What is daily active users?
Daily active users (DAU) is a metric used to measure the number of unique users who engage with a particular product, service or platform in a single day.
Why is Daily Active Users (DAU) Important?
Daily active users (DAU) is important because it helps companies to understand the level of engagement and usage of their product, which can be used to evaluate their success and identify opportunities for improvement.
High DAU indicates a healthy and active user base, while low DAU may suggest that users are not finding the product valuable or engaging.
Why it’s dangerous to rely on your DAU?
No single metric can give a complete picture of success, so relying on DAU alone for engagement can create an inaccurate picture of audience investment. Additionally, because the definition of “active” can be subjective and vary from company to company, it is best to rely on internal metrics of DAU when mapping trends.
How to calculate daily active users?
To calculate daily active users (DAU), you need to count the number of unique users who engage with your product, service or platform during a 24-hour period. Here are the basic steps:
- Determine what actions you consider to be "active" for your product, service or platform. For example, it might be opening the app, sending a message, making a purchase, or watching a video.
- Track the unique users who perform these actions within a 24-hour period. This means that if a user performs the action multiple times in a day, they should only be counted as one active user.
- Add up the number of unique users who performed the active actions within the 24-hour period. This will give you your DAU for that day.
It's important to note that the calculation of DAU can be more complex depending on the specific product, service or platform. For example, some companies may need to exclude certain users or actions from the calculation to get a more accurate representation of their active user base.
Increasing daily active users
If you want to increase your daily active users, focus on efforts that improve user experience and satisfaction such as a streamlined onboarding flow, using clear CTAs, keeping the app experience fresh, optimizing performance, and connecting through in-app Stories. For more information and strategies, see our blog post on increasing daily active users.
