description	Detailed technical documentation on RudderStack’s Android SDK using Android Studio to send events from your Android device to various destinations.

Android

What is the RudderStack Android SDK?

The RudderStack Android SDK allows you to track event data from your app. It can be easily integrated into your Android application. After integrating this SDK, you will also be able to send the event data to your preferred analytics destination/s such as Google Analytics, Amplitude, and more.

You can check the GitHub codebase if you want to get more hands-on or keen to know the SDK architecture.

SDK Setup Requirements

To set up the RudderStack Android SDK, there are a few prerequisites as mentioned below:

You will need to set up a RudderStack Account.
Once signed up, your Android source writeKey will appear in the Dashboard, as shown:

You will also need your Data Plane URL. Simply put, the Data Plane URL is used to connect to the RudderStack backend for processing and routing your events.

{% hint style="info" %} To get the Data Plane URL:

If you're using the open-source version of RudderStack, you are required to set up your own data plane by installing and setting up RudderStack in your preferred dev environment.
If you're using the enterprise version of RudderStack, please contact us for the data plane URL with the email ID used to sign up for RudderStack. {% endhint %}
You will also need to install Android Studio on your system.

Installing the SDK

We distribute our Android SDK through Bintray. This is the recommended way to use our SDK is through the Android Gradle build system. It's the easiest way to add the SDK to your project.

To add the dependencies, perform the following steps:

Open your app/build.gradle (Module: app) file, and add the following lines of code:

repositories {
    maven { url  "https://dl.bintray.com/rudderstack/rudderstack" }
}

Add the dependency under dependencies as shown:

implementation 'com.rudderstack.android.sdk:core:1+'
// add the follwing line if you don't have Gson included already
implementation 'com.google.code.gson:gson:2+'

{% hint style="info" %} It is recommended to use the Core Android SDK without any device-mode destination SDKs as you will have a better view on the captured data from the SDK. {% endhint %}

Setting Android Permission

Add this line to your AndroidManifest.xml file of your application for internet permission:

<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.INTERNET"/>

We also declare android.permission.BLUETOOTH and android.permission.ACCESS_WIFI_STATE as optional by mentioning required="false" . If we get these permissions, we'll capture the Bluetooth status and the WiFi status of the device and pass it under context.network.

Initializing the RudderStack Client

Import the library on the classes you desire to use RudderClient library

import com.rudderstack.android.sdk.core.*;

Add the following code to the onCreate method in your Application class:

{% hint style="info" %} Don't have an Application class? Follow our guide on Adding an Application Class to Your Android Application to add one. {% endhint %}

{% tabs %} {% tab title="Kotlin" %}

val rudderClient = RudderClient.getInstance(
    this,
    WRITE_KEY,
    RudderConfig.Builder()
        .withDataPlaneUrl(DATA_PLANE_URL)
        .withTrackLifecycleEvents(true)
        .withRecordScreenViews(true)
        .build()
)

{% endtab %}

{% tab title="JAVA" %}

RudderClient rudderClient = RudderClient.getInstance(
        this,
        WRITE_KEY,
        new RudderConfig.Builder()
                .withEndPointUri(DATA_PLANE_URL)
                .withTrackLifecycleEvents(true)
                .withRecordScreenViews(true)
                .build()
);

{% endtab %} {% endtabs %}

{% hint style="info" %} We automatically track the following optional events:

Application Installed
Application Updated
Application Opened
Application Backgrounded

You can disable these events using the withTrackLifecycleEvents method and passing false. But it is highly recommended to keep them enabled. {% endhint %}

Track

You can record the users' activity through the track method. Every action performed by the user is called an event.

