Apple’s App Analytics Beta Opens To All Developers

Apple is making the beta of its new App Analytics product available for all registered developers, starting today. The program lets developers provides users with access to a selection of metrics regarding their app and its usage, including what types of devices are accessing their software, and from where in the world they’re using them.
The native analytics feature don’t appear to be a replacement for more full-fledged app metrics suite, but it’s a start, and a welcome one for developers who aren’t looking to add additional costs to their outlay, and who had previously been using similar features available through TestFlight prior to its acquisition by Apple in February of last year.
So far, reaction seems to be fairly positive for the beta; developer Aaron Wojnowski, who created the app Musi which streams and organizes music from YouTube and Soundcloud, told TechCrunch that a few of its unique features are especially useful compared to third-party solutions.
“Apple breaks it down so you can see the retention of your app based on the day that it was downloaded,” he wrote in an email. “For Musi specifically, 30 day retention was around 20-25%. Being able to get trustworthy retention information versus having to deduce information through a third-party was really nice to have.”
Wojnowski was also impressed by one panel in particular, which he said provided unique info not available anywhere else, and which changed his approach to app marketing by encouraging him to contact websites which had previously reviewed his app to ask for updates based on subsequent changes made to the software.
“To my surprise, above all else in the App Analytics beta, for me the most valuable panel is definitely the sources area,” he told TC. “In this area, Apple breaks down the sources of all of the visitors to your listing page in detail, so you can see whether a visitor is from Google, Reddit, etc. Initially, I was shocked to see that websites that had published reviews or articles about Musi years ago were still bringing in downloads.”

While these stood out to Wojnowski as key benefits of the new analytics product, he added that he’s hoping Apple adds more fine-grained detail to the stats in tracks, including things like search result sources, bounce rates and more, which are currently offered in third-party platforms like App Annie, Flurry and others.
Mango Health co-founder Jason Oberfest told TC via email that his company is “excited” about the analytics beta, and that it has changed their approach to marketing and product development.
“The ability App Analytics gives us to view the full customer funnel – from initial conversion on the App Store to use of the Mango Health app over time – gives us the insight we need to fully tune our products and our marketing campaigns.”
If you’re a developer and you want to check them out for yourself, you’re now free to do so. Built-in tools are definitely a good thing no matter how you slice it, and I doubt Apple will stop here in terms of iterating on this product.