Using the Reach and device overview page (Release > Reach and devices > Overview) in Play Console, you can access information about the distribution of your app's users and issues. This can help you to make better decisions about what device specifications to build for, what geographies to target, and what testing and optimization to plan for. You can also explore individual attributes in more detail on the Attribute details page.
This article explains how to use the different filters on these two pages, and provides definitions for the available metrics.
Reach and device overview
The Reach and device overview page (Release > Reach and devices > Overview) allows you to pick and compare two user or issue (quality) metrics. Go to the Metric definitions section below to view the current list of available metrics and their definitions.
The scorecard at the top of the page shows the aggregate value of these metrics for your app; user and issue (quality) metrics align with Statistics and Android vitals respectively, and you can navigate to these pages in Play Console from the scorecards.
The body of the page shows a breakdown of your selected metrics by device attribute, and their trends over time, along with peers’ median data for context when available. The page shows the top three attributes for your app by default. For example: install base and crash rate on top three versions of Android; application not responding (ANR) rate and crash rate on top three RAM values, and so on.
Customize your Overview
Here are the different ways you can customize what's shown on the Reach and device overview page:
1. Review and update the metrics
Use the filters to change the metrics. Showing user and quality metrics at the same time can be useful for investment decisions about debugging and optimization.
2. Apply country/region filters
You can filter for the locations that you’re interested in using the filter bar at the top of the page. Your chosen filters are applied to all the charts and data on the page.
3. Select or change peer group
You can choose a reference group of apps for which to display user and quality data, to give context to your own data, or to plan for a title that is not yet launched.
- Note: Peer data is only available for one country at a time. If you select two or more countries, peer comparisons aren't available. Go to the Peer benchmarks section below to learn more.
4. Expand or hide attributes of interest
Click on the down/up arrows on the right hand side of the page to expand or collapse any attribute.
The Reach and device overview page only shows you the top three values for any attribute. For additional filtering and visualizations, click Explore to open the Attribute details page for the selected attribute.
Install base chart
The "Install base" chart shows the largest three values of each attribute by install base for your app. It also shows the corresponding values for the selected peer group.
You can hover over a bar to display the install base distribution for your app and its peers, as well as the absolute install base for your app.
Install base over time
The "Install base over time" chart shows the largest three values of each attribute by install base for your app, and their history over the selected time period.
You can hover over the chart to display the install base distribution for your app, and the cumulative install base for the attributes (except for Application Binary Interfaces (ABIs)).
Quality (issue rate) chart
The "Quality (issue rate) chart" shows the largest three values of each attribute by crash or ANR rate for your app. It also shows the corresponding values for the selected peer group. The issue rate is calculated for the time period you selected (up to a maximum of 90 days). Go to the Metric definitions section below to learn more.
You can hover over a bar to display the issue rate for your app and its peers.
Quality (issue rate) over time
The "Quality (issue rate) over time" chart shows the largest three values of each attribute by crash or ANR rate for your app, and their history over the selected time period. It also shows the average issue rate for your app, so you can see how your top attributes compare. Note that the issue rate is only available for 90 days (the same as Android vitals).
You can hover over a bar to display the issue rate for your app for the selected attributes, and the total issue rate.
Attribute details
If you click Explore next to one of the attributes on the Reach and device overview page, the Attribute details page will open for the selected attribute.The Attribute details page offers additional features to get a more detailed understanding of reach issues. You can change the attribute that you focus on using the toggle at the top of the screen, without having to return to the Reach and device overview page.
Customize the Attribute details page
Unlike the Reach and device overview page, which displays the top three values for your selected metrics across all attributes, the Attribute details page focuses on just one attribute at a time. You can choose which attribute to show using the attribute picker at the top of the page ("Install base" and "Crash rate" are selected by default); the picker includes the values of your selected metrics for each attribute, in sortable columns, to help you make your selection.
Your selections are applied to the entire Attribute details page. If you navigate away from the details page, your selections will be reset.
See absolute count of issues, as well as issue rate
If you choose issue metrics, the chart in the Attribute details page plots the total number of sessions with issues on the right-hand y-axis. This shows you the absolute scale of issues for your users, taking into account not only the issue rate but also the current user base.
