Daily Active Users (DAUs)

July 9, 2018

Daily active users (DAUs) is a metric used to gauge the stickiness of your app. DAUs literally measure the number of users who engage in some way with your app at least once a day.

For many mobile apps and online brands, daily active users is the primary metric for growth and for engagement.

Daily active users are your most highly prized customers –whether or not they’ve actually converted – because they are the ones most engaged with your product and the ones most likely to evangelize your app to their networks.

What are DAUs?

What Criteria Make Them Daily Active Users?

In many cases, to be considered active, users need only view your app or launch it. Although it would be ideal if that daily activity involves engaging with your app in a meaningful way, many companies choose to simply base the DAU metric on opening the app.

Why Only Relying on DAUs is Dangerous

The big problem with relying on DAUs is that when publicity comes around and your app is covered in mainstream media for example, you may suddenly face a deluge of new users and new downloads. “We increased DAUs by 100x!”

But when this metric is simply defined by opening or logging in, it does not really measure the usage and true engagement within your app.

If you want to measure real usage, it won’t be in the DAU metric. You need to look at other measurements such as click-through rates, or usage of specific features in your app. Look at engagement, look at habits and patterns in usage.

Read More About DAUs

If you’re overwhelmed by mobile app metrics, you’re not alone. ...
The holy grail of all mobile app marketers has always ...
US users are spending up to 5 hours a day ...
Back to Glossary
Related Keywords
Monthly Active Users (MAUs)

Monthly active users or MAUs refer to the number of users who engage in some way with your app at...

Read more
Customer Lifetime Value (CLTV or CLV)

Customer lifetime value (CLTV or CLV) is also known as lifetime value (LTV), and refers to the pr...

Read more
Year-to-Date (YTD)

Year-to-date (YTD) is a period of time that is based on the beginning of the calendar year and up...

Read more
ROI Glossary

ROI stands for return on investment. It refers to the actual gain you receive from your investmen...

Read more