Lifecycle method `application_opened` not firing consistently

[mattlennon3]

Our analytics team have flagged that we aren't always receiving an application_opened event for app sessions. Even though other events are received on the same day. This can be as high as 10% of users who's session does not trigger the event.

We believe this could be to do with the app being backgrounded for an extended period of time.

I am raising this issue to ask for advice on how to replicate, and of course if you have any ideas what the problem might be.

Is it advisable to try to fire an event ourselves on app opening/closing? We feel like it's possible, but would be a last resort.

• analytics-react-native version:
• Integrations versions (if used):

    "@segment/analytics-react-native": "2.18.0",
    "@segment/analytics-react-native-plugin-advertising-id": "1.3.1",
    "@segment/analytics-react-native-plugin-appsflyer": "0.7.0",
    "@segment/analytics-react-native-plugin-firebase": "0.4.1",
    "@segment/analytics-react-native-plugin-idfa": "0.7.2",
    "@segment/sovran-react-native": "1.1.0",

• React Native version:

    "react-native": "0.74.6"

• iOS or Android or both?
  At least iOS, I think Android also.

Steps to reproduce

Unfortunately nothing concrete in terms of replication steps.

Expected behavior

This lifecycle method is fired every time the app is opened.

Actual behavior

It seems like it is not always fired, as other events are received, but not this one.

[mattlennon3]

Found the relevant code.

I'm wondering if this check:

      if (
        ['inactive', 'background'].includes(this.appState) && // the previous `appState` could have been `unknown` or something else.
        nextAppState === 'active'
      ) {
        const context = this.store.context.get();
        const event = createTrackEvent({
          event: 'Application Opened',
          properties: {
            from_background: true,
            version: context?.app?.version,
            build: context?.app?.build,
          },
        });

As indicated by the comment, I feel like there maybe some risk if the state is incorrect.

In fact, I found an MR in this very repo: https://github.com/segmentio/analytics-react-native/pull/887/files which checks for unknown in the background flush policy.

Perhaps these changes can be checked and aligned.

[sunitaprajapati89]

@mattlennon3 : I would like you to pay attention to the comment added above the [relevant code]. It says that "The initial event from 'unknown' to 'active' is handled on launch in checkInstalledVersion" and checkInstalledVersion is called inside init. I hope that makes sense to you.

I request you to kindly provide more details that would help us to reproduce the issue.