The hassle-free way to add Segment analytics to your React-Native app.
analytics-react-native 2.0.0 and greater. The code and readme for analytics-react-native versions below 2.0.0 can be found on the analytics-react-native-v1 branch. On May 15, 2023, Segment will end support for Analytics React Native Classic, which includes versions 1.5.1 and older. Upgrade to Analytics React Native 2.0.
- @segment/analytics-react-native
Install @segment/analytics-react-native, @segment/sovran-react-native and react-native-async-storage/async-storage:
yarn add @segment/analytics-react-native @segment/sovran-react-native @react-native-async-storage/async-storage
# or
npm install --save @segment/analytics-react-native @segment/sovran-react-native @react-native-async-storage/async-storageFor iOS, install native modules with:
npx pod-installAndroidManifest.xml.
🚀 @segment/analytics-react-native 2.0 is compatible with Expo's Custom Dev Client and EAS builds without any additional configuration. Destination Plugins that require native modules may require custom Expo Config Plugins.
@segment/analytics-react-native 2.0 is not compatible with Expo Go.
Android
In your app's `AndroidManifest.xml` add the below line between the `` tags.<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.ACCESS_NETWORK_STATE" />See the Migration Guide for a detailed walkthrough of the changes you will need to make when upgrading to analytics-react-native 2.0
The package exposes a method called createClient which we can use to create the Segment Analytics client. This
central client manages all our tracking events.
import { createClient } from '@segment/analytics-react-native';
const segmentClient = createClient({
writeKey: 'SEGMENT_API_KEY'
});You must pass at least the writeKey. Additional configuration options are listed below:
| Name | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|
writeKey (REQUIRED) |
'' | Your Segment API key. |
collectDeviceId |
false | Set to true to automatically collect the device Id.from the DRM API on Android devices. |
debug |
true* | When set to false, it will not generate any logs. |
logger |
undefined | Custom logger instance to expose internal Segment client logging. |
flushAt |
20 | How many events to accumulate before sending events to the backend. |
flushInterval |
30 | In seconds, how often to send events to the backend. |
maxBatchSize |
1000 | How many events to send to the API at once |
trackAppLifecycleEvents |
false | Enable automatic tracking for app lifecycle events: application installed, opened, updated, backgrounded) |
trackDeepLinks |
false | Enable automatic tracking for when the user opens the app via a deep link (Note: Requires additional setup on iOS, see instructions) |
defaultSettings |
undefined | Settings that will be used if the request to get the settings from Segment fails. Type: SegmentAPISettings |
autoAddSegmentDestination |
true | Set to false to skip adding the SegmentDestination plugin |
storePersistor |
undefined | A custom persistor for the store that analytics-react-native leverages. Must match Persistor interface exported from sovran-react-native. |
proxy |
undefined | proxy is a batch url to post to instead of 'https://api.segment.io/v1/b'. |
* The default value of debug will be false in production.
Note: This is only required for iOS if you are using the trackDeepLinks option. Android does not require any additional setup
To track deep links in iOS you must add the following to your AppDelegate.m file:
#import <segment_analytics_react_native-Swift.h>
...
- (BOOL)application:(UIApplication *)application
openURL: (NSURL *)url
options:(nonnull NSDictionary<UIApplicationOpenURLOptionsKey, id> *)options {
[AnalyticsReactNative trackDeepLink:url withOptions:options];
return YES;
}In order to use the useAnalytics hook within the application, we will additionally need to wrap the application in
an AnalyticsProvider. This uses the Context API and will allow
access to the analytics client anywhere in the application
import {
createClient,
AnalyticsProvider,
} from '@segment/analytics-react-native';
const segmentClient = createClient({
writeKey: 'SEGMENT_API_KEY'
});
const App = () => (
<AnalyticsProvider client={segmentClient}>
<Content />
</AnalyticsProvider>
);The client methods will be exposed via the useAnalytics() hook:
import React from 'react';
import { Text, TouchableOpacity } from 'react-native';
import { useAnalytics } from '@segment/analytics-react-native';
const Button = () => {
const { track } = useAnalytics();
return (
<TouchableOpacity
style={styles.button}
onPress={() => {
track('Awesome event');
}}
>
<Text style={styles.text}>Press me!</Text>
</TouchableOpacity>
);
};The tracking events can also be used without hooks by calling the methods directly on the client:
import {
createClient,
AnalyticsProvider,
} from '@segment/analytics-react-native';
// create the client once when the app loads
const segmentClient = createClient({
writeKey: 'SEGMENT_API_KEY'
});
// track an event using the client instance
segmentClient.track('Awesome event');The track method is how you record any actions your users perform, along with any properties that describe the action.
