Mobile analytics without cross-app tracking · 2026 reality

App Tracking Transparency shipped in 2021. By 2026, the dust has settled: ~65% of iOS users decline tracking across apps. Cross-app attribution is essentially dead for most consumer apps. This is how we actually run analytics on mobile apps we ship.

What first-party analytics can still measure

• In-app events · every screen view, tap, scroll, feature use
• Session duration + frequency
• Crash-free session rate
• Conversion from activation → paid (within your app)
• Retention curves
• Anonymous device properties (OS version, device class, locale)

What it cannot measure

• Which ad drove the install (for users who declined tracking)
• Cross-app behaviour (do my users also use X?)
• Personal identifiers like email or IDFA without user consent

The stack we ship

1. PostHog or Mixpanel SDK on-device for event capture
2. Authenticated user ID joins server-side · user-consent implied by login
3. Cohort-based A/B testing · not individual-level random assignment
4. Apple Search Ads + SKAdNetwork for post-install attribution (limited, but legitimate)
5. Privacy manifest + ATT prompt handled gracefully in onboarding

How we make product decisions

Product decisions on cohorts + retention curves · not individual tracking. 'Users who completed onboarding within 48h retain 3× better in week 4' is a decision signal. 'User XYZ did N things in sequence' mostly isn't, post-ATT.