The Tracking Method setting is not that obvious and deserves some explanation. First, let's look at the big picture. You can think of your data from Segment as a "stream". This "stream" consists of individual data points (ie, your Segment tracks, views/screens and identity). Vespucci will then consolidate these data points into a session, a concept that does not exist in Segment. A session is a "stock". It contains all the tracks and views/screens that are performed by an end user in a single action sequence. You can choose to define this action sequence in two different ways.
- We call the first approach Action Based Tracking, it consists in defining the session as all the views and all the tracks realized between two remarkable tracks: namely "Application Opened" and "Application Backgrounded". These events are included by default in the Native Mobile Spec of Segment. It is also the most accurate way to consolidate a session.
- However, it is possible that, for various reasons, your Segment integration does not include the "Application Opened" and "Application Backgrounded" tracks. This is why we introduce a second tracking method called Time Based Tracking. It consists in defining the session on the basis of a temporal criterion. Vespucci will analyze the timestamp of each of the tracks and views sent by segment and try to consolidate them into concurrent events. This approach is less precise than the Action Based Tracking.