An example of the track event is as shown:

{% tabs %} {% tab title="Kotlin" %}

rudderClient.track(
    "Product Added",
    RudderProperty()
        .putValue("product_id", "product_001")
)

{% endtab %}

{% tab title="JAVA" %}

rudderClient.track(
        "Product Added",
        new RudderProperty()
                .putValue("product_id", "product_001")
);

{% endtab %} {% endtabs %}

Follow the method signature as below:

Name	Data Type	Required	Description
`name`	`String`	Yes	Name of the event you want to track
`property`	`RudderProperty` or `Map<String, Object>`	No	Extra data properties you want to send along with the event
`options`	`RudderOption`	No	Extra event options

Identify

We capture deviceId and use that as anonymousId for identifying the user. It helps to track the users across the application installation. To attach more information to the user, you can use the identify method. Once you set the identify information to the user, those will be passed to the successive track or screen calls. To reset the user identification, you can use the reset method.

{% hint style="info" %} On the Android devices, the deviceId is assigned during the first boot. It remains consistent across the applications and installs. It changes only after factory reset. {% endhint %}

An example identify event is as shown:

{% tabs %} {% tab title="Kotlin" %}

val traits = RudderTraits()
traits.putBirthday(Date())
traits.putEmail("abc@123.com")
traits.putFirstName("First")
traits.putLastName("Last")
traits.putGender("m")
traits.putPhone("5555555555")

val address = RudderTraits.Address()
address.putCity("City")
address.putCountry("USA")
traits.putAddress(address)

traits.put("boolean", Boolean.TRUE)
traits.put("integer", 50)
traits.put("float", 120.4f)
traits.put("long", 1234L)
traits.put("string", "hello")
traits.put("date", Date(System.currentTimeMillis()))

rudderClient.identify("test_user_id", traits, null)

{% endtab %}

{% tab title="JAVA" %}

RudderTraits traits = new RudderTraits();
traits.putBirthday(new Date());
traits.putEmail("abc@123.com");
traits.putFirstName("First");
traits.putLastName("Last");
traits.putGender("m");
traits.putPhone("5555555555");

RudderTraits.Address address = new RudderTraits.Address();
address.putCity("City");
address.putCountry("USA");
traits.putAddress(address);

traits.put("boolean", Boolean.TRUE);
traits.put("integer", 50);
traits.put("float", 120.4f);
traits.put("long", 1234L);
traits.put("string", "hello");
traits.put("date", new Date(System.currentTimeMillis()));

rudderClient.identify("test_user_id", traits, null);

{% endtab %} {% endtabs %}

Follow the method signatures below:

Name	Data Type	Required	Description
`traits`	`RudderTraits`	Yes	Traits information for the user
`options`	`RudderOption`	No	Extra options for the `identify` event

Name	Data Type	Required	Description
`userId`	`String`	Yes	Developer identity for the user
`traits`	`RudderTraits`	No	Traits information for user
`option`	`RudderOption`	No	Extra options for the `identify` event

Screen

You can use the screen call to record whenever the user sees a screen on the mobile device. You can also send some extra properties along with this event.

An example of the screen event is as shown:

{% tabs %} {% tab title="Kotlin" %}

rudderClient.screen(
    "MainActivity",
    "HomeScreen",
    RudderProperty().putValue("foo", "bar"),
    null
)

{% endtab %}

{% tab title="JAVA" %}

rudderClient.screen(
    "MainActivity",
    "HomeScreen",
    new RudderProperty().putValue("foo", "bar"),
    null
);

{% endtab %} {% endtabs %}

Follow the method signature below:

Name	Data Type	Required	Description
`screenName`	`String`	Yes	Name of the screen viewed.
`category`	`String`	No	Category of the screen visited, such as `HomeScreen`, `LoginScreen`. Useful for tracking multiple `Fragment` views under a single `Activity`.
`property`	`RudderProperty`	No	Extra property object that you want to pass along with the `screen` call.
`option`	`RudderOption`	No	Extra options to be passed along with `screen` event.

