Receive Context for App Performance with Official Annotations

Across the Sensor Tower platform, there is an immense amount of data around app performance that needs to be aggregated and organized. Organizing signals around mobile performance can say a lot about how an app or publisher is doing generally, but the truth is that not every indicator of performance can be tracked through in-app data alone. Contextual events such as significant content launches, or coincidental events such as a major news cycle, can affect user behavior in ways that cannot be perceived directly through our platform.

That's why we're announcing Official Annotations, a new feature that offers helpful insights to explain contextual or coincidental events that would be relevant in an app's history. For example, Official Annotations can help explain the periodic spikes in downloads that HBO apps experienced when a new season of Game of Thrones was released; the explosion in revenue that Fortnite saw when its latest season began; or why Pokémon GO suddenly started topping the Strategy game rankings in Summer 2019.

Currently, Official Annotations are available in select datasets within our Store Intelligence and App Intelligence products.

Through Official Annotations, we hope to expose helpful new data alongside our existing graphs that provide additional context to the primary signals that are being measured. Official Annotations include live operations announcements, content releases, and major news events that could affect the app's performance.

You'll see Official Annotations represented as text comment icons along the bottom of the graphs on App Analysis and Category Rankings. To expose the content of an Official Annotation, simply hover over the icon—they will be the same color as the app they belong to and aligned to the same date timeline as the primary graph.

Official Annotations will be added and maintained by our Mobile Insights team, which also powers Sensor Tower's consumer and enterprise analysis of the mobile landscape. Our team is committed to developing this feature as a unique supplement to our more traditional datasets and will continue expanding to an even greater variety of mobile apps.

Over time, we'll introduce this data across additional Sensor Tower products and continue to add new kinds of signals that help illustrate the outside events that affect the mobile landscape. We're excited to hear your feedback and any requests for new types of research and annotations.

To learn more about Official Annotations, take a look on our Help Center.

To learn more about Store Intelligence and how our industry-leading data can elevate your mobile marketing efforts, schedule a demo today.