iOS SDK

This is the official documentation for the Amplitude Analytics iOS SDK.

SDK Resources

iOS SDK Reference · iOS SDK Repository · iOS SDK Releases

Ampli Wrapper versus the Amplitude SDK

The Ampli Wrapper is an autogenerated library based on your pre-defined tracking plan. The Ampli Wrapper is a lightweight wrapper over the Amplitude SDK that provides type-safety, supports linting, and enables features like input validation. The code replicates the spec in the Tracking Plan and enforces its rules and requirements. This guide is about Amplitude SDK. To learn more about Ampli Wrapper, see Ampli Wrapper Overview and examples.

Install¶

CocoaPods

Install the Amplitude Analytics iOS SDK via CocoaPods, Carthage, or Swift Package Manager.

CocoaPodsSwift Package ManagerCarthage

Add dependency to Podfile.
```
pod 'Amplitude', '~> 8.8.0'
```
Run pod install in the project directory to download dependency.

Navigate to File > Swift Package Manager > Add Package Dependency.
Enter https://github.com/amplitude/Amplitude-iOS into the search bar.
It automatically resolves to the latest version.

The Amplitude-iOS package appears as a dependency after it's added.

Add the following line to your Cartfile.

github "amplitude/Amplitude-iOS" ~> 8.8.0

After you've installed the SDK, import Amplitude into any file that uses it.

Objective-CSwift

#import <Amplitude/Amplitude.h>

import Amplitude

Quickstart

Initialize
Send an event

Objective-CSwift

  (BOOL)application:(UIApplication *)application didFinishLaunchingWithOptions:(NSDictionary *)launchOptions {
  // Enable sending automatic session events
  [Amplitude instance].trackingSessionEvents = YES;
  // Initialize SDK
  [[Amplitude instance] initializeApiKey:@"API_KEY"];
  // Set userId
  [[Amplitude instance] setUserId:@"userId"];
  // Send an event
  [[Amplitude instance] logEvent:@"app_start"];

  return YES;
}

  func application(_ application: UIApplication, didFinishLaunchingWithOptions launchOptions: [UIApplication.LaunchOptionsKey: Any]?) -> Bool {
  // Enable sending automatic session events
  Amplitude.instance().trackingSessionEvents = true
  // Initialize SDK
  Amplitude.instance().initializeApiKey("API_KEY")
  // Set userId
Amplitude.instance().setUserId("userId")
  // Send an event
  Amplitude.instance().logEvent("app_start")

  return true
}

Core functions¶

The following functions make up the core of the Amplitude Analytics iOS SDK.

Initialize¶

You must initialize the SDK before you can instrument. The API key for your Amplitude project is required. Usually, you can initialize the SDK in the application:didFinishLaunchingWithOptions: method of your YourAppAppDelegate.m file.

Objective-CSwift

- (BOOL)application:(UIApplication *)application didFinishLaunchingWithOptions:(NSDictionary *)launchOptions {
  // Enable sending automatic session events
  [Amplitude instance].trackingSessionEvents = YES;
  // Initialize SDK
  [[Amplitude instance] initializeApiKey:@"API_KEY"];
  // Set userId
  [[Amplitude instance] setUserId:@"userId"];
  // Log an event
  [[Amplitude instance] logEvent:@"app_start"];

  return YES;
}

func application(_ application: UIApplication, didFinishLaunchingWithOptions launchOptions: [UIApplication.LaunchOptionsKey: Any]?) -> Bool {
  // Enable sending automatic session events
  Amplitude.instance().trackingSessionEvents = true
  // Initialize SDK
  Amplitude.instance().initializeApiKey("API_KEY")
  // Set userId
  Amplitude.instance().setUserId("userId")
  // Log an event
  Amplitude.instance().logEvent("app_start")

  return true
}

EU data residency¶

Beginning with version 8.5.0, you can configure the server zone after initializing the client for sending data to Amplitude's EU servers. The SDK sends data based on the server zone if it's set. The server zone configuration supports dynamic configuration as well.

For earlier versions, you need to configure the serverURL property after initializing the client.

Note

For EU data residency, the project must be set up inside Amplitude EU. You must initialize the SDK with the API key from Amplitude EU.