Group

The group call associates a user to a specific organization. A sample group call for the API is below:

{% tabs %} {% tab title="Kotlin" %}

rudderClient.group(
    "sample_group_id",
    RudderTraits().putAge("24")
        .putName("Test Group Name")
        .putPhone("1234567891")
)

{% endtab %}

{% tab title="JAVA" %}

rudderClient.group(
    "sample_group_id",
    new RudderTraits().putAge("24")
        .putName("Test Group Name")
        .putPhone("1234567891")
);

{% endtab %} {% endtabs %}

Follow the method signatures below:

Name	Data Type	Required	Description
`groupId`	`String`	Yes	An ID of the organization with which you want to associate your user
`traits`	`RudderTraits`	No	Any other property of the organization you want to pass along with the call
`options`	`RudderOption`	No	Event level options

We don't persist the traits for the group across the sessions

Alias

The alias call associates the user with a new identification. A sample alias call for the API is below:

{% tabs %} {% tab title="Kotlin" %}

rudderClient.alias("test_new_id")

{% endtab %}

{% tab title="JAVA" %}

rudderClient.alias("test_new_id");

{% endtab %} {% endtabs %}

Alternatively, you can use the following method signature

Name	Data Type	Required	Description
`newId`	`String`	Yes	The new `userId` you want to assign to the user
`options`	`RudderOption`	No	Event level option

We replace the old userId with the newUserId and we persist that identification across the sessions.

Reset

You can use the reset method to clear the persisted traits for the identify call. This is required for Logout operations.

{% tabs %} {% tab title="Kotlin" %}

rudderClient.reset()

{% endtab %}

{% tab title="JAVA" %}

rudderClient.reset();

{% endtab %} {% endtabs %}

Configuring your RudderStack Client

You can configure your client based on the following parameters using RudderConfig.Builder:

Parameter	Type	Description	Default Value
`logLevel`	`int`	Controls how much of the log you want to see from the SDK.	`RudderLogger.RudderLogLevel.NONE`
`endPointUri`	`string`	URL of your `data-plane`. Please refer above to see how to fetch the data plane URL.	https://api.rudderlabs.com
`flushQueueSize`	`int`	Number of events in a batch request to the server.	`30`
`dbThresholdCount`	`int`	Number of events to be saved in the `SQLite` database. Once the limit is reached, older events are deleted from the DB.	`10000`
`sleepTimeout`	`int`	Minimum waiting time to flush the events to the server.	`10 seconds`
`configRefreshInterval`	`int`	It will fetch the config from `dashboard` after this many hours.	`2`
`trackLifecycleEvents`	`boolean`	Whether SDK will capture application life cycle events automatically.	`true`
`recordScreenViews`	`boolean`	Whether SDK will capture screen view events automatically.	`false`
`controlPlaneUrl`	`string`	This parameter should be changed only if you are self-hosting the Control Plane. Check the section Self-Hosted Control Plane below for more information. The SDK will add `/sourceConfig` along with this URL to fetch the configuration.	https://api.rudderlabs.com

Self-Hosted Control Plane

If you are using a device mode destination like Adjust, Firebase, etc., the Android SDK needs to fetch the required configuration from the Control Plane. If you are using the RudderStack Config Generator to host your own Control Plane, then follow this guide and specify controlPlaneUrl in yourRudderConfig.Builder that points to your hosted source configuration file.

{% hint style="warning" %} You shouldn't pass the controlPlaneUrl parameter during SDK initialization if you are using the dashboard from https://app.rudderstack.com. This parameter is supported only if you are using our open-source RudderStack Config Generator. {% endhint %}

Setting Android Device Token

You can set your device-token for push notification to be sent to the destinations that support Push Notification. We set the token under context.device.token.

Follow the code snippets below:

{% tabs %} {% tab title="Kotlin" %}

rudderClient.putDeviceToken("your_device_token")

{% endtab %}

{% tab title="JAVA" %}

rudderClient.putDeviceToken("your_device_token");

{% endtab %} {% endtabs %}

Advertisement ID

We collect the advertisementId if it is enabled by the user and the App has the Google Play services Ads SDK embedded in the application. We set the gaid under context.device.advertisementId.

Apart from it, if you want to set the advertisingId by yourself, you can do so using the updateWithAdvertisingId method and passing the advertisingId.

{% hint style="warning" %} You need to call updateWithAdvertisingId method before calling getInstance {% endhint %}

An example of setting the advertisingId is as below

RudderClient.updateWithAdvertisingId(<ADVERTISING_ID>);

Anonymous ID

We use the deviceId as anonymousId by default. You can use the following method to override and use your own anonymousId with the SDK.

