Tracking App Uninstalls - Android

[Roman Khan]

We have integrated CleverTap in our Android and iOS Apps.My question is how is app uninstall getting tracked on Android specifically ? there is no documentation fully explaining the methodology of uninstall tracking.

As per the Uninstall detection documentation, it says that if we are parsing the GCM payload then we have to check whether "nm" parameter is storing any data or not, failing to put this conditional check would result in empty notifications.

Does the above explanation means that CleverTap on its own accord is sending out blank notifications to all our platform users to check whether the notification is getting delivered or not, hence reaching to the conclusion of App Uninstall ? 

Note : We experienced users getting blank notifications, and we checked all our systems with the capability to send out push notifications and could not find any Active push campaign, hence the explanation needed for the above question.

[Support]

Hi Roman,

Thanks for writing in -- sorry to hear this. We apologize for the blank push notifications that have been going out to your users!

Our uninstall tracking involves sending invisible blank push notifications to all users of your app (i.e., users for whom we have a valid device token in our database) every 24 hours to check whether the notification goes through. If the notification goes through to the user, this means that they still have your app installed; if it doesn't and we receive an error from GCM (Android) or APNS (iOS), it means they have uninstalled your app sometime in the last 24 hours.

This is precisely why we mention in our Uninstall documentation that if you are parsing the GCM payload (Android), then you must check whether the "nm" parameter has any data or not -- failing to add this conditional check would result in these blank notifications being visible to your users.

Hope this helps; we once again apologize for the inconvenience caused to your users. Please let us know if you have any other questions.

Thanks,

Support.