How do I create a segment for users who have been inactive for a specific number of days?

To create a segment of users who have not been active (e.g., have not opened your app) for a specific period, you can use an event-based filter with a daysago condition. It is crucial to use the correct operator to get accurate results.

A common mistake is using the greater than or equal to (gte) operator, which can lead to a much larger segment than expected because of how the time window is calculated.

To correctly identify users who have been inactive for a certain number of days, follow these steps:

1. Choose the right event. For mobile app inactivity, the PW_ApplicationOpen event is a good choice. This is a default event that tracks each time a user launches your app.
2. Set the filter condition. The condition should state that the count of this event within the last X days is zero.
3. Use the correct operator. To filter for users who have not triggered an event in the last X days, you must use the less than or equal to (lte) operator with daysago.

Example: Find users who have not opened the app in the last 300 days

The correct filter condition would be: PW_ApplicationOpen, date daysago lte 300, count eq 0

Why this works: This condition correctly targets all devices that have a count of zero for the PW_ApplicationOpen event within the last 300 days. This includes users whose last app open was more than 300 days ago, as well as users who may have never opened the app.

Incorrect Condition to Avoid: Using date daysago gte 300 would incorrectly include users who have opened the app recently (e.g., yesterday), because it only checks for the absence of the event in the time period from 300 days ago to the distant past, without considering recent activity.