Firebase Analytics first_open from Google Analytics

Question

My Android app now uses Google Analytics.

However, I want to add Firebase Analytics as well.

Let's say the new version of the app now has an FA.

• Will the "first_open" event be fired for old users and tag them, since they only opened the application just now?

• Is it possible to associate FA with GA and get the correct "first_open" for old users?

• Should I introduce my own “user property” to mark users who had a previous version of the application when they first launch the new version?

• Perhaps the tricky question is: if the user installs a new version, and FA tries to set such a "user property" (only once), but the user does not have an Internet connection at the moment. Will this “custom property” be sent to the FA somehow in the future?

Thanks!

Answer 1

The current Firebase analytics library will report first_open when the Firebase Analytics app is first launched. This includes starting after upgrading the application from a version without Firebase to a version with Firebase. We are working on eliminating fires_open from users after updating the application from Firebase, but this change is not yet included.

FA does not know about GA in the application, and there is no way to tell FA if it is first_open after updating vs first_open after installing the application. This will be automated in one of the next releases, as I mentioned earlier.

Setting a user property will not work, since first_open is written at an early stage in the application life cycle and before you can access the singleton FA. You will not be able to set the user property before recording the first_open event.

Setting user properties is orthogonal to the connection of applications. All events registered before the property was set will not have it, all events registered after the property is set will have the property. Connectivity only affects when data can be loaded, not the data content. If your application runs on a standalone device, data will be downloaded when the device is able to connect. The data itself is almost identical.