Objective-CSwift

// For versions starting from 8.5.0
// No need to call setServerUrl for sending data to Amplitude's EU servers

[[Amplitude instance] setServerZone:AMPServerZone.EU];

// For earlier versions
[[Amplitude instance] setServerUrl: @"https://api.eu.amplitude.com"];

// For versions starting from 8.5.0
// No need to call setServerUrl for sending data to Amplitude's EU servers

Amplitude.instance().setServerZone(AMPServerZone.EU)

// For earlier versions

Amplitude.instance().setServerUrl("https://api.eu.amplitude.com")

Send events¶

Important notes about sending events

This SDK uses the HTTP V2 API and follows the same constraints for events. Make sure that all events logged in the SDK have the event_type field and at least one of device_id or user_id, and follows the HTTP API's constraints on each of those fields.

To prevent instrumentation issues, device IDs and user IDs must be strings with a length of 5 characters or more. If an event contains a device ID or user ID that's too short, the ID value is removed from the event. If the event doesn't have a user_id or device_id value, the upload may be rejected with a 400 status. Override the default minimum length of 5 character by passing the min_id_length option with the request.

Basic events¶

Events represent how users interact with your application. For example, "Button Clicked" may be an action you want to note.

Objective-CSwift

[[Amplitude instance] logEvent:@"Button Clicked"];

Amplitude.instance().logEvent("Button Click")

Events with properties¶

Events can also contain properties, which give more context about the event. For example, "hover time" may be a relevant event property for "button click".

Objective CSwift

NSMutableDictionary *eventProperties = [NSMutableDictionary dictionary];
[eventProperties setValue:@"100ms" forKey:@"Hover Time"];
[[Amplitude instance] logEvent:@"Button Clicked" withEventProperties:eventProperties];

Amplitude.instance().logEvent("Button Clicked", withEventProperties: ["Hover Time": "100ms"] )

User properties¶

User properties help you understand your users at the time they performed some action within your app. For example, you can learn about their device details, their preferences, or language.

Amplitude-iOS's AMPIdentity class manages these features.

User privacy warning

Don't track any user data that may be against your privacy terms.

Set a user property¶

`set`¶

set sets the value of a user property. You can also chain together multiple identify calls.

Objective-CSwift

AMPIdentify *identify = [[[AMPIdentify identify] set:@"gender" value:@"female"] set:@"age"
    value:[NSNumber numberWithInt:20]];
[[Amplitude instance] identify:identify];

let identify = AMPIdentify()
    .set("gender", value: "female")
    .set("age",value: NSNumber(value: 20))
Amplitude.instance().identify(identify)

`setOnce`¶

setOnce sets the value of a user property only once. Subsequent calls using setOnceare ignored.

Objective-CSwift

AMPIdentify *identify1 = [[AMPIdentify identify] setOnce:@"sign_up_date" value:@"2015-08-24"];
[[Amplitude instance] identify:identify1];

AMPIdentify *identify2 = [[AMPIdentify identify] setOnce:@"sign_up_date" value:@"2015-09-14"];
[[Amplitude instance] identify:identify2]; // Is ignored

let identify1 = AMPIdentify().setOnce("sign_up_date", value: "2015-08-24")
Amplitude.instance().identify(identify1)

let identify2 = AMPIdentify().setOnce("sign_up_date", value: "2015-09-14")
Amplitude.instance().identify(identify2) // Is ignored

`add`¶

add increments a user property by some numerical value. If the user property doesn't have a value set yet, it's initialized to 0 before being incremented.

Objective-CSwift

AMPIdentify *identify = [[[AMPIdentify identify] add:@"karma" value:[NSNumber numberWithFloat:0.123]]
    add:@"friends" value:[NSNumber numberWithInt:1]];
[[Amplitude instance] identify:identify];

let identify = AMPIdentify()
    .add("karma", value: NSNumber(value: 0.123))
    .add("friends",value: NSNumber(value: 1))
Amplitude.instance().identify(identify)

`preInsert` and `postInsert`¶

See the arrays in user properties section for information.

`remove`¶

Remove a value or values from a user property. If the item doesn't exist in the user property, nothing is removed.

Objective-C

NSMutableArray *array = [NSMutableArray array];
[array addObject:@"some_string"];
[array addObject:[NSNumber numberWithInt:56]];
AMPIdentify *identify = [[[AMPIdentify identify] remove:@"ab-tests" value:@"new-user-test"]
    remove:@"some_list" value:array];
[[Amplitude instance] identify:identify];

Set multiple user properties¶

You can use setUserProperties as a shorthand to set multiple user properties at once. This method is a wrapper around Identify.set and identify.

