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I'm seeing session counts DECREASE over time when I check TestFlight for my app. It has been in TestFlight for an extended period (over a year and half) while we've been creating a new and improved alternative. CLARIFICATION: Because users are using this, after nearly 90 days we create a new build, so they can continue testing the app.

I've been checking counts about once a month, and this month most of my users are showing a DECREASE in the sessions column from last month. I'm always (now) using the ALL TESTERS choice.

My desire is to start asking the most active users if they are ready to test the NEW app, using the session count as an (imperfect) guide.

My question: Under what circumstance can session counts decrease over time?

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The session count definitely can be used for this purpose, but be aware that it is, as you say, an imperfect guide.

Basically sessions are defined by Apple as follows:

The number of times the app has been used for at least two seconds. If the app is in the background and is later used again, that counts as another session.

So a user that uses the app 10 times a day for 30 seconds for a total of 5 minutes will have a higher session count than a user that uses the app once a day for 2 hours.

In most cases, you will want to have your analytics added to the app in order to more precisely measure user engagement.

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  • Thank you for this -- in fact, we have a website that starts our app, then our app returns data, switching back to safari, so we will get potentially dozens of sessions in this case.
    – bobwki
    Apr 26, 2022 at 17:03
  • I'm wondering if anyone knows why session counts can decrease? I was assuming they would only increment.
    – bobwki
    Apr 26, 2022 at 17:04
  • There can be many reasons for the decrease - you haven't included a specific question about this in your question, nor have you given any details, so it is hard to say which reason(s) apply for you. For example at least every 90 days you get a new version that will make the session count decrease, you can also have user's that opt out of sharing their session info, etc.
    – jksoegaard
    Apr 26, 2022 at 19:05
  • OK, this makes some sense. But, in this particular case, there wasn't a new version, nor users that updated. It seems unlikely to me that many users decided to opt out of sharing data. So, it's still mysterious to me.
    – bobwki
    Apr 28, 2022 at 18:14
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I have just experienced the same and done some digging into the javascript of the WebStore Connect Site - and it turns out to be - how do I say it... shit.

In my case the website has reported flucutating number that went up and down around 10.000 sessions.

I have managed to do my own queries using the Chrome console (since the webstore access API does not support getting the session count) and managed to get the information of all my beta testers. Turns out my session count was about 50.000 with more than half of the testers (anonymous via Link) not sharing data (session count = 0). So... the session count the web site reports is definetly: wrong.

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