An Easier Way to Access App Analytics

Tracking your app’s metrics—such as number of downloads and failure rate—is, of course, crucial to improving its performance. But the process can be cumbersome.

Now, developers with apps in the Windows Store can access their analytics without having to log into Microsoft’s Dev Center, with a new Windows Store Analytics API.

The API can be configured to retrieve daily, weekly or monthly reports on app acquisitions, IAP acquisitions, ratings, reviews and app health, according to Microsoft. Developers must first have an Azure AD account linked to a Dev Center account. Obtain an Azure AD access token, use it to call the Windows Store API, set the data parameters you want to see, and you’re good to go. Data is returned in JSON format.

For complete instructions on how to use the API, read Microsoft’s blog post. There’s even more detail here.

How is this an improvement? Microsoft suggests using the API to easily share data with colleagues in marketing or finance, or if you want to run more advanced analysis yourself on the raw data. And cutting out the Dev Center login may just be a general time saver.

If you try the new analytics API, let us know how it went in the comments below.