Difference Between 'App Open' and 'Session Start' in Mixpanel

Based on the provided knowledge sources, I can explain the difference between 'App Open' and 'Session Start' in Mixpanel: 1. 'App Open': 'App Open' is an automatically tracked event in Mixpanel's legacy feature for mobile SDKs. It's not recommended to use this feature as it can be unreliable. The 'App Open' event is typically tracked when a user opens the mobile app.Mixpanel SDKs: iOS (Swift) mentions that the raw name for this event is "$ae_first_open" and it's described as "First App Open". It tracks the first time a user has opened the app and is retriggered if the user reinstalls the app or clears local storage.2. 'Session Start': 'Session Start' is a virtual event that Mixpanel computes automatically based on your session configuration. It's part of Mixpanel's Sessions feature, which is designed to help analyze user behavior within a defined period of activity.According to Sessions: Compute sessions based on existing event data, a 'Session Start' event can be triggered in different ways depending on your session configuration: - In timeout-based sessions (default), it starts when a user performs any event after a period of inactivity. - In event-based sessions, it's triggered by a specific event you define as the session start. - In property-based sessions, it's triggered when a specific property value changes.The key difference is that 'App Open' is a specific event tied to opening the app, while 'Session Start' is a more flexible concept that can represent the beginning of user activity based on your defined session parameters. 'Session Start' is generally more reliable and customizable for analyzing user behavior over time.

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Based on the information provided in the knowledge sources, this situation could indicate a technical issue with your event tracking implementation. Let me explain why: 1. Successive Event Repeats: This pattern you're seeing, where 'App Open' is repeated multiple times in succession, aligns with what's described as a "successive event repeat" in the Product analytics implementation hiccups that are easy to spot article. This occurs when an event is inappropriately tracked two or more times in a row from the same device.2. Potential Causes: The repeated 'App Open' events could be due to a problem in the event tracking code. Even if a user only opens the app once, the code that tracks the 'App Open' event might be firing multiple times when it should only fire once.3. How to Identify: Look at the timestamps of these repeated 'App Open' events. If they occur within the same second or milliseconds of one another, it's likely due to a technical issue rather than actual user behavior.4. What It Means: This pattern suggests that your event tracking for 'App Open' might be implemented incorrectly. It's unlikely that a user would genuinely open and close the app multiple times in rapid succession.5. Next Steps: To address this, you should: - Consult with your engineering team to review the implementation of the 'App Open' event tracking. - Consider running automated tests to check for these types of anomalies. - Review the relevant tracking code to ensure 'App Open' is only being fired once per actual app open.Remember, as mentioned in Mixpanel SDKs: iOS (Swift), Mixpanel recommends disabling automatic event tracking for mobile events as they can be unreliable. If you're using automatic tracking, you might want to consider implementing manual tracking for more accurate results.If you need further assistance in diagnosing this issue or implementing a fix, it would be best to consult with your development team or Mixpanel's technical support.

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