.

For more details on the distinction between web and app views in Google Analytics, refer to the Difference between web and app views article in the Analytics Help Center.

Examples

The following command sends a screenview hit to Google Analytics for an app named "myAppName" and the screen "Home":

ga('send', 'screenview', {
  'appName': 'myAppName',
  'screenName': 'Home'
});

Since the appName field must be sent with all app hits, it's often best to set that field with the set command:

ga('create', 'GA_MEASUREMENT_ID', 'auto');
ga('set', 'appName', 'myAppName');

// The `appName` field is now set, so
// screenview hits don't need to include it.
ga('send', 'screenview', {screenName: 'Home'});

For more details, examples, and best practices for sending hits, see the Sending Data to Google Analytics guide. For more details on the calling signature of the send command, see the command queue reference.

Using filters for app-only or web-only views

If you send web and app data for the same property (UA-XXXXX-Y), Google Analytics will display both sets of data in views for that property. This allows for combined app and web views.

If you want to send app and web data for the same property but maintain a separate app and/or web view you can create Filters. For example, you can have a combined view (default), a web view, and an app view.

App View Filter

Create a Custom Filter to Include only app data by setting Application? to yes.

Figure 1: Filter settings for an App View.

Web view filter

Create a Custom Filter to Include only web data by setting Application? to no.

Figure 2: Filter settings for a Web View.