Objective-CSwift

NSMutableDictionary *userProperties = [NSMutableDictionary dictionary];
[userProperties setValue:@"VALUE" forKey:@"KEY"];
[userProperties setValue:@"OTHER_VALUE" forKey:@"OTHER_KEY"];
[[Amplitude instance] setUserProperties:userProperties];

var userProperties: [AnyHashable : Any] = [:]
userProperties["KEY"] = "VALUE"
userProperties["OTHER_KEY"] = "OTHER_VALUE"
Amplitude.instance().userProperties = userProperties

Arrays in user properties¶

Arrays can be used as user properties. You can directly set arrays or use append to generate an array.

Objective-CSwift

NSMutableArray *colors = [NSMutableArray array];
[colors addObject:@"rose"];
[colors addObject:@"gold"];
NSMutableArray *numbers = [NSMutableArray array];
[numbers addObject:[NSNumber numberWithInt:4]];
[numbers addObject:[NSNumber numberWithInt:5]];
AMPIdentify *identify = [[[[AMPIdentify identify] set:@"colors" value:colors] append:@"ab-tests"
    value:@"campaign_a"] append:@"existing_list" value:numbers];
[[Amplitude instance] identify:identify];

var colors: [AnyHashable] = []
colors.append("rose")
colors.append("gold")
var numbers: [AnyHashable] = []
numbers.append(NSNumber(value: 4))
numbers.append(NSNumber(value: 5))
let identify = AMPIdentify().set("colors", value: colors)
    .append("ab-tests", value: "campaign_a")
    .append("existing_list",value: numbers)
Amplitude.instance().identify(identify)

`prepend` and `append`¶

append appends a value or values to a user property array.
prepend prepends a value or values to a user property.

If the user property doesn't have a value set yet, it's initialized to an empty list before the new values are added. If the user property has an existing value and it's not a list, it's converted into a list with the new value added.

Note

append and prepend doesn't check for duplicates. Please see preInsert and postInsert for that.

Objective-CSwift

NSMutableArray *array = [NSMutableArray array];
[array addObject:@"some_string"];
[array addObject:[NSNumber numberWithInt:56]];
AMPIdentify *identify = [[[AMPIdentify identify] append:@"ab-tests" value:@"new-user-test"]
    append:@"some_list" value:array];
[[Amplitude instance] identify:identify];

var array: [AnyHashable] = []
array.append("some_string")
array.append(NSNumber(value: 56))
let identify = AMPIdentify()
    .append("ab-tests", value: "new-user-test")
    .append("some_list",value: array)
Amplitude.instance().identify(identify)

`preInsert` and `postInsert`¶

preInsert inserts a value or values to the front of a user property array if it doesn't exist in the array yet.
postInsert inserts a value or values to the end of a user property array if it doesn't exist in the array yet.

If the user property doesn't exist, it's initialized to an empty list before the new values are pre-inserted. If the user property has an existing value, nothing is inserted.

Objective-CSwift

NSMutableArray *array = [NSMutableArray array];
[array addObject:@"some_string"];
[array addObject:[NSNumber numberWithInt:56]];
AMPIdentify *identify = [[[AMPIdentify identify] preInsert:@"ab-tests" value:@"new-user-test"]
    preInsert:@"some_list" value:array];
[[Amplitude instance] identify:identify];

var array: [AnyHashable] = []
array.append("some_string")
array.append(NSNumber(value: 56))
let identify = AMPIdentify()
    .preInsert("ab-tests", value: "new-user-test")
    .preInsert("some_list",value: array)
Amplitude.instance().identify(identify)

Remove user properties¶

Clear all user properties¶

clearUserProperties removes all the current user's user properties.

This action is irreversible

If you clear user properties, Amplitude can't sync the user's user property values from before the wipe to any future events.

Objective-CSwift

[[Amplitude instance] clearUserProperties];

Amplitude.instance().clearUserProperties()

`remove`¶

remove removes an existing value or values from a user property. If the item doesn't exist in the user property, nothing is removed.

