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I am trying to sort out why the user count coming from Firebase?Google Analytics does not seem to match the user count for session_start. We have a number of clients on the app and I am filtering by the client ID here so they can see how many users/sessions they have.

The is the user count for the last 28 days:

Here is the user count according to Firebase/GA

This is the same time period looking at Google data studio:

Here is the data from Google Data studio for the same time period

Why don't the number of users for session_start match the number of monthly users?

Also, why is it so difficult to get the number of sessions from Firebase/GA? Am I missing something?

Frank van Puffelen
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Michael Campsall
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2 Answers2

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By default session_start event is fired "when a user engages the app for more than the minimum session duration after a period of inactivity that exceeds the session timeout duration" (docs) so the number of session_start events doesn't necessarily match the overall number of users

Дмитро Булах
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  • But how could there be more users than sessions? If they do not use the app how do they get counted as a user? – Michael Campsall Nov 06 '19 at 17:02
  • default "minimum session duration" is 10s https://firebase.google.com/docs/reference/android/com/google/firebase/analytics/FirebaseAnalytics.html#setMinimumSessionDuration(long) so if user engages with an app for a less time this interaction won't be reported as 'session' but pops up in events and user reports – Дмитро Булах Nov 10 '19 at 23:32
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I think I might have sorted out why that client's numbers were off. From what I can gather, receiving a notification counts that person as an active user, even if they do not open the app at all.

Here is the SO post I came across trying to sort this out

Michael Campsall
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