Data table
The data table shows the attributes that you have selected in the upper group, and the other available values in the lower section. It can be sorted by any column: sorting will change the order within each section.
See cumulative or discrete charts
You can view charts showing install data over time in two ways: discrete or cumulative. The discrete view plots each value separately. The cumulative view shows the install data aggregated over time, making it useful for device specification-related decisions.
If you only want to view your own app’s data, you can hide comparisons on the charts. This can be useful if you want to focus on the trend of your app's data.
Export
You can export the time series data for each metric as a CSV file by clicking Export.
Understand Reach and devices data
Metric definitions
User metrics (app, peers’ median and Google Play)
- App or peer: The number of active devices your app is installed on. An active device is one that has been turned on at least once in the previous 30 days. The most recent day’s data is shown. Data is refreshed daily.
- Google Play (only available for select Play partners): The number of Google Play devices that have been turned on at least once in the last 28 days. This data includes all apps on Google Play, and is not specific to your app. The most recent day’s data is shown. Data is refreshed every 28 days.
When referencing Google Play data, note that, in some scenarios, it's not possible to provide exact figures. In this case, the data will be shown in one of two ways:
- As a range, or
-
as a tier from one (lowest) to five (highest), where each tier is the same ‘width.’ For example, tier five Systems on Chips (SoCs) would have a higher install base than tier two SoCs. Tiered data cannot be compared directly to percentage values, so it's plotted on a secondary y-axis to your app or peer data.
Issue metrics (app and peers’ median):
- Crash rate: Definition in Android vitals. Calculated for the selected time period, up to a maximum of 90 days.
- ANR rate: Definition in Android vitals. Calculated for the selected time period, up to a maximum of 90 days.
Note: The time filter changes the issue metrics but not the user metrics. It also affects the ‘vs previous period’ metrics in the scorecard, and the time series charts.
Understand what’s plotted in the charts
| Metric | Chart y-axis | Chart tooltip |
|---|---|---|
| User metrics | ||
| Install base | Install base (%): Calculated as a percentage of total install base |
|
| Issue metrics | ||
| Crash rate |
|
|
| ANR rate |
|
|
Attributes and filters
The following dimensions are used in the Reach and device overview page and the Attributes details page. Some are available as filters, others as attributes, and some as both.
- Country/region: The location where the device was detected. May be different to the user’s Google Play account country. Note it is the Google Play account country, not the device location, that determines whether a user can install your app and what version they get.
- Android version: The current version of Android reported by the device.
- RAM: The total memory on device. For RAM ranges, the lower value is inclusive, and the higher value is exclusive. Learn more
- System on Chip: An integrated circuit of components including the device CPU and GPU. Reported by the device.
- CPU: The central processing unit.
- GPU: The graphics processing unit.
- OpenGL ES version: A cross-platform graphics API for 2D and 3D graphics. The highest supported version is reported. Note a device can support both OpenGL ES and Vulkan. Learn more
- Vulkan version: A cross-platform API for 3D graphics. The highest supported version. A device can support both OpenGL ES and Vulkan. Learn more
- ABI: Short for Application Binary Interface (ABI). Defines which instruction set(s) are support by the device CPU. A device can support more than one ABI. Learn more
- Screen size: Measured in density-independent pixels for the "smallest width" of the screen, and converted into a value from xsmall to xlarge. Learn more
- Screen density (DPI): The number of pixels within a physical area of the screen. Referred to as dpi (dots per inch). This is different from the resolution, which is the total number of pixels on a screen. Learn more
Notes:
- With the exception of ABI, all of the dimensions above are single-valued: a device model can only have one value of these at a time.
- Where attributes can change over time, the version reported in the data is always the latest version.
Changing the selected date range
Changing the selected range in the time drop-down filter will affect the following:
- The time period over which issue metrics are calculated
- The "vs previous period" metrics in the scorecard
- The length of time displayed in the time series charts
- User metrics are available for the entire lifetime of the app
- Issue metrics are only available for the past 90 days (the same as Android vitals)
Peer benchmarks
Learn more about Peer group and benchmark comparisons in Play Console.