Objective-CSwift

NSMutableArray *array = [NSMutableArray array];
[array addObject:@"some_string"];
[array addObject:[NSNumber numberWithInt:56]];
AMPIdentify *identify = [[[AMPIdentify identify] remove:@"ab-tests" value:@"new-user-test"]
    remove:@"some_list" value:array];
[[Amplitude instance] identify:identify];

var array: [AnyHashable] = []
array.append("some_string")
array.append(NSNumber(value: 56))
let identify = AMPIdentify()
    .remove("ab-tests", value: "new-user-test")
    .remove("some_list", value: array)
Amplitude.instance().identify(identify)

Set user groups¶

Feature availability

This feature is available in Growth and Enterprise accounts with the Accounts add-on.

Amplitude supports assigning users to groups and performing queries, such as Count by Distinct, on those groups. If at least one member of the group has performed the specific event, then the count includes the group.

For example, you want to group your users based on what organization they're in by using an 'orgId'. Joe is in 'orgId' '10', and Sue is in 'orgId' '15'. Sue and Joe both perform a certain event. You can query their organizations in the Event Segmentation Chart.

When setting groups, define a groupType and groupName. In the previous example, 'orgId' is the groupType and '10' and '15' are the values for groupName. Another example of a groupType could be 'sport' with groupName values like 'tennis' and 'baseball'.

Setting a group also sets the groupType:groupName as a user property, and overwrites any existing groupName value set for that user's groupType, and the corresponding user property value. groupType is a string, and groupName can be either a string or an array of strings to indicate that a user is in multiple groups.

Example

Joe is in 'orgID' with the groupName 15. He is also in "sport" with groupNames "tennis" and "soccer". Here is what your code might look like:

Objective-CSwift

[[Amplitude instance] setGroup:@"orgId" groupName:[NSNumber numberWithInt:15]];
[[Amplitude instance] setGroup:@"sport" groupName:[NSArray arrayWithObjects: @"tennis", @"soccer", nil];

Amplitude.instance().setGroup("orgId", groupName: NSNumber(value: 15))
        Amplitude.instance().setGroup("sport", groupName: NSArray(objects: "tennis", "soccer"))

You can also use logEventWithGroups to set event-level groups, meaning the group designation only applies for the specific event being logged and doesn't persist on the user unless you explicitly set it with setGroup:

Objective-CSwift

NSDictionary *eventProperties = [NSDictionary dictionaryWithObjectsAndKeys: @"value", @"key", nil];
NSDictionary *groups = [NSDictionary dictionaryWithObjectsAndKeys:[NSNumber numberWithInt:10],
    @"orgId", @"soccer", @"sport", nil];
[[Amplitude instance] logEvent:@"initialize_game" withEventProperties:eventProperties withGroups:groups];

let eventProperties: [String: Any] = ["key": "value"]
let groups: [String: Any] = ["orgId": 10]

Amplitude.instance().logEvent("initialize_game", withEventProperties: eventProperties, withGroups: groups)

Group identify¶

Feature availability

This feature is available in Growth and Enterprise accounts with the Accounts add-on.

Use the Group Identify API to set or update properties of particular groups. These updates only affect events going forward.

The groupIdentifyWithGroupType method accepts a group type string parameter and group name object parameter, as well as an Identify object that's applied to the group.

Objective-CSwift

NSString *groupType = @"plan";
NSObject *groupName = @"enterprese";
AMPIdentify *identify = [[AMPIdentify identify] set:@"key" value:@"value"];
[[Amplitude instance] groupIdentifyWithGroupType:groupType groupName:groupName groupIdentify:identify];

let identify = AMPIdentify()
    .set("key", value: "value")
Amplitude.instance().groupIdentifyWithGroupType("plan", groupName:NSString(string:"enterprise"), groupIdentify:identify)

An optional outOfSession boolean input can be supplied as fourth argument to groupIdentifyWithGroupType

Track revenue¶

Instances of AMPRevenue stores revenue transactions and defines special revenue properties (such as revenueType) used in Amplitude's Event Segmentation and Revenue LTV charts. Each instance is passed to Amplitude.logRevenueV2. This allows us to automatically display data relevant to revenue in Amplitude.

