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Heap for iOS: the capture-everything approach to mobile analytics

blog.heapanalytics.com

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Re: Heap for iOS: the capture-everything approach to mobile analytics

#21

Post by mpweiher »

matm wrote: post #17
DenisM wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Keeping network alive like this is not cool - the radio will drain the battery. It would be much better to not only allow a configuration for how often the sync happens, but also allow the app to manually trigger sync, normally at the same time as other network activity is going on so that no extra power is spent bringing the radio up and down.

This makes total sense! Manually syncing is a good idea. We need to make sure we have reasonable defaults in place, though, and so far, we've had no issues from our beta testers.

Steady small but spaced updates is just about worst case for battery if you're on 3G. You want relatively large batch sizes so the system can turn the radios off and keep them off. Obviously doesn't matter if the main app is using the radios...

Re: Heap for iOS: the capture-everything approach to mobile analytics

#23

Post by matm »

jazzychad wrote: post #19

So, I'm curious how this will compete with free offerings like Flurry which do similar-ish mobile analytics tracking and can handle millions of users per app for free. I got very excited about this Heap announcement but looked at the pricing. Multiple thousands/month for sub-million unique users may be considered steep (but then again I'm a cheap developer). I've been looking for a Flurry alternative (since I just wa…

We'd definitely appreciate more data points on pricing - care to send us an email at team@heapanalytics.com, and we can discuss more there? It'd be great to understand what sort of price point works for people like you.

Re: Heap for iOS: the capture-everything approach to mobile analytics

#24

Post by matm »

shloime wrote: post #20

I've wanted to use heap in the past, but the plans aren't very startup friendly..

Similar to my comment above: it'd be great to understand what sort of price point works for people like you. Feel free to send us an email at team@heapanalytics.com.

Re: Heap for iOS: the capture-everything approach to mobile analytics

#25

Post by eps »

Fucking hell. This is exceptionally disturbing.

This sort of service needs to be legally regulated now. The app devs must be required to warn in large block letters that evryhting you do in the app, even while offline, is streamed to some random company. You can argue all you want that "everyone's doing it", but it doesn't make this any less unacceptable and going against basic expectations of privacy.

Re: Heap for iOS: the capture-everything approach to mobile analytics

#26

Post by matm »

DenisM wrote: post #22

What is there on the analysis part? Restoring user behavior from touch events is a bit like restoring a steak from ground beef. Do you guys offer any help with that? Something to string individual events into a path?

You can try out the analysis part with some sample (web-only) data at: https://heapanalytics.com/dashboard/demo

We let you define events after-the-fact based on the gesture type and the corresponding target variable. Once that event is defined, you can include it in funnels, view it in user-specific activity streams, slice n' dice it, etc.

Re: Heap for iOS: the capture-everything approach to mobile analytics

#27

Post by ammmir »

eps wrote: post #25

Fucking hell. This is exceptionally disturbing. This sort of service needs to be legally regulated now . The app devs must be required to warn in large block letters that evryhting you do in the app, even while offline, is streamed to some random company. You can argue all you want that "everyone's doing it", but it doesn't make this any less unacceptable and going against basic expectations of privacy.

i think app devs may already be liable if they haven't set up a proper privacy policy for their app that explains what data they collect and how it is used.

i would not automatically enable analytics tools like these without consulting a lawyer.

Re: Heap for iOS: the capture-everything approach to mobile analytics

#28

Post by jstsch »

eps wrote: post #25

Fucking hell. This is exceptionally disturbing. This sort of service needs to be legally regulated now . The app devs must be required to warn in large block letters that evryhting you do in the app, even while offline, is streamed to some random company. You can argue all you want that "everyone's doing it", but it doesn't make this any less unacceptable and going against basic expectations of privacy.

Agree 100%. I am amazed by all the positive remarks around here. I understand the startup-vibe, but I would expect 'hackers' around here to take note of privacy concerns.

Re: Heap for iOS: the capture-everything approach to mobile analytics

#29

Post by jazzychad »

eps wrote: post #25

Fucking hell. This is exceptionally disturbing. This sort of service needs to be legally regulated now . The app devs must be required to warn in large block letters that evryhting you do in the app, even while offline, is streamed to some random company. You can argue all you want that "everyone's doing it", but it doesn't make this any less unacceptable and going against basic expectations of privacy.

Sorry to bust your bubble, but most every major app (and every single game app) is already doing this by sending activity data to one company or another.

Re: Heap for iOS: the capture-everything approach to mobile analytics

#30

Post by anonyfuss »

jazzychad wrote: post #29
eps wrote: post #25

Fucking hell. This is exceptionally disturbing. This sort of service needs to be legally regulated now . The app devs must be required to warn in large block letters that evryhting you do in the app, even while offline, is streamed to some random company. You can argue all you want that "everyone's doing it", but it doesn't make this any less unacceptable and going against basic expectations of privacy.

Sorry to bust your bubble, but most every major app (and every single game app) is already doing this by sending activity data to one company or another.

Doesn't make it right. It's also astonishingly user-hostile; wasting the user's resources (bandwidth, battery life, cpu) on things they don't care about, without their permission.

On top of that, doing anything economical with the analytics is very rare. It's very difficult to isolate meaningful variables, and you're almost always better off spending that money paying a designer to tackle issues and features that really ought to be obvious to you already ...

... unless you're Zynga, I guess.

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