Method signature:
track: (event: string, properties?: JsonMap) => void;Example usage:
const { track } = useAnalytics();
track('View Product', {
productId: 123,
productName: 'Striped trousers',
});The screen call lets you record whenever a user sees a screen in your mobile app, along with any properties about the screen.
Method signature:
screen: (name: string, properties?: JsonMap) => void;Example usage:
const { screen } = useAnalytics();
screen('ScreenName', {
productSlug: 'example-product-123',
});For setting up automatic screen tracking, see the instructions below.
The identify call lets you tie a user to their actions and record traits about them. This includes a unique user ID and any optional traits you know about them like their email, name, etc. The traits option can include any information you might want to tie to the user, but when using any of the reserved user traits, you should make sure to only use them for their intended meaning.
Method signature:
identify: (userId: string, userTraits?: JsonMap) => void;Example usage:
const { identify } = useAnalytics();
identify('user-123', {
username: 'MisterWhiskers',
email: 'hello@test.com',
plan: 'premium',
});The group API call is how you associate an individual user with a group—be it a company, organization, account, project, team or whatever other crazy name you came up with for the same concept! This includes a unique group ID and any optional group traits you know about them like the company name industry, number of employees, etc. The traits option can include any information you might want to tie to the group, but when using any of the reserved group traits, you should make sure to only use them for their intended meaning.
Method signature:
group: (groupId: string, groupTraits?: JsonMap) => void;Example usage:
const { group } = useAnalytics();
group('some-company', {
name: 'Segment',
});The alias method is used to merge two user identities, effectively connecting two sets of user data as one. This is an advanced method, but it is required to manage user identities successfully in some of our destinations.
Method signature:
alias: (newUserId: string) => void;Example usage:
const { alias } = useAnalytics();
alias('user-123');The reset method clears the internal state of the library for the current user and group. This is useful for apps where users can log in and out with different identities over time.
Note: Each time you call reset, a new AnonymousId is generated automatically.
Method signature:
reset: () => void;Example usage:
const { reset } = useAnalytics();
reset();By default, the analytics will be sent to the API after 30 seconds or when 20 items have accumulated, whatever happens sooner, and whenever the app resumes if the user has closed the app with some events unsent. These values can be modified by the flushAt and flushInterval config options. You can also trigger a flush event manually.
Method signature:
flush: () => Promise<void>;Example usage:
const { flush } = useAnalytics();
flush();You probably don't need this!
In case you need to reinitialize the client, that is, you've called createClient more than once for the same client in your application lifecycle, use this method on the old client to clear any subscriptions and timers first.
let client = createClient({
writeKey: 'KEY'
});
client.cleanup();
client = createClient({
writeKey: 'KEY'
});If you don't do this, the old client instance would still exist and retain the timers, making all your events fire twice.
Ideally, you shouldn't need this though, and the Segment client should be initialized only once in the application lifecycle.
Sending a screen() event with each navigation action will get tiresome quick, so you'll probably want to track navigation globally. The implementation will be different depending on which library you use for navigation. The two main navigation libraries for React Native are React Navigation and React Native Navigation.
Our example app is set up with screen tracking using React Navigation, so you can use it as a guide.
Essentially what we'll do is find the root level navigation container and call screen() whenever user has navigated to a new screen.
Find the file where you've used the NavigationContainer - the main top level container for React Navigation. In this component, create 2 new refs to store the navigation object and the current route name:
const navigationRef = useRef(null);
const routeNameRef = useRef(null);Next, pass the ref to NavigationContainer and a function in the onReady prop to store the initial route name. Finally, pass a function in the onStateChange prop of your NavigationContainer that checks for the active route name and calls client.screen() if the route has changes. You can pass in any additional screen parameters as the second argument for screen call as needed.
<NavigationContainer
ref={navigationRef}
onReady={() => {
routeNameRef.current = navigationRef.current.getCurrentRoute().name;
}}
onStateChange={() => {
const previousRouteName = routeNameRef.current;
const currentRouteName = navigationRef.current?.getCurrentRoute().name;
if (previousRouteName !== currentRouteName) {
segmentClient.screen(currentRouteName);
routeNameRef.current = currentRouteName;
}
}}
>In order to setup automatic screen tracking while using React Native Navigation, you will have to use an event listener. That can be done at the point where you are setting up the root of your application (ie. Navigation.setRoot). There your will need access to your SegmentClient.
