Platform and application data tracking
Platform and application data tracking features capture information about the device and the app.
They are enabled by default. But the setting can be changed through TrackerConfiguration
like in the example below:
- iOS
- Android (Kotlin)
- Android (Java)
let trackerConfig = TrackerConfiguration()
.platformContext(true)
.applicationContext(true)
val trackerConfig = TrackerConfiguration("appId")
.platformContext(true)
.applicationContext(true)
TrackerConfiguration trackerConfig = new TrackerConfiguration("appId")
.platformContext(true)
.applicationContext(true);
Application context
The application context entity contains two properties:
Property | Type | Description | Required in schema |
---|---|---|---|
version | String | Version number of the application e.g 1.1.0 | Yes |
build | String | Build name of the application e.g s9f2k2d or 1.1.0 beta | Yes |
Platform context
The platform context entity contains the following properties:
Property | Type | Description | Required in schema |
---|---|---|---|
osType | String | Type of the operating system (e.g., "ios", "tvos", "watchos", "osx", "android") | Yes |
osVersion | String | Version of the mobile operating system. | Yes |
deviceManufacturer | String | Device vendor. | Yes |
deviceModel | String | Model of the device. | Yes |
carrier | String | Carrier of the SIM inserted in the device. | No |
networkType | String | One of: "mobile", "wifi", "offline" | No |
networkTechnology | String | Radio access technology that the device is using. | No |
openIdfa | String | Deprecated property. | No |
appleIdfa | String | Advertising identifier on iOS. | No |
appleIdfv | String | UUID identifier for vendors on iOS. | No |
androidIdfa | String | Advertising identifier on Android. | No |
physicalMemory | Integer | Total physical system memory in bytes | No |
systemAvailableMemory | Integer | Available memory on the system in bytes (Android only) | No |
appAvailableMemory | Integer | Amount of memory in bytes available to the current app (iOS only) | No |
batteryLevel | Integer | Remaining battery level as an integer percentage of total battery capacity | No |
batteryState | String | Battery state for the device. One of: "unplugged", "charging", "full". | No |
lowPowerMode | Boolean | A Boolean indicating whether Low Power Mode is enabled (iOS only) | No |
availableStorage | Integer | Bytes of storage remaining | No |
totalStorage | Integer | Total size of storage in bytes | No |
Identifier for Advertisers (IDFA/AAID)
The IDFA advertising identifiers are only added to the platform context if you fulfill the following requirements. Otherwise, their values will be NULL.
- iOS
- Android
The Apple advertising identifier is stored in the appleIdfa
property.
Starting with iOS 14, one has to request user consent through the App Tracking Transparency framework in order to access the advertising identifier.
- Add and follow the guidelines of App Tracking Transparency Framework in your app.
- Pass a callback to your
TrackerConfiguration
that retrieves the identifier:
import AdSupport
let tracker = Snowplow.createTracker(namespace: "ns", network: networkConfig) {
TrackerConfiguration()
.advertisingIdentifierRetriever {
ASIdentifierManager.shared().advertisingIdentifier
}
}
The simulators can’t generate a proper IDFA, instead they generate a sequence of zeros. If you want to test IDFA with a real code, please, use the physical device.
The user has the ability to limit ad-tracking from the device’s Settings. If the user enable the limitations the tracker will not be able to track the IDFA.
The AAID (Android Advertising ID) is a unique user-resettable identifier, which uniquely identifies a particular user for advertising use cases, such as ad personalization. The tracker allows retrieval of the AAID, sending it as property androidIdfa
.
For privacy purposes the user can reset the identifier at any moment. In that case the tracker will report a new AAID, despite the device and user being the same as before. Also, the user can "Opt out of Ads Personalisation" from the Android settings menu. In that case the tracker will report an empty string in place of the AAID.
If you want to track the AAID, you need to add the Google Mobile Ads library to your app. If it isn’t included, the tracker will not send the AAID with the events.
The Google Mobile Ads can be imported in the dependencies
section of the build.gradle
adding:
dependencies {
...
implementation 'com.google.android.gms:play-services-ads:19.0.0'
...
}
The Google Mobile Ads SDK v.17.0.0 introduced some changes requiring a tag in the androidManifest.xml
explained below.
Manifest tag for AdMob publishers
AdMob publishers have to add the AdMob app ID in the AndroidManifest.xml
file:
<manifest>
<application>
<!-- TODO: Replace with your real AdMob app ID -->
<meta-data
android:name="com.google.android.gms.ads.APPLICATION_ID"
android:value="ca-app-pub-################~##########"/>
</application>
</manifest>
Failure to add this tag will result in the app crashing at app launch with a message starting with "The Google Mobile Ads SDK was initialized incorrectly".
Manifest tag for Google Ad Manager publishers
Publishers using Google Ad Manager have to declare the app an "Ad Manager app" in the AndroidManifest.xml
file:
<manifest>
<application>
<meta-data
android:name="com.google.android.gms.ads.AD_MANAGER_APP"
android:value="true"/>
</application>
</manifest>
Failure to add this tag will result in the app crashing at app launch with a message starting with "The Google Mobile Ads SDK was initialized incorrectly".
Read more about Google Play Data safety here.