To track revenue from a user, call logRevenueV2 each time a user generates revenue. Here is an example:

Objective-CSwift

AMPRevenue *revenue = [[[AMPRevenue revenue] setProductIdentifier:@"productIdentifier"] setQuantity:3];
[revenue setPrice:[NSNumber numberWithDouble:3.99]];
[[Amplitude instance] logRevenueV2:revenue];

let revenue = AMPRevenue().setProductIdentifier("productIdentifier").quantity = 3
revenue?.price = NSNumber(value: 3.99)
Amplitude.instance().logRevenueV2(revenue)

Calling logRevenueV2 generates up to 2 different event types in the platform:

[Amplitude] Revenue: This event is logged for all revenue events, regardless of whether verification is turned on.
[Amplitude] Revenue (Verified/Unverified): These revenue events contain the actual $revenue property.

You can't change the default names given to these client-side revenue events in the raw data, but you can change the display name. Learn more about tracking revenue in the Help Center.

Note

Amplitude doesn't support currency conversion. Normalize all revenue data to your currency of choice before being sent.

Each revenue event has fields available, and each field has a corresponding set method (such as price and setPrice). See the API docs for AMPRevenue for a full list of fields.

Like logEvent, event properties can also be attached for each call to logRevenueV2 . However, these event properties will only appear in the Event Segmentation chart and not in the Revenue charts.

Name	Description
`productId`	Optional. NSString. An identifier for the product. Amplitude recommends something like the "Google Play Store product ID". Defaults to `null`.
`quantity`	Required. NSInteger. The quantity of products purchased. Note: revenue = quantity * price. Defaults to 1.
`price`	Required. NSNumber. The price of the products purchased, and this can be negative. Note: revenue = quantity * price. Defaults to `null`.
`revenueType`	Optional, but required for revenue verification. NSString. The revenue type. For example tax, refund, income. Defaults to `null`.
`receipt`	Optional, but required for revenue verification. NSData. Defaults to `null`
`receiptSignature`	Optional, but required for revenue verification. Defaults to `null`.
`eventProperties`	Optional. NSDictionary. An object of event properties to include in the revenue event. Defaults to `null`.

Info

Price can be negative, which may be useful for tracking revenue lost (such as refunds or costs)

Advanced topics¶

User sessions¶

A session is a period of time that a user has the app in the foreground. Events that are logged within the same session has the same session_id. Sessions are handled automatically so you don't have to manually call an API like startSession() or endSession().

You can adjust the time window for which sessions are extended by changing the variable minTimeBetweenSessionsMillis.

Amplitude groups events together by session. A session represents a single period of user activity, with a start and end time. Different SDKs track sessions differently, depending on the requirements of the platform. The minimum duration of a session can be configured within the SDK.

Objective-CSwift

[Amplitude instance].trackingSessionEvents = YES;
[[Amplitude instance].minTimeBetweenSessionsMillis = 10 * 60 * 1000; // 10 minutes
[[Amplitude instance] initializeApiKey:@"API_KEY"];

Amplitude.instance().trackingSessionEvents = true
Amplitude.instance().minTimeBetweenSessionsMillis = 10 * 60 * 1000 // 10 minutes
Amplitude.instance().initializeApiKey("API_KEY")

You can also log events as out-of-session. Out-of-session events have a session_id of -1 and aren't considered part of the current session, meaning they don't extend the current session. This might be useful if you are logging events triggered by push notifications, for example. You can log events as out-of-session by setting the input parameter outOfSession to true when calling logEvent

Objective-CSwift

[[Amplitude instance] logEvent:@"EVENT_TYPE" withEventProperties:nil outOfSession:YES];

Amplitude.instance().logEvent("Push Notification", withEventProperties: nil, outOfSession: true)

You can also log identify events as out-of-session, which is useful if you are updating user properties in the background and don't want to start a new session. Do this by setting the input parameter outOfSession to true when calling identify.

Objective-CSwift

AMPIdentify *identify = [[AMPIdentify identify] set:@"key" value:@"value"];
[[Amplitude instance] identify:identify outOfSession:YES];

let identify = AMPIdentify()
    .set("key", value: "value")
Amplitude.instance().identify(identify, outOfSession: true)

You can use the helper method getSessionId to get the value of the current sessionId.

Objective-CSwift

long long sessionId = [[Amplitude instance] getSessionId];

Amplitude.instance().getSessionId()

Set custom user ID¶

If your app has its own login system that you want to track users with, you can call setUserId at any time.