// Register the event listener for *registerComponentDidAppearListener*
Navigation.events().registerComponentDidAppearListener(({ componentName }) => {
segmentClient.screen(componentName);
});You have complete control over how the events are processed before being uploaded to the Segment API.
In order to customise what happens after an event is created, you can create and place various Plugins along the processing pipeline that an event goes through. This pipeline is referred to as a Timeline.
| Plugin Type | Description |
|---|---|
| before | Executed before event processing begins. |
| enrichment | Executed as the first level of event processing. |
| destination | Executed as events begin to pass off to destinations. |
| after | Executed after all event processing is completed. This can be used to perform cleanup operations, etc. |
| utility | Executed only when called manually, such as Logging. |
Plugins can have their own native code (such as the iOS-only IdfaPlugin) or wrap an underlying library (such as FirebasePlugin which uses react-native-firebase under the hood)
Segment is included as a DestinationPlugin out of the box. You can add as many other DestinationPlugins as you like, and upload events and data to them in addition to Segment.
Or if you prefer, you can pass autoAddSegmentDestination = false in the options when setting up your client. This prevents the SegmentDestination plugin from being added automatically for you.
You can add a plugin at any time through the segmentClient.add() method.
import { createClient } from '@segment/analytics-react-native';
import { AmplitudeSessionPlugin } from '@segment/analytics-react-native-plugin-amplitude-session';
import { FirebasePlugin } from '@segment/analytics-react-native-plugin-firebase';
import { IdfaPlugin } from '@segment/analytics-react-native-plugin-idfa';
const segmentClient = createClient({
writeKey: 'SEGMENT_KEY'
});
segmentClient.add({ plugin: new AmplitudeSessionPlugin() });
segmentClient.add({ plugin: new FirebasePlugin() });
segmentClient.add({ plugin: new IdfaPlugin() });Plugins are implemented as ES6 Classes. To get started, familiarise yourself with the available classes in /packages/core/src/plugin.ts.
The available plugin classes are:-
PluginEventPluginDestinationPluginUtilityPluginPlatformPlugin
Any plugins must be an extension of one of these classes.
You can them customise the functionality by overriding different methods on the base class. For example, here is a simple Logger plugin:
// logger.js
import {
Plugin,
PluginType,
SegmentEvent,
} from '@segment/analytics-react-native';
export class Logger extends Plugin {
// Note that `type` is set as a class property
// If you do not set a type your plugin will be a `utility` plugin (see Plugin Types above)
type = PluginType.before;
execute(event: SegmentEvent) {
console.log(event);
return event;
}
}// app.js
import { Logger } from './logger';
segmentClient.add({ plugin: new Logger() });As it overrides the execute() method, this Logger will call console.log for every event going through the Timeline.
Refer to the following table for Plugins you can use to meet your tracking needs:
| Plugin | Package |
|---|---|
| Adjust | @segment/analytics-react-native-plugin-adjust |
| Amplitude Sessions | @segment/analytics-react-native-plugin-amplitude-session |
| AppsFlyer | @segment/analytics-react-native-plugin-appsflyer |
| Braze | @segment/analytics-react-native-plugin-braze |
| Braze Middleware (Cloud Mode) | @segment/analytics-react-native-plugin-braze-middleware |
| Facebook App Events | @segment/analytics-react-native-plugin-facebook-app-events |
| Firebase | @segment/analytics-react-native-plugin-firebase |
| FullStory | @fullstory/segment-react-native-plugin-fullstory |
| IDFA | @segment/analytics-react-native-plugin-idfa |
| Mixpanel | @segment/analytics-react-native-plugin-mixpanel |
| Sprig | @sprig-technologies/analytics-react-native-plugin-sprig |
| Taplytics | @taplytics/segment-react-native-plugin-taplytics |
| Android Advertising ID | @segment/analytics-react-native-plugin-advertising-id |
To more granurily control when events are uploaded you can use FlushPolicies
A Flush Policy defines the strategy for deciding when to flush, this can be on an interval, on a certain time of day, after receiving a certain number of events or even after receiving a particular event. This gives you even more flexibility on when to send event to Segment.
