Abnormal elapsed time measurements in GA4 for iOS

[Wyatt]

So, just to put it out there, the ‘Elapsed Time’ we’re talking about here is actually a total, not an average. Meaning, each time a user moves from step 1 to step 2 in the funnel, that time gets piled up, not averaged out. I’ve tried finding a way to check the average or median of Elapsed Time but came up with nothing, which is a bummer since I think an average would be way more useful than a total. And I don’t think there’s a way to see how many times this shift from step 1 to step 2 actually happened, so even if you wanted to, you can’t do the math to get the average yourself.

[Lucas]

It sounds like there might be a misunderstanding in interpreting Google Analytics GA4. Typically, “Engagement Time” is recorded in seconds which is the raw data sent from your app to Google Analytics. However, when you observe the it in your analytics console, it might default display to days for the sake of simplicity. This could potentially happen if the overall time recorded is very large. Moreover, there might be some conversion or standardization applied when processing and displaying data. You might want to dive deeper into customizing your view settings or creating more specific segments to monitor the particular user engagement in seconds or minutes as required. If this is consistently problematic and doesn’t align with your expectation, contacting Google support or browsing forums may provide a solution.