Google Analytics 4 (GA4) comes with a variety of new, different features compared to its predecessor, Universal Analytics. One of the key GA4 features that is noticeably different from Universal Analytics is data stream.

What Is a Data Stream in GA4?

A data stream is a source of data being sent to a GA4 property which could be either from a website (web) or an App (iOS and Android).

This means a single GA4 property can have three types of data streams, compared to the UA property, where you would create a separate property for each data source: web, iOS, and Android. This inclusion lets you collect data from different data sources under one single property. This setup allows easy data access and the ability to see the whole picture of your customers’ digital journey.

Difference Between UA View and GA4 Stream

The major difference between views and streams is that streams are data sources, while views take data from a property depending on the source.

Data streams can collect data from different touchpoints between apps and websites in a user’s journey. Views, on the other hand, are more about filtering and the type of data you want to see in the reports for a specific view. For example, if you want to see people from Canada that are coming through Google Ads traffic, you can create a view with specific filters to only see website traffic from Canada and generated via Google Ads.

With data streams in GA4, you can apply different types of filters and segments within the Explore reports, so there’s no filtering at the stream level. This is a major difference.

Google suggested that data streams should not be used to separate data as we do in views because it defeats the purpose of tying users across different data sources, which is what streams do.

For Universal Analytics users, not having views can be a bit challenging and confusing in the beginning but we’re certain that you’ll quickly adapt to Google Analytics 4.

Google Analytics 4 data streams also offer enhanced measurement metrics that aren’t available in Universal Analytics. The metrics:

• Scrolls
• Video plays
• File downloads
• Site search
• Outbound clicks

What Are the Limitations of GA4 Data Streams?

While GA4 data streams have useful and robust data collecting and measuring features, they do have some limitations. The limitations are:

• Number of Streams – Each Google Analytics 4 property can have up to 50 data streams (any combination of app and web data streams, including a limit of 30 app data streams). A data stream is a flow of data from a customer touchpoint (e.g., app, website) to Analytics.
• User Permissions – You cannot give access to any single stream as they are all part of one property. So, giving access to one property will give users access to all the streams. However, with the sub-property feature in GA4 360, this is doable but only at the sub-property level and not at the stream level.
• Deleting a Stream – While Google will still store the historical data, the stream won’t be available to use in any reports or filters and the data won’t be processed anymore. However, if you export the data to BigQuery, then you can always access it even after the stream is deleted.

If you have any questions about Google Analytics 4, data streams or anything in between, contact us to book a consultation meeting!