Objective-CSwift

[[Amplitude] instance] setUserId:@"USER_ID"];

Amplitude.instance().setUserId("USER_ID")

You can also add the User ID as an argument to the init call.

Objective-CSwift

[[Amplitude] instance] initializeApiKey:@"API_KEY" userId:@"USER_ID"];

Amplitude.instance().initializeApiKey("API_KEY", userId: "USER_ID")

Don't assign users a user ID that could change, because each unique user ID is a unique user in Amplitude. Learn more about how Amplitude tracks unique users in the Help Center.

Debug logging¶

By default, only critical errors are logged to console. To enable debug logging in iOS, change AMPLITUDE_DEBUG from 0 to 1 at the top of the Objective-C file you wish to examine. Error messages are printed by default. To disable error logging, change AMPLITUDE_LOG_ERRORS from 1 to 0 in Amplitude.m.

Logged out and anonymous users¶

Amplitude merges user data, so any events associated with a known userId or deviceId are linked the existing user. If a user logs out, Amplitude can merge that user's logged-out events to the user's record. You can change this behavior and log those events to an anonymous user instead.

To log events to an anonymous user:

Set the userId to null.
Generate a new deviceId.

Events coming from the current user or device appear as a new user in Amplitude. Note: If you do this, you can't see that the two users were using the same device.

Objective-CSwift

[[Amplitude instance] setUserId:nil]; // not string nil
[[Amplitude instance] regenerateDeviceId];

Amplitude.instance().setUserId("userId")
Amplitude.instance().regenerateDeviceId()

Log events to multiple projects¶

Objective-C

// existing project, existing settings, and existing API key
[[Amplitude instance] initializeApiKey:@"12345"];
[[Amplitude instanceWithName:@"new_project"] initializeApiKey:@"67890"]; // new project, new API key

[[Amplitude instanceWithName:@"new_project"] setUserId:@"123456"]; // need to reconfigure new project
[[Amplitude instanceWithName:@"new_project"] logEvent:@"Clicked"];

AMPIdentify *identify = [[AMPIdentify identify] add:@"karma" value:[NSNumber numberWithInt:1]];
[[Amplitude instance] identify:identify];
[[Amplitude instance] logEvent:@"Viewed Home Page"];

Disable tracking¶

By default the iOS SDK tracks several user properties such as carrier, city, country, ip_address, language, platform, etc. You can use the provided AMPTrackingOptions interface to customize and disable individual fields.

Each operation on the AMPTrackingOptions object returns the same instance, letting you chain multiple operations together.

To use the AMPTrackingOptions interface, first include the header:

Objective-C

#import "AMPTrackingOptions.h"

Before initializing the SDK with your apiKey, create a AMPTrackingOptions instance with your configuration and set it on the SDK instance

Objective-C

AMPTrackingOptions *options = [[[[AMPTrackingOptions options] disableCity] disableIPAddress] disablePlatform];
[[Amplitude instance] setTrackingOptions:options];

Tracking for each field can be individually controlled, and has a corresponding method (for example, disableCountry, disableLanguage).

Method	Description
`disableCarrier`	Disable tracking of device's carrier.
`disableCity`	Disable tracking of user's city.
`disableCountry`	Disable tracking of user's country.
`disableDeviceManufacturer`	Disable tracking of device manufacturer.
`disableDeviceModel`	Disable tracking of device model.
`disableDMA`	Disable tracking of user's DMA.
`disableIDFA`	Disable tracking of user's IDFA.
`disableIDFV`	Disable tracking of user's IDFV.
`disableIPAddress`	Disable tracking of user's IP address.
`disableLanguage`	Disable tracking of device's language.
`disableLatLng`	Disable tracking of user's current latitude and longitude coordinates.
`disableOSName`	Disable tracking of device's OS Name.
`disableOSVersion`	Disable tracking of device's OS Version.
`disablePlatform`	Disable tracking of device's platform.
`disableRegion`	Disable tracking of user's region.
`disableVersionName`	Disable tracking of your app's version name.

Note

AMPTrackingOptions only prevents default properties from being tracked on newly created projects, where data has not yet been sent. If you have a project with existing data that you would like to stop collecting the default properties for, please get help in the Amplitude Community. Note that the existing data is not deleted.

