The Mobile App Event Taxonomy Subscription Teams Should Start With
Use this mobile app event taxonomy for onboarding, paywalls, purchases, subscriptions, errors, and retention-ready analytics dashboards.
Summary
A starter event taxonomy that keeps mobile analytics useful, consistent, and privacy-safe across iOS and Android apps.
Use Namespace.action names so events stay readable.
Track lifecycle events before adding custom product events.
Keep payloads flat and safe so dashboards can aggregate them.
Why a small taxonomy wins
The best first analytics taxonomy is boring. It uses predictable event names, a short list of safe payload keys, and the same semantics across iOS and Android. This makes dashboards work earlier and prevents the team from debating event names after every release.
A subscription app should start with lifecycle, onboarding, paywall, purchase, subscription, and error events. Custom feature events can come later, after the team knows which product questions are still unanswered.
- Lifecycle: App.launch.
- Onboarding: Onboarding.started, Onboarding.stepViewed, Onboarding.completed.
- Revenue: Paywall.viewed, Purchase.started, Purchase.completed, Subscription.renewed.
Payload fields to standardize
A useful event is more than its name. Paywall.viewed should include plan, source, placement, and variant. Purchase.completed should include productId, plan, currency, and revenue amount. Error.occurred should include a safe error code, while the SDK supplies app version context.
Avoid payload keys that invite personal data. Keys such as email, phone, name, ip, location, deviceId, idfa, and gaid should be removed on the client or redacted at ingest before event storage.
How this taxonomy maps to dashboards
App.launch builds activity and retention readiness. Onboarding events build activation funnels. Paywall and purchase events build conversion and revenue views. Subscription events build renewal, trial, refund, cancellation, and billing retry reporting.
This mapping is what keeps instrumentation focused. If an event does not improve a dashboard, alert, or privacy review, it should probably wait.
FAQ
Common questions
How many analytics events should a new app start with?
Most subscription apps can start with 10 to 15 events covering launch, onboarding, paywall, purchase, subscription, and errors.
Should event names be different on iOS and Android?
No. Use the same event names on both platforms so cross-platform dashboards and funnels stay comparable.