What is a Screenview? Examples and Applications in Analytics

Screenview

A Screenview is an analytics event that captures when users view a new screen in web or mobile applications.

What is a Screenview?

• Core concept

  A screenview is an event that records when a user navigates to or displays a new screen within a digital product, such as in single-page web apps or native mobile apps.

• Screenviews vs pageviews

  Unlike pageviews, which track full page reloads in traditional websites, screenviews capture virtual view changes without reloading the entire page or app.

• Typical use cases

  Screenviews are essential for tracking user flow, engagement, and navigation in single-page applications (SPAs), progressive web apps (PWAs), and native mobile applications.

How Screenviews Work

• Event triggering

  Screenviews are sent as events when a new view is rendered, often via JavaScript or mobile SDK calls.

• Data pipeline

  Once triggered, the event travels through the analytics SDK to the backend, where it’s processed, attributed to sessions, and stored for reporting.

• Reporting in dashboards

  In GA4, screenviews appear under the “Engagement > Views” report, while in PlainSignal you can view them in the dashboard under “Screenviews”.

Implementation Examples

• Plainsignal implementation

  Include the PlainSignal script in your HTML and trigger a screenview event.

  <link rel="preconnect" href="//eu.plainsignal.com/" crossorigin />
  <script defer data-do="yourwebsitedomain.com" data-id="0GQV1xmtzQQ" data-api="//eu.plainsignal.com" src="//cdn.plainsignal.com/PlainSignal-min.js"></script>
  

  Then in your SPA router:

  signal('screenview', { screen_name: 'Home' });
  

• Google analytics 4 implementation

  Use the gtag.js library to send a screen_view event:

  <script async src="https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtag/js?id=GA_MEASUREMENT_ID"></script>
  <script>
    window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || [];
    function gtag(){dataLayer.push(arguments);}
    gtag('js', new Date());
    gtag('config', 'GA_MEASUREMENT_ID');
    gtag('event', 'screen_view', { 'app_name': 'MyApp', 'screen_name': 'HomeScreen' });
  </script>
  

Benefits of Tracking Screenviews

• Enhanced user insights

  Identify which screens drive engagement and where users drop off.

• Ux and navigation optimization

  Optimize screen sequences and layouts based on actual usage patterns.

• Cross-platform consistency

  Compare user behavior across web and native apps using a unified screenview metric.

Best Practices

• Use consistent naming

  Standardize screen_name values across platforms to ensure uniform reporting.

• Avoid duplicate events

  Ensure events fire only once per view to prevent inflated metrics.

• Respect user privacy

  Anonymize personal data and comply with GDPR/CCPA when tracking screenviews.

Related terms