Custom Parameters vs. User Properties

[Michaela Linhart]

Hi, 

I read through the whole Firebase Analytics documentation the last days and just wondering if Custom Parameters are the same than User Properties. 

According to the docu, I can send only 25 User Properties to Firebase. 

Then I found this interesing paragraph here: https://firebase.google.com/docs/analytics/ios/events#log_events

"Custom Parameters: Although these custom parameters are not represented directly in your Analytics reports, they can be used as filters in audience definitions that can be applied to every report. Custom parameters are also included in data exported to BigQuery if your app is linked to a BQ project."

Does this mean, that custom parameters extends events and are not the same than User Properties?

Or ist "custom parameter" just an additonal name for "user properties"?

Thanks in advance and br, 

Mimi

[Steve Ganem]

Hi Mimi,

User Properties are similar is some respects to Custom Event Parameters -- both add context to an event so you can better understand the nature of each event.  

However, User Properties differ from Custom Event Parameters in the following ways :

1. You set User Property values once (via the setUserProperty API) and they persist across all lifecycles of the app.

2. After setting as User Property value, it is automatically associated with every event that is logged thereafter.

3. If you register the User Property in the Analytics "User Properties" tab, you can use it to filter all of your reports.

#3 is really where the power of User Properties is displayed and where the distinction between User Properties and Custom Event Parameters is most obvious.  You should think about the characteristics which distinguish some of your users from others and register User Properties for each of those characteristics.  For example, if you know the profession of your users, you should register a "profession" User Property.  Then, you would be able to apply this User Property as a filter on all of your reports to produce insights into how different segments of your userbase use your app differently.  

User Properties are also very handy for measuring experiments.  For example, if your app shows ads, but you're not sure how frequently you should show ads because it might impact user engagement, you can register a User Property called "ad_frequency" and set the value to X (the frequency) and then filter all of your reports using this User Property to gauge the impact of each value.

Hope that helps.

Steve Ganem

Product Manager, Firebase Analytics

[salesfor...@gmail.com]

Hi Steve,

Thanks for the helpful explaination. I have one more question: are we able to change the user property during the app is running, e.g. set a property onCreate method and then set it to another value in onButtonClick method?

Thanks!

[Steve Ganem]

Although you can change the user property value while the app is running, we generally recommend that you use these properties to describe a user (not a transitive state in the app).  Although you could use them the way you describe to get some interesting reporting, your user metrics (i.e. the count of "Users" reported in various places in Firebase Analytics) would be inaccurate. 

[salesfor...@gmail.com]

Thanks for the reply!

Sorry I got one more question: I notice that when I run an app with a user property set, it took some time for Firebase to know that, because when I send notification to the audiencen(with the user property that I just set in the code), the app is not able to receive the notification. It looks like after some time, it can receive the notification.

Is this work as designed?

Thanks!

[Steve Ganem]

Once you set the user property using the SDK, you need to log at least one event in order for that user property to be reported to our server.  Once an event is logged, the SDK will upload that event (along with the latest user property values) within about 1 hour.  And then those audience members will be made available for targeting after that.