Treat each onboarding step as its own event name (onboarding_step_1_complete, onboarding_step_2_complete, …, onboarding_complete). Funnel rates are then session-grouped event-name counts — no per-user attribution required. The pattern below is what we recommend for most React Native apps.
▸Install the React Native SDK
npm install @respectlytics/react-native
# or
yarn add @respectlytics/react-nativeJavaScript-only — no native modules, no auto-linking, no New Architecture migration concerns. Bundle size: ~14KB minified+gzipped. Works in any Expo project (managed or bare) without expo prebuild.
▸Initialize Respectlytics in React Native
// App.tsx (or App.js)
import { useEffect } from 'react';
import Respectlytics from '@respectlytics/react-native';
export default function App() {
useEffect(() => {
Respectlytics.configure({ appKey: '<YOUR_APP_KEY>' });
}, []);
return <YourApp />;
}Initialize once in your top-level component. No native config; no Info.plist or AndroidManifest changes. The SDK is Hermes- and JSC-compatible.
▸Track the event in React Native
import Respectlytics from '@respectlytics/react-native';
// Each step:
Respectlytics.track('onboarding_step_1_complete');
// Final step button:
function FinalStep({ onFinish }) {
return (
<Button
title="Get started"
onPress={() => {
Respectlytics.track('onboarding_complete');
onFinish();
}}
/>
);
}If you use @react-navigation/native, fire the call in your onPress handler before navigating — events are RAM-only and unsent events are lost on force-quit.
✦Privacy & implementation notes
Common mistake: emitting one onboarding_step_completed event with {step: 1} as a parameter. Respectlytics's API rejects that with a 400. Instead, emit onboarding_step_1_complete, onboarding_step_2_complete, etc. as distinct event names — Respectlytics's funnel auto-discovery picks them up without any manual configuration.
The most frequent unintentional PII leak is sending the user's email or phone number as event metadata ("so we can re-engage them later"). The API returns a 400 with the offending field name — so this fails on the first integration test, not after months of unnoticed silent collection.
The React Native SDK is JavaScript-only — no Objective-C/Swift bridging on iOS, no Java/Kotlin bridging on Android. Side effects: no react-native link, no auto-linking, no New Architecture migration concerns, no platform-channel exception surfaces. Trade-off: no access to platform-only metadata (which we don't want to collect anyway).
Works in Expo managed workflow without expo prebuild. No config plugin is required. EAS Build users: nothing to configure. This is the smoothest integration path on RN — most analytics SDKs require ejecting from managed.
⇋How this compares to other analytics SDKs
| Onboarding completion event | Firebase Analytics | Mixpanel | Respectlytics |
|---|---|---|---|
| Per-user identity | app_instance_id | distinct_id (if signed in) | Never |
| Step metadata as parameters | Up to 25 params per event | Up to 250 properties | Use distinct event_name per step |
| Email / signup_method as event property | Recommended | Recommended | Rejected by API |
| Session-level funnel computation | Yes (session-scoped tables) | Yes (insights builder) | Yes (default) |
| What you store about who finished | a lot | a lot | event_name + session_id (rotated) + timestamp + platform + country |
❓Frequently asked questions
Why use distinct event_names per step instead of one event with a step parameter?
Two reasons. First, Respectlytics's API rejects custom parameters — you have five fields, period. Second, distinct event names compose better with the automatic funnel-discovery feature: any monotonic sequence of event names in a session is a candidate funnel, no manual configuration required.
How do we segment onboarding completion by acquisition source?
If your acquisition source is one of N values (organic, paid_search, referral, …), emit it as part of the event name: onboarding_complete_organic, onboarding_complete_paid_search, etc. The aggregation engine groups them. Avoid composing freeform combinations — keep your taxonomy short.
What about completion time / duration?
Two timestamped events in the same session implicitly carry duration — compute it server-side in your dashboard, not as an event property. The raw timestamps stay on Respectlytics; the duration metric is your derivation.
Should we track each step view or just step completions?
Just completions, in nearly every case. "Saw step 3" with no completion is rarely actionable — a session that has onboarding_step_2_complete but no onboarding_step_3_complete already tells you they got stuck.