Firebase/Google analytics 28d user count do not match `session_start` 28d user count

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I am trying to sort out why the user count coming from Firebase?Google Analytics does not seem to match the user count for session_start. We have a number of clients on the app and I am filtering by the client ID here so they can see how many users/sessions they have.

The is the user count for the last 28 days:

Here is the user count according to Firebase/GA

This is the same time period looking at Google data studio:

Here is the data from Google Data studio for the same time period

Why don't the number of users for session_start match the number of monthly users?

Also, why is it so difficult to get the number of sessions from Firebase/GA? Am I missing something?

2
firebasegoogle-analyticsfirebase-analyticsgoogle-data-studiofirebase-console

2 Answers

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By default session_start event is fired "when a user engages the app for more than the minimum session duration after a period of inactivity that exceeds the session timeout duration" (docs) so the number of session_start events doesn't necessarily match the overall number of users

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I think I might have sorted out why that client's numbers were off. From what I can gather, receiving a notification counts that person as an active user, even if they do not open the app at all.

Here is the SO post I came across trying to sort this out