Share links and installs

When your app lets people share a link, simpledatalogs can tell you how many shares there were, how many links were opened, and which installs came from a share.

What to send

Where	Event	Props
Your app, when someone shares	app_shared (any name you like)	share_id: a random id you make per share, also put on the link
Your share page, in the browser	any event, such as share_card_view	share_id read from the link
Your app, on its first launch	app_installed	nothing extra, or install_referrer on Android

Make the share id short and random, such as 8 letters and digits (A-Z, a-z, 0-9, _, -, up to 64). Never use a device id or a user id as the share id.

https://example.com/share/?s=K7F2mQ9x

How an install finds its share

simpledatalogs writes share_id and attribution onto app_installed the moment it arrives. The first match wins:

attribution	When	How exact
link	Your app already put share_id on app_installed, for example from a deep link	Exact
referrer	Android: the Play install referrer carries share_id (see below)	Exact
ip	A browser opened a link with that share_id from the same IP address within the last 24 hours	A good guess

The ip match works across the projects and environments of one organization, so a share page tracked in your website project matches an install in your app project.

It is a guess: people on the same Wi-Fi or mobile network share an address, and an install more than a day after the click isn't matched. Link previews (Messages, Slack, WhatsApp) are bots and never count as opens.

Android: the Play install referrer

Put the share id in the Play Store link's referrer:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.example.app&referrer=share_id%3DK7F2mQ9x

On the first launch, read it with the SDK and send it on app_installed:

SimpleDataLogs.installReferrer(context) { installReferrer ->
    SimpleDataLogs.track("app_installed", mapOf("install_referrer" to installReferrer))
}

simpledatalogs reads share_id out of the referrer.

On a board

Add a card with Which shares bring installs? (see Boards). It shows the totals in one line, such as "20 shares by 5 users · 12 opened · 2 installs (1 by IP match)", and a table of the sharers who brought the most installs.

Other cards work too:

• Installs from shares: a Number of app_installed where share_id is set, broken down by attribution.
• Best shares: app_installed broken down by share_id.

Privacy

• The IP address is never stored. Ingest keeps only a hash of it, under a salt that changes every day and is deleted the next day.
• That hash is kept for two days, only for browser visits that carry a share_id, and never in your events.
• Projects with No device IDs turned on get no hash, so their installs are matched only by link or referrer.
• Say in your privacy policy that an install can be matched to the shared link that led to it.

See Privacy for senders.