Dispatch: New Cost, Cohort, & Query API Functionality

Overview

iOS 14.5 brought big changes to the mobile attribution ecosystem. One big change is that IDFA is not accessible on app install, but it can be accessed later if the user consents to Apple's AppTrackingTransparency framework. Currently, if the user installed the mobile app via a paid ad, then Branch will publish a 2nd install event for that user that is attributed to the ad. This means that for a subset of users, there are technically two install events. In order to ensure you see accurate counts for installs, Branch has now provided functionality to "remove" the first unattributed install.

There is a new boolean parameter on Branch APIs called enable_install_recalculation that can be added to the API call that will de-dupe unattributed installs caused by duplicate events from non-opted-in users coming from paid ads.

Required action:

If you are using one of the impacted APIs below, then you have to update the API call to include the new parameter if you want installs to be de-duped.

Impacted APIs

API	Impact
Aggregate Exports
Cohort Exports
Custom Exports
Daily Exports
Query
Cost Data Query

Install Recalculation Details

Example cURL

Basic Query API example for pulling installs per day, split by OS, limited to 5 results, de-duping unattributed installs that came from paid ads.

curl -X POST -H "Content-Type: application/json" -d '{
  "branch_key":"<YOUR_BRANCH_KEY>",
  "branch_secret":"<YOUR_BRANCH_SECRET>",
  "start_date": "2017-12-12",
  "end_date": "2017-12-18",
  "data_source": "eo_install",
  "dimensions": [
    "user_data_os"
  ],
  "enable_install_recalculation": true,
  "granularity": "day",
  "aggregation": "total_count"
}' "http://api2.branch.io/v1/query/analytics?limit=5"