COPPA control¶

COPPA (Children's Online Privacy Protection Act) restrictions on IDFA, IDFV, city, IP address and location tracking can all be enabled or disabled at one time. Apps that ask for information from children under 13 years of age must comply with COPPA.

Objective-CSwift

[[Amplitude instance] enableCoppaControl];

Amplitude.instance().enableCoppaControl()

Advertiser ID¶

Advertiser ID (also referred to as IDFA) is a unique identifier provided by the iOS and Google Play stores. As it's unique to every person and not just their devices, it's useful for mobile attribution. Mobile attribution is the attribution of an installation of a mobile app to its original source (such as ad campaign, app store search). Mobile apps need permission to ask for IDFA, and apps targeted to children can't track at all. Consider IDFV, device ID, or an email login system as alternatives when IDFA isn't available.

Objective-CSwift

amplitude.adSupportBlock = ^{
    return [[[ASIdentifierManager sharedManager] advertisingIdentifier] UUIDString];
};

//  Converted to Swift 5.3 by Swiftify v5.3.22312 - https://swiftify.com/
amplitude.adSupportBlock = {
    return ASIdentifierManager.shared().advertisingIdentifier.uuidString
}

Note that you need to also add AdSupport.framework to your project

Set IDFA as device ID¶

Amplitude uses the IDFV as the device ID by default, but you can change this behavior. After you set up the logic to fetch IDFA, you can also call this useAdvertisingIdForDeviceId API to set the IDFA as your deviceId.

Location tracking¶

Amplitude converts the IP of a user event into a location (GeoIP lookup) by default. This information may be overridden by an app's own tracking solution or user data.

Carrier information¶

Amplitude-iOS can help report carrier information

If you want to enable SDK to report this information from devices, add CoreTelephony.framework as a dependency.

Dynamic configuration¶

The iOS SDK lets you configure your apps to use dynamic configuration. This feature finds the best server URL automatically based on app users' location.

To use, enable the useDynamicConfig flag.

If you have your own proxy server and use apiEndPoint API, leave dynamic configuration off.
If you have users in China Mainland, then we recommend using dynamic configuration.
By default, this feature returns server URL of Amplitude's US servers, if you need to send data to Amplitude's EU servers, use setServerZone to set it to EU zone.

Objective-CSwift

[Amplitude instance].useDynamicConfig = YES;

Amplitude.instance().useDynamicConfig = true

SSL pinning¶

SSL Pinning is a technique used in the client side to avoid man-in-the-middle attack by validating the server certificates again after SSL handshaking. Only use SSL pinning if you have a specific reason to do so. Contact Support before you ship any products with SSL pinning enabled.

If you installed the SDK using CocoaPods, you must enable the preprocessor macro via your Podfile by adding this post install hook:

PodFile

post_install do |installer_representation|
   installer_representation.pods_project.targets.each do |target|
      target.build_configurations.each do |config|
         config.build_settings['GCC_PREPROCESSOR_DEFINITIONS'] ||= ['$(inherited)', 'AMPLITUDE_SSL_PINNING=1']
      end
   end
end

If you installed the SDK directly from the source or Swift Package Manager, you can enable SSL pinning by adding the following preprocessor macro. See this StackOverflow post to see how to add preprocessor macro.

xCode Settings

AMPLITUDE_SSL_PINNING=1

Opt users out of tracking¶

Users may wish to opt out of tracking entirely, which means Amplitude won't track any of their events or browsing history. setOptOut provides a way to fulfill a user's requests for privacy.

Objective-CSwift

[[Amplitude instance] setOptOut:YES]; // disables instrumentation
[[Amplitude instance] setOptOut:NO]; // enables instrumentation

Amplitude.instance().optOut = true // disables instrumentation
Amplitude.instance().optOut = false // enables instrumentation

tvOS and watchOS¶

This SDK works with tvOS and watch OS apps. To begin, follow the same setup instructions for iOS apps.

Note

tvOS apps don't have persistent storage (they only have temporary storage), so for tvOS the SDK is configured to upload events as soon as they're logged. This means eventUploadThreshold is set to 1 by default for tvOS. it's assumed that Apple TV devices have a stable internet connection and as a result, uploading events immediately is reasonable. If you wish to revert back to the iOS batching behavior, you can do so by changing eventUploadThreshold (this is set by default to 30 for iOS).

