Active users consist of new users, current users, and resurrected users (see the table below for user definitions). The Lifecycle feature shows the breakdown of your active users by new, current, and resurrected, as well a count of your dormant users. This granular view of your active users, therefore, allows you to better understand and analyze your growth.
Table of Contents
Note: This feature is currently only available on the Enterprise, Growth, and Scholarship plans; this feature was formerly known as Growth Accounting.
User Definitions
| User Type | Definition |
|---|---|
| Active User | A user who logged any active event. Read about non-active events, here. |
| New User |
An active user who logged any event for the first time. A user will be counted as new for one full interval after their first event is received by Amplitude. For example, if your usage interval is set to 7 days, and a user was new on January 1st, they will be considered new for any events they perform between January 1 - January 7. *Note: Selecting an event other than "any event" does not change the definitions for new user, but users must perform the selected event within their first interval of being new to be included in the chart as a new user. |
| Current User | An active user who was active in the previous time period (day, week, or month). For example, a user who was active on January 1st and January 2nd would be considered a current user on January 2nd for a daily lifecycle chart. |
| Resurrected User | An active user who was not active for the previous interval (day, week, or month), or longer. For example, a user who was not active on January 1st, but performed an event on January 2nd would be considered a resurrected user on January 2nd for a daily lifecycle chart. |
| Dormant User |
A user who did not log any active event but was active in the previous time period (day, week, or month). For example, a user who was active on January 1st but not active on January 2nd would be considered a dormant user on January 2nd. |
Chart Control Panel
The left module of the chart control panel allows you to pick and choose what event you want to focus on in your Lifecycle chart. The default selection is '[Amplitude] Any Event', which will bucket users based on any event they have fired. You can select between other '[Amplitude]' events or any other event you have instrumented. You can also narrow down your paths by segmenting the data by user properties or cohorts by using the right module. You can click on the "Users" dropdown to utilize our account-level reporting feature or use the "+where" clause to segment your users.
Usage Interval
In the bottom module of the chart control panel, you can change the usage interval defined for your chart. This usage interval can be measured in days, calendar weeks, or calendar months. Additionally, you can customize the number of days, calendar weeks, or calendar months a user has to use your product more than once in order to be marked as current and not dormant. So, instead of selecting between daily, weekly, or monthly intervals in the date picker like in other Amplitude charts, you are selecting your own custom interval.
For example, if the usage interval is set to five days, then the Lifecycle chart will display the data in five-day intervals. This means that a user must return to your app and trigger the selected event within five days to be considered current and not dormant. If they were to return on the seventh day, they would be counted as resurrected for that next time interval and dormant between the two intervals.
Growth
The Growth chart shows the distribution of active users (new, current, and resurrected) and the count of dormant users for a particular day, week, or month. This allows you to understand which group of users impacts your active user counts the most.
Dormant
The Dormant chart shows the distribution of dormant users (new, current, and resurrected) for a particular day, week, or month. For example, a dormant new user on August 10th (shown in the bar between August 9th and August 10th) is a user who was new on August 9th but became dormant on August 10th.
Pulse
The Pulse chart shows the ratio of incoming users (e.g. new and resurrected users) versus outgoing users (e.g. dormant users) for a particular day, week, or month. The ratio allows you to understand how many active users you gain for each user that becomes dormant.
Specifically, Pulse uses the following formula:
(# of new users + # of resurrected users) / (# of dormant users)
At a high level:
- Pulse > 1 indicates that you are gaining more users than losing them, which means your product is experiencing growth.
- Pulse < 1 indicates you are losing more users than gaining them, which means your product isn't growing.
For example, in the chart below, we had a pulse of 0.78 on August 9th. This means that we lost more users on August 9th than we gained or resurrected.
Breakdown
Below the chart is a table of Lifecycle data. You can export the data table as a CSV file by clicking the "Export CSV" button.