To make use of flush policies you can set them in the configuration of the client:
const client = createClient({
// ...
flushPolicies: [
new CountFlushPolicy(5),
new TimerFlushPolicy(500),
new StartupFlushPolicy(),
],
});You can set several policies at a time. Whenever any of them decides it is time for a flush it will trigger an upload of the events. The rest get reset so that their logic restarts after every flush.
That means only the first policy to reach shouldFlush gets to trigger a flush at a time. In the example above either the event count gets to 5 or the timer reaches 500ms, whatever comes first will trigger a flush.
We have several standard FlushPolicies:
CountFlushPolicytriggers whenever a certain number of events is reachedTimerFlushPolicytriggers on an interval of millisecondsStartupFlushPolicytriggers on client startup only
One of the main advatanges of FlushPolicies is that you can add and remove policies on the fly. This is very powerful when you want to reduce or increase the amount of flushes.
For example you might want to disable flushes if you detect the user has no network:
import NetInfo from "@react-native-community/netinfo";
const policiesIfNetworkIsUp = [
new CountFlushPolicy(5),
new TimerFlushPolicy(500),
];
// Create our client with our policies by default
const client = createClient({
// ...
flushPolicies: policies,
});
// If we detect the user disconnects from the network remove all flush policies,
// that way we won't keep attempting to send events to segment but we will still
// store them for future upload.
// If the network comes back up we add the policies back
const unsubscribe = NetInfo.addEventListener((state) => {
if (state.isConnected) {
client.addFlushPolicy(...policiesIfNetworkIsUp);
} else {
client.removeFlushPolicy(...policiesIfNetworkIsUp)
}
});You can create a custom FlushPolicy special for your application needs by implementing the FlushPolicy interface. You can also extend the FlushPolicyBase class that already creates and handles the shouldFlush value reset.
A FlushPolicy only needs to implement 2 methods:
start(): Executed when the flush policy is enabled and added to the client. This is a good place to start background operations, make async calls, configure things before executiononEvent(event: SegmentEvent): Gets called on every event tracked by your clientreset(): Called after a flush is triggered (either by your policy, by another policy or manually)
They also have a shouldFlush observable boolean value. When this is set to true the client will atempt to upload events. Each policy should reset this value to false according to its own logic, although it is pretty common to do it inside the reset method.
export class FlushOnScreenEventsPolicy extends FlushPolicyBase {
onEvent(event: SegmentEvent): void {
// Only flush when a screen even happens
if (event.type === EventType.ScreenEvent) {
this.shouldFlush.value = true;
}
}
reset(): void {
// Superclass will reset the shouldFlush value so that the next screen event triggers a flush again
// But you can also reset the value whenever, say another event comes in or after a timeout
super.reset();
}
}You can handle analytics client errors through the errorHandler option.
The error handler configuration receives a function which will get called whenever an error happens on the analytics client. It will receive an argument of SegmentError type.
You can use this error handling to trigger different behaviours in the client when a problem occurs. For example if the client gets rate limited you could use the error handler to swap flush policies to be less aggressive:
const flushPolicies = [new CountFlushPolicy(5), new TimerFlushPolicy(500)];
const errorHandler = (error: SegmentError) => {
if (error.type === ErrorType.NetworkServerLimited) {
// Remove all flush policies
segmentClient.removeFlushPolicy(...segmentClient.getFlushPolicies());
// Add less persistent flush policies
segmentClient.addFlushPolicy(
new CountFlushPolicy(100),
new TimerFlushPolicy(5000)
);
}
};
const segmentClient = createClient({
writeKey: 'WRITE_KEY',
trackAppLifecycleEvents: true,
collectDeviceId: true,
debug: true,
trackDeepLinks: true,
flushPolicies: flushPolicies,
errorHandler: errorHandler,
});The reported errors can be of any of the ErrorType enum values.
Plugins can also report errors to the handler by using the .reportInternalError function of the analytics client, we recommend using the ErrorType.PluginError for consistency, and attaching the innerError with the actual exception that was hit:
try {
distinctId = await mixpanel.getDistinctId();
} catch (e) {
analytics.reportInternalError(
new SegmentError(ErrorType.PluginError, 'Error: Mixpanel error calling getDistinctId', e)
);
analytics.logger.warn(e);
}See the contributing guide to learn how to contribute to the repository and the development workflow.
Before contributing, please also see our code of conduct.
MIT