Objective-C

[[Amplitude instance] setEventUploadThreshold:30];

iOS extensions¶

The SDK allows for tracking in iOS extensions. To set up tracking in iOS extensions, follow the same setup instructions but initialize the SDK in your extension's viewDidLoad method instead from application:didFinishLaunchingWithOptions:.

There are a few things to note:

The viewDidLoad method gets called every time your extension is opened. This means that the SDK's initializeApiKey method gets called every single time. However, this is okay because it safely ignores calls after the first one. You can protect the initialization with something like a dispatch_once block.
Amplitude's sessions are defined for an app use case. Depending on your expected extension use case, you might not want to enable trackingSessionEvents, or you may want to extend the minTimeBetweenSessionsMillis to be longer than five minutes. You should experiment with these two settings to get your desired session definition.
If you don't expect users to keep your extension open long, you can decrease eventUploadPeriodSeconds to something shorter than 30 seconds to upload events at shorter intervals. You can also manually call [[Amplitude instance] uploadEvents]; to manually force an upload. Here is a simple demo application showing how to instrument the iOS SDK in an extension.

App Clips¶

The SDK also allows for tracking in App Clips. To set up tracking in App Clips, you need to install Amplitude-iOS under your App Clip target. Make sure the amplitude-iOS SDK is installed on your main app first.

CocoaPods¶

After creating an App Clip target, open your project Podfile and append the following code:

Podfile

target 'appClipTarget' do
  # Comment the next line if you don't want to use dynamic frameworks
  use_frameworks!
  pod 'Amplitude', :git => 'https://github.com/Amplitude/Amplitude-iOS.git'
end

Save the Podfile and run pod install

Swift Package Manager¶

Open your App Clip target in Xcode. And click the + button under Framework, Libraries, and Embedded Content section
Select Amplitude under Amplitude Package and click add button

Push notification events¶

Don't send push notification events client-side via the iOS SDK. Because a user must open the app to initialize the Amplitude SDK in order for the SDK to send the event, events aren't sent to the Amplitude servers until the next time the user opens the app. This can cause data delays.

You can use mobile marketing automation partners or the HTTP API V2 to send push notification events to Amplitude.

Middleware¶

Middleware lets you extend Amplitude by running a sequence of custom code on every event. This pattern is flexible and can be used to support event enrichment, transformation, filtering, routing to third-party destinations, and more.

Each middleware is a simple interface with a run method:

- (void)run:(AMPMiddlewarePayload *_Nonnull)payload next:(AMPMiddlewareNext _Nonnull)next;

The payload contains the event being sent and an optional extra that lets you pass custom data to your own middleware implementations.

To invoke the next middleware in the queue, use the next function. You must call next(payload) to continue the middleware chain. If a middleware doesn't call next, then the event processing stop executing after the current middleware completes.

Add middleware to Amplitude via client.addEventMiddleware. You can add as many middleware as you like. Each middleware runs in the order in which it was added.

You can find examples for Objective-C and Swift.

Learn more about middleware

More resources¶

If you have any problems or issues with the SDK, create a GitHub issue or submit a request on Amplitude Help.

Last update: 2022-07-19

iOS SDK

Install¶

Core functions¶

Initialize¶

EU data residency¶

Send events¶

Basic events¶

Events with properties¶

User properties¶

Set a user property¶

set¶

setOnce¶

add¶

preInsert and postInsert¶

remove¶

Set multiple user properties¶

Arrays in user properties¶

prepend and append¶

preInsert and postInsert¶

Remove user properties¶

Clear all user properties¶

remove¶

Set user groups¶

Group identify¶

Track revenue¶

Advanced topics¶

User sessions¶

Set custom user ID¶

Debug logging¶

Logged out and anonymous users¶

Log events to multiple projects¶

Disable tracking¶

COPPA control¶

Advertiser ID¶

Set IDFA as device ID¶

Location tracking¶

Carrier information¶

Dynamic configuration¶

SSL pinning¶

Opt users out of tracking¶

tvOS and watchOS¶

iOS extensions¶

App Clips¶

CocoaPods¶

Swift Package Manager¶

Push notification events¶

Middleware¶

More resources¶

`set`¶

`setOnce`¶

`add`¶

`preInsert` and `postInsert`¶

`remove`¶

`prepend` and `append`¶

`preInsert` and `postInsert`¶

`remove`¶