The world of mobile development is ever-changing, and 2021 was one for the books, especially with regards to mobile features for CDPs. Here at Tealium, we’re always trying to stay ahead of the game to support the latest operating system versions, hottest new programming languages, and the ever-increasing list of trendy new cross-platform development frameworks.
Mobile Industry Changes in 2021
The past twelve to eighteen months have seen a great deal of change and uncertainty in the world of mobile apps. Where Apple goes, Google is never far behind. And the newest version of Android now imposes similar restrictions on the ad identifier, although it doesn’t go quite as far as Apple.
Google’s watered-down restrictions no longer allow access to the GAID (Google Advertising ID) when a user opts out of interest-based advertising/personalization in the Android system settings, but they did throw a small lifeline to publishers with multiple apps in the form of App Set ID – an ID that is guaranteed to be the same for a single user using multiple apps from the same publisher on the same device.
To adapt to this change, we have updated our Android Ad Identifier modules to support App Set ID, and GAID is zeroed-out if the end user has opted out of interest-based advertising. This is just one example of how Tealium helps its customers to keep up with the latest developments, without requiring any additional code to be written, all while helping to ensure compliance with the latest Apple and Google policies.
Tealium’s Mobile Features for CDPs Spotlights
In 2021, we continued to add new features to our SDKs, as well as improved our APIs and made under-the-hood improvements, all designed to reduce the amount of code app developers have to write, and make apps faster and more stable.
Here are a few of the exciting advancements we made to our mobile features for CDPs in 2021:
Free Up Developer Resources with Auto Tracking
Setting up tracking in your app can be time-consuming for your developers, and sometimes it takes several app releases before you’re able to have all your app’s screens tracked correctly, and in the meantime, you’re losing out on valuable insights. Tealium’s Auto Tracking module, available for Android and Apple platforms, automatically tracks all your app’s screens from the moment you add the Tealium SDK.
In addition to screen views, Tealium can also automatically track in-app purchases, push notifications, deep links, and app lifecycle events. All of this helps to reduce the workload for your app developers, and allows them to spend more time building features that bring true value to your end users.
Deep Link Tracking Made Simple
Understanding what led to a user opening your app can be important. Deep Linking is when a user opens your app by clicking through from either an advertisement or from a link displayed on a website. As one of our latest mobile features for CDPs, Tealium automatically listens for deep links and simplifies the process of tracking them by adding information about the deep link to the data layer. We then make it available server-side to be sent to 3rd party connectors, or used in AudienceStream to enrich the visitor profile, allowing you to personalize future deep linking campaigns.
Save Time with our new QR Trace
Debugging tracking in mobile apps can be a tiresome process, often involving setting up local proxy servers and hooking your device up to your computer with a cable to view log files. With Tealium, this is rarely necessary, thanks to our intuitive QR Trace functionality. All that’s needed to start debugging is to log in to the Tealium CDH, scan a QR code with the camera app on your phone, and as if by magic, your device will join a trace session, and you’ll be able to see all your event data in real time – a real timesaver!
Enhance Your Mobile App Journey with Timed Events
Knowing how long it takes for a user to complete a journey in your app, or how long it takes for your app to respond to a user’s request, can be a valuable indicator as to which areas of your app could use some attention. This will help to reduce customer frustration and increase spend or retention. Tealium’s timed events feature allows you to trigger events at specific points in your app’s user journey, which automatically measure how long it took for a user to complete an action. For example, it can measure from “add to cart” to “purchase complete”.
This information can then be used to build dashboards for specific flows in your app to ensure users are able to complete their purchase without a hitch. This feature could also be used to time specific network requests made by your app, and identify those that may be slowing down the user experience.
Improved Consent Management Functionality
At Tealium, Consent Management is an integral part of our solution, and our mobile SDKs are no exception. In 2021 we further enhanced our built-in consent management functionality:
- User consent can be set to expire automatically after a period of time. Many organisations use a default consent period of 1 year, but depending on the nature of your business, you may choose to define a shorter window. If, for example, you need consent to send communication about a time-limited promotion, your consent period may be as little as a few days or weeks. Whatever your needs, Tealium can support you.
- Tealium’s mobile SDKs support custom consent policies, so you can easily configure consent according to your own requirements. Out-of-the-box, we support GDPR and CCPA, but custom policy support means we’re ready for anything!
Effective Media Tracking… Simplified
Another one of our exciting mobile features for CDPs launched in 2021 involves more easily and effectively tracking audio and video in your app. This can be tricky, which is where Tealium’s Media Tracking capabilities step in to reduce the burden on your app developers and improve tracking accuracy.
New Remote Command Integrations
Sometimes there are technical limitations that prevent certain technologies from being deployed server-side, and a vendor’s SDK is required. Rather than implementing these SDKs individually in your app, which creates additional work for your developers, Tealium provides wrappers for many common SDKs. This means your developers still only have a single API call to make to the Tealium SDK, and Tealium then takes care of passing this on to the 3rd party SDK as needed.
Check Out Our Cross-Platform Libraries!
Cross-platform development allows your developers to maintain a single codebase, but deploy to both Android and iOS, and in some cases, other types of devices too. Tealium supports a very wide range of cross-platform libraries, and if we don’t yet support your favorite one, then we invite you to let us know, and we’ll get it on our roadmap. Currently, we support React Native, NativeScript, Cordova, Ionic, Xamarin, Unity & Flutter.
Coming Soon to Our Mobile Features for CDPs
Early in 2022, we’ll be making further enhancements to our SDKs to make them as easy to use and performant as possible. I hope you’ve enjoyed reading this roundup from the Tealium Mobile team. If you’d like a demo of any of the features described here, please get in touch and we’ll be happy to help.
