Improving app quality despite flawed mobile analytics

Abstract

Analytics can help improve the quality of software; the improvements are affected by the fidelity of the analytics. The impact of poor fidelity may vary depending on the type of data being collected, for example, for crashes low fidelity may be sufficient. The mobile ecosystem includes a platform where apps run and an app store that intermediates between developers and users. Google's Android ecosystem provides all the developers with analytics about various qualities of their app through a service called Android Vitals that automatically collects data on how their app is performing. My research found ways to improve app quality through using mobile analytics, including Android Vitals. It also found fidelity flaws in several analytics tools provided by Google. They confirmed and validated some flaws and chose not to discuss others.

Logging Practices with Mobile Analytics: An Empirical Study on Firebase

“…Mobile analytics tools are widely deployed to monitor software at runtime in the field. They have also been used to identify ways to improve app quality [35] and software testing [36]. Some of the mobile analytics tools focus on monitoring performance of the software [37], [38].…”