I am currently trying to create a pathfinder analysis to answer the questions: What is the typical journey for new users?. When I was designing the pathfinder I saw that there is an event called ‘New User’. After further research I understood that the new user event is:
A user’s first event in Amplitude
A new user is a user who has logged an event to Amplitude for the first time (this includes inactive events). The time of when the user is new is the time of when they logged their earliest event
With this information I created a Pathfinder that starts with Start Session. For the User I selected for users that performed New User and was then prompted with “who performed user = x time. I started changing the operator and number and saw that with each change the number of Start sessions changes. I don’t understand how the event New User can be equal any number if it is defined as the first event of a user and how I can make the parameters New User > 4 means or New User = 0.
I would appreciate any support on ways to answer my intended initial question, What is the typical path of a new user on the app?
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That’s interesting, I hadn’t noticed there is a ‘new user’ event to choose in segments! The way I understood the FAQ https://help.amplitude.com/hc/en-us/articles/360051775171#add-events-to-your-analysis is that when using a segment where users performed ‘new user event’ that it means that it will create a cohort that includes only the events triggered by the new users in your time period. For example, if as a new user you have to do a registration but you do not have to upgrade from a trial subscription until you are no longer considered a new user in the date range picked, then selecting the new user would be = users who performed registration event. I don’t have the data to test out this but I do have a possible way to change your analysis :)
Alternative:
Is there an event being triggered for any user as soon as they start their session? If you can identify that event, you could then pick that one and use the property ‘Historical Count’ where count = 1st, FAQ here https://help.amplitude.com/hc/en-us/articles/360040957432
2nd Alternative:
Another idea that comes to mind is by creating a cohort with your definition of who would be a new user (Amplitude’s demo account has one https://analytics.amplitude.com/demo/cohort/ux8r1ie ) and then, in pathfinder, you could choose this cohort in the segments section of your pathfinder.
Hope this helps!
Thank you very much for the help, your answer helped me tremendously.
@Roee Fink glad you had some ideas!
As for the count, another thing just occurred to me...what is your ‘measured as’ in your chart? the default is within 1 day so it counts the number of times the event was triggered by the user….have you tested the original chart changing the measured as to within 1 session? I wonder if this could be what is making the count change for you when changing the number of the new user.
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Side note,
It would actually be great if someone from Amplitude saw this thread and clarified I think the event called ‘New User’ is like using ‘Any active event but that is only the very first one triggered by a new user’ whereas the ‘new user’ in the segments section seems to be more of a user property without specifying the particular event to be triggered. The use case of the event vs the user property I imagine would be different, for example:
If I have an app which does not have an onboarding flow and a user can start literally anywhere, I would use the event New User to be able to count all new users without me having to specify the possible event they would have triggered.
If I have an app for which I know the very first event that will be triggered is ‘welcome screen’, then I would use the welcome screen as the event and the new user as the segment so it doesn’t count anyone else that might have logged off and also encounters the welcome page.
If I want to chart not new users, so far I have only been able to do it by creating a segment where new user = 0.
Even more specific is the New User option. A new user is defined as a user who logs an event in Amplitude for the first time. When you opt for this selection, Amplitude will look at events triggered by these users during the interval—days, weeks, or months—in which the user was new.
For example: If a user was new on July 17, and you set your analysis interval to Daily, only the events that were triggered on that same day—July 17—will appear on the chart, regardless of whether that user also triggered events the next day.
A new user is one who has logged an event for the first time (this includes inactive events). The time of when the user is new is the time of when they logged their earliest event.
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I think the event called ‘New User’ is like using ‘Any active event but that is only the very first one triggered by a new user’ whereas the ‘new user’ in the segments section seems to be more of a user property without specifying the particular event to be triggered. The use case of the event vs the user property I imagine would be different, for example:
