android - How to move from Google-Analytics to Firebase-Analytics?

Question

Background

In the recent months, Google has published a new Analytics alternative, called "Firebase Analytics" .

The problem

As the app already does have Google-Analytics, I find some obstacles that I can't see how to best handle.

The questions

1. Previously, "newTracker" function needed a property-id. Now I don't see it. Does it mean it doesn't need one?

2. Previously, "enableAdvertisingIdCollection " was available to collect ads info too. I can't find it in new APIs. Is it automatically collected?

3. "setDryRun" was available to disable sending the data to the servers, and now I don't see it. Does it mean it's automatically this way for debug versions of the app? Do all functions write to the logs?

4. Previously, I could track a "screen" :

   public void setScreenName(String name) {
       mGoogleAnalyticsTracker.setScreenName(name);
       mGoogleAnalyticsTracker.send(new HitBuilders.ScreenViewBuilder().build());
   }
   

   Now I don't see it, but as I've read, I think it's automatic, so it sends data of the activity lifecycle anyway. Is it true?

5. Probably the most important thing: previously I could track using category, action, label and value:

   public void trackEvent(final String category, final String action, final String label, final long value) {
       mGoogleAnalyticsTracker.send(new HitBuilders.EventBuilder()
               .setCategory(category).setAction(action)
               .setLabel(label).setValue(value).build());
   }
   

   and now I see a completely different way to track events ("custom events"), using bundles. Example:

   Bundle bundle = new Bundle();
   bundle.putString(FirebaseAnalytics.Param.ITEM_ID, id);
   bundle.putString(FirebaseAnalytics.Param.ITEM_NAME, name);
   bundle.putString(FirebaseAnalytics.Param.CONTENT_TYPE, "image");
   mFirebaseAnalytics.logEvent(FirebaseAnalytics.Event.SELECT_CONTENT, bundle);
   

   How does it work? How is it shown in the website of Firebase Analytics? I suppose I could have the first parameter of logEvent behave like the category parameter of the Google-Analytics, but what can/should I do for the rest? According to the docs, this should be ok:

   public void trackEvent(final String category, final String action, final String label, final long value) {
       Bundle bundle = new Bundle();
       bundle.putString("action", action);
       bundle.putString("label", label);
       bundle.putLong("value", value);
       mFirebaseAnalytics.logEvent(category, bundle);
   }
   

6. Which events are actually automatically being tracked (I ask this because some are said that I shouldn't use, here) ? Do they include purchases? app-invites? ads? Where do I see them in the console website ?

7. About logs, it says that the new SDK does it by :

   You can enable verbose logging with a series of adb commands:

   adb shell setprop log.tag.FA VERBOSE adb shell setprop log.tag.FA-SVC VERBOSE adb logcat -v time -s FA FA-SVC

   What do those commands do? How can I disable it? I've noticed it even gets shown in release version of the app...

8. Is the new SDK supposed to replace Google-Analytics? Is it suggested to fully move to it? Will Google-Analytics have any updates?

Answer 1

Lots of questions bundled together so I'll try to briefly answer most of them:

1. Google Analytics reports on tracker-ids, Firebase Analytics reports on applications. There is only one id in the application defined in your google-services.json. The ID is translated to a string resource by google services plugin under "google_app_id" name. All events from the app are reported to this single id.
2. Firebase Analytics reports AdId automatically. You don't need to enable it.
3. There is no dryRun feature. You can either use separate google-services.json during development, filter out development version using the app version or add user-property to mark the app instances used for development.

4. You can report screens with

   Bundle params = new Bundle();
   params.putString(FirebaseAnalytics.Param.ITEM_CATEGORY, "screen");
   params.putString(FirebaseAnalytics.Param.ITEM_NAME, "screen name");
   firebaseAnalytics.logEvent(FirebaseAnalytics.Event.VIEW_ITEM, params);
   

5. You can log custom event with the same params

   Bundle params = new Bundle();
   params.putString("category", category);
   params.putString("action", action);
   params.putString("label", label);
   params.putLong("value", value);
   firebaseAnalytics.logEvent("xyz_event", params);
   

   The "ga_" prefix is reserved and your analytics will fail if you use it. Instead, use "xyz_" where xyz is your company's initials, for example.

   Do not use the category as event name unless you have very few categories you want to track. Firebase Analytics supports up to 500 event names. Logging more than that will cause some of your data to be ignored.

6. There is a list of reserved event names in the beginning of the FirebaseAnalytics.Event class. It roughly represents the automatic events reported.

7. Firebase Analytics has debug logging disabled by default. It only logs errors and warnings. If you don't enable debug logging and your app is correctly configured there are only 2 lines that are being logged when the app starts with instructions on how to enable debug logging. There is nothing to disable in production and there is no equivalent to setLogLevel(ERROR) from Google Analytics. WARN is the default logging level. You can only enable logging on individual device by running the adb command on the device). That helps you avoid shipping app in production with debug logging enabled.

8. Google Analytics SDK for Android and iOS is not deprecated and will be supported and updated for foreseeable future. You don't need to move away from it if you already invested using it in your app and it is meeting your needs.