{% hint style="warning" %} You need to call setAnonymousId method before calling getInstance {% endhint %}

An example of setting the anonymousId is as below

RudderClient.setAnonymousId(<ANONYMOUS_ID>);

External ID

You can pass your custom userId along with standard userId in your identify calls. We add those values under context.externalId. The following code snippet shows a way to add externalId to your identify request.

rudderClient.identify(
    "sampleUserId",
    RudderTraits().putFirstName("First Name"),
    RudderOption()
        .putExternalId("brazeExternalId", "some_external_id")
)

Debugging

If you run into any issues regarding the RudderStack Android SDK, you can turn on the VERBOSE or DEBUG logging to find out what the issue is. To turn on the logging, change your RudderClient initialization to the following:

{% tabs %} {% tab title="Kotlin" %}

val rudderClient: RudderClient = RudderClient.getInstance(
    this,
    YOUR_WRITE_KEY,
    RudderConfig.Builder()
        .withDataPlaneUrl(DATA_PLANE_URL)
        .withLogLevel(RudderLogger.RudderLogLevel.DEBUG)
        .build()
)

{% endtab %}

{% tab title="Java" %}

RudderClient rudderClient = RudderClient.getInstance(
    this,
    YOUR_WRITE_KEY,
    new RudderConfig.Builder()
        .withEndPointUri(DATA_PLANE_URL)
        .withLogLevel(RudderLogger.RudderLogLevel.DEBUG)
        .build()
);

{% endtab %} {% endtabs %}

FAQs

Do I need to add anything to my progaurd-rules?

If you are facing any issue regarding even delivery in production environment, add the following line in your progaurd rule.

-keep class com.rudderstack.android.** { *; }

What is the Android version required to set up the RudderStack Android SDK?

We currently support API 14: Android 4.0 (IceCreamSandwich) or higher.

I don't have an `Application` class to initialize my RudderStack client. What do I do?

Please follow our guide on How to Add an Application Class to Your Android App to add an Application class.

How do I set the Android permissions?

Please refer to the Setting the Android Permission section above to do this.

Can I use the library with Maven?

Yes, you can use the library with maven.

<dependency>
  <groupId>com.rudderstack.android.sdk</groupId>
  <artifactId>core</artifactId>
  <version>latest_version</version>
  <type>pom</type>
</dependency>

How do I check whether a specific event is getting fired or not?

You can try searching in the Logcat using the following command once you set the logLevel to VERBOSE

adb logcat -s RudderSDK:V \
    -v tag -e "EventRepository: dump: message:"

Contact Us

In case of any queries, you can always contact us, or open an issue on our GitHub Issues page in case of any discrepancy.

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Android

What is the RudderStack Android SDK?

SDK Setup Requirements

Installing the SDK

Setting Android Permission

Initializing the RudderStack Client

Track

Identify

Screen

Group

Alias

Reset

Configuring your RudderStack Client

Self-Hosted Control Plane

Setting Android Device Token

Advertisement ID

Anonymous ID

External ID

Debugging

FAQs

Do I need to add anything to my progaurd-rules?

What is the Android version required to set up the RudderStack Android SDK?

I don't have an `Application` class to initialize my RudderStack client. What do I do?

How do I set the Android permissions?

Can I use the library with Maven?

How do I check whether a specific event is getting fired or not?

Contact Us

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Android

What is the RudderStack Android SDK?

SDK Setup Requirements

Installing the SDK

Setting Android Permission

Initializing the RudderStack Client

Track

Identify

Screen

Group

Alias

Reset

Configuring your RudderStack Client

Self-Hosted Control Plane

Setting Android Device Token

Advertisement ID

Anonymous ID

External ID

Debugging

FAQs

Do I need to add anything to my progaurd-rules?

What is the Android version required to set up the RudderStack Android SDK?

I don't have an Application class to initialize my RudderStack client. What do I do?

How do I set the Android permissions?

Can I use the library with Maven?

How do I check whether a specific event is getting fired or not?

Contact Us

I don't have an `Application` class to initialize my RudderStack client. What do I do?