Introduction

When developing a mobile application, the retention rate of users plays a vital role in its success. Several factors can impact the retention rate of the app, including user experience, app performance, updates, and more. In this article, we will analyze different techniques to analyze app churning or app user loss rate.

User churn analysis

User churn refers to the number of users who stop using an app during a specific period. To calculate the churn rate, we need to divide the number of churned users by the total number of active users in that period. For instance, if you had 10,000 active users, and 500 users churned, the churn rate would be 5%.

To extract the churn data for your app, you can use analytical tools like Google Analytics, Mixpanel, or Amplitude. These tools provide various metrics like retention curves, user behavior, and user funnel analysis, allowing you to assess the user’s journey in your app and identify the reasons that lead to churn.

User feedback analysis

User feedback is a critical part of improving the app’s user experience and retains the app users. Users often share their feedback through app store reviews, surveys, or feedback forms in your app. Analyzing the user feedback can provide insights about what users like and dislike about the app. You can use tools like Appbot or AppFollow to extract user feedback and analyze their sentiment.

One way to analyze the feedback is by grouping similar feedback and identifying common themes. For instance, if multiple users are complaining about a particular app feature, you need to prioritize it in your next app update to improve the app’s user experience and retain the users.

User engagement analysis

User engagement is another essential factor that can impact user churn rate. Engaged users are more likely to use the app for a more extended period. App developers often use in-app metrics like daily or weekly active users, session length, and screen flow to analyze user engagement.

You can use various analytical tools like Firebase, Flurry, or Countly to extract user engagement metrics. These tools provide a detailed analysis of how users engage with your app, which features are most popular, and where users drop off.

With this data, you can identify the features that users love using, prioritize those features in your app improvement, and retain the users by providing a better experience.

Conclusion

App user churn rate is a crucial factor that determines the success of your mobile application. By using analytical tools and analyzing user feedback, behavior, and engagement, you can identify the reasons that lead to app churning and take appropriate steps to improve the app’s user experience and retention rate.

Code example

Let's see how we can extract the user churn data for our app using Google Analytics.

// Initialize your GA analytics account
let ga = GoogleAnalytics.getInstance(context);

// Get the number of active users
let activeUsers = ga.newActiveUsersRequest("ga:YourGAProfileID")
                .setStartDate("2021