Mobile Tracking Overview

In addition to the JavaScript-based Google Analytics Tracking Code that empowers webmasters to track activity on standard web pages, Google Analytics also provides a web service and a pair of SDKs to help track user interaction with websites and applications accessed from a mobile device.

If you're developing for a mobile platform, you can use Google Analytics to track the following kinds of user activities:

User engagement with a native iOS or Android application

The Google Analytics for Mobile Apps SDKs make it easy for you to implement Google Analytics in your mobile apps. The SDKs can be downloaded and used with the iOS and Android application platforms.

The SDKS enable you to track usage of your app just as if it were a website. First, identify the places in your app where you'd like to trigger a pageview or an event, then use the SDK to send these events to Google Analytics.

If you're an Android developer, Analytics also gives you the tools to monitor the success of mobile ads for your app. You can track activity from a click on your ad, to the Android Market, to app download. It's a simple way to determine what marketing efforts are most effective for you.

For more information on tracking user engagement with your native mobile apps, see the developer guides for Android and iOS.

Activity on websites specially tailored for low-end mobile devices

All the same data that you've come to expect from your Google Analytics reports is now available for mobile websites. Simply paste our server-side code snippets (available for PHP, JSP, ASP.NET, and Perl) on each page you wish to track. Google Analytics then creates a profile for your mobile website where you can view the same kind of information that's in standard Analytics reports including visitor information and traffic sources. You'll be able to track users visiting your mobile website from both high-end "smartphones" and WAP devices.

For more information on tracking hits to mobile sites, see the server-side developer's guide.

Activity on standard websites accessed from high-end mobile devices

You can use Google Analytics to track traffic to your regular website that comes from high-end mobile devices like iPhones, Android devices, and the Palm Pre. All traffic from high-end mobile devices can be viewed by device or carrier under the 'Visitors' section in the 'Mobile' tab of your Analytics account, or in the 'Mobile advanced' section.