docs(analytics): explain the three SPM products#16249
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Closes firebase#15807. The Analytics integration ships three Swift Package products (FirebaseAnalytics, FirebaseAnalyticsCore, FirebaseAnalyticsIdentitySupport) and the difference between them is only visible by reading Package.swift and the underlying GoogleAppMeasurement dependencies. Adds a section to FirebaseAnalytics/README.md mapping each product to its measurement library, IDFA posture, and the use case that should drive the choice.
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htcgh
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Thanks @tsushanth for doing this! I just have a couple of suggested edits.
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| | Package product | Underlying measurement library | IDFA / advertising | When to use | | ||
| |-----------------|--------------------------------|--------------------|-------------| | ||
| | **`FirebaseAnalytics`** | `GoogleAppMeasurement` | Yes — collects IDFA when ATT-authorized; includes Google Signals + advertising features | Default for consumer apps that want full Analytics, audience targeting, and ad-network attribution | |
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| | **`FirebaseAnalytics`** | `GoogleAppMeasurement` | Yes — collects IDFA when ATT-authorized; includes Google Signals + advertising features | Default for consumer apps that want full Analytics, audience targeting, and ad-network attribution | | |
| | **`FirebaseAnalytics`** | `GoogleAppMeasurement` | Yes — collects IDFA when ATT-authorized; includes on-device conversion measurement | Default for consumer apps that want full Analytics, audience targeting, and ad-network attribution | |
| |-----------------|--------------------------------|--------------------|-------------| | ||
| | **`FirebaseAnalytics`** | `GoogleAppMeasurement` | Yes — collects IDFA when ATT-authorized; includes Google Signals + advertising features | Default for consumer apps that want full Analytics, audience targeting, and ad-network attribution | | ||
| | **`FirebaseAnalyticsCore`** | `GoogleAppMeasurementCore` | No | Apps that must avoid IDFA collection entirely (e.g., kids apps, restricted enterprise distributions, or apps whose privacy posture rules out any advertising-related data) | | ||
| | **`FirebaseAnalyticsIdentitySupport`** | `GoogleAppMeasurementCore` + `GoogleAppMeasurementIdentitySupport` | No IDFA, but enables privacy-respecting identity features (e.g., requestTrackingAuthorization integration without ad-targeting) | Apps that need user-deletion / identity-management integrations on top of Core but still don't want advertising-tier data collection | |
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| | **`FirebaseAnalyticsIdentitySupport`** | `GoogleAppMeasurementCore` + `GoogleAppMeasurementIdentitySupport` | No IDFA, but enables privacy-respecting identity features (e.g., requestTrackingAuthorization integration without ad-targeting) | Apps that need user-deletion / identity-management integrations on top of Core but still don't want advertising-tier data collection | | |
| | **`FirebaseAnalyticsIdentitySupport`** | `GoogleAppMeasurementCore` + `GoogleAppMeasurementIdentitySupport` | Yes - collects IDFA when ATT-authorized; excludes on-device conversion measurement | Apps that collect IDFA, but don't run any Google Ad campaigns | |
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Why
Closes #15807.
The Firebase iOS SDK ships three Swift Package products under the Analytics umbrella — `FirebaseAnalytics`, `FirebaseAnalyticsCore`, and `FirebaseAnalyticsIdentitySupport` — and the difference between them is only discoverable by reading `Package.swift` and tracing each `Wrapper` target back to the underlying `GoogleAppMeasurement` product it pulls in. The issue reporter and the integration docs at firebase.google.com/docs/analytics/get-started both say "choose the analytics library" without explaining how to choose.
What
Adds a "Choosing the Right Analytics Product" section to `FirebaseAnalytics/README.md` with a table mapping each product to:
Plus a rule-of-thumb ("start with `FirebaseAnalytics` unless your privacy posture rules out advertising features") so a developer doesn't need to read `Package.swift` to make the call.
The pre-existing "manual screen view logging API" content is preserved unchanged below the new section.
Scope
Docs only. No code, no API surface changes.