JON SKRIP: I don't know.
I would have to ask them.
JEN PERSON: I know.
This is literally every time.
And they're like, I don't know, you tell me.
I'm like, I don't know.
SPEAKER: Scene one, take one.
Calling mark.
JEN PERSON: How's it going, Firebase developers?
Welcome to another episode of #AskFirebase, the show
where we answer your burning Firebase questions.
I'm Jen Person, your host, and today, my co-host is Jon Skrip.
Thanks so much for coming on the show.
I appreciate it.
JON SKRIP: Sure.
JEN PERSON: So why don't you tell our viewers a little bit
about what you do at Firebase.
JON SKRIP: All right.
So I am part of the A/B testing team,
specifically I work on the back end.
JEN PERSON: Well, I mean, that works out well
because I actually collected some questions
about A/B testing today.
So hopefully you can help me answer them.
JON SKRIP: Great.
JEN PERSON: So our first question
comes from Stack Overflow, and this user
wants to know whether A/B testing is
doing anything different to what Remote Config does.
In particular, they're very interested in knowing
whether Remote Config ensures that when users open
the app multiple times they will always
be getting the same Remote Config values versus using
A/B testing.
So what's going on here?
Is it the same or different?
JON SKRIP: Yeah.
It's a good question.
A/B testing is actually doing something different
than Remote Config.
Specifically, A/B testing does guarantee stickiness
for a user that is enrolled in the experiment,
whereas Remote Config does not.
It is possible to craft your targeting for Remote Config
that you can mostly guarantee that the same users will
be in the same kind of target groups,
but there is no guarantee with just RC.
So in order to actually guarantee
that the same user will be in the same group throughout,
you will need to use A/B testing.
JEN PERSON: Which seems like the best
use of Remote Config anyway, as far as I'm concerned.
It's being able to do those kind of experiments
and see which configuration works best for your users.
JON SKRIP: Yeah.
Like for instance, if someone was to fly across the world,
maybe you would want to change their Remote Config
values from something that targets the US to something
that targets Singapore or wherever they end up.
JEN PERSON: Yeah, that is something I've noticed.
I went to Mexico City before for work,
and then when I was on social media,
all my ads were in Spanish.
And so I was like, interesting that it targets it differently.
And then when I came back to the US, most of them changed back,
but every now and again I'm like, oh, right.
It's just an ad in Spanish.
All right.
Thank you.
Great question.
Are you ready for another one?
JON SKRIP: Sure.
JEN PERSON: OK.
Let's dive in.
So our next question is also from Stack Overflow,
and this user wants to know that--
they did not set an activation event for the experiment,
meaning that they left that field blank.
So who becomes part of the experiment?
Is it anyone who opens the app with a matching version?
Anyone who starts a session with a matching version?
Anyone who engages with the matching session?
So who would be in that?
JON SKRIP: So, specifically, it would just
be whoever calls the activated fetch would
get put into that experiment.
There's not really a long description for this answer.
That's pretty much it.
If you pull the values, you're in the experiment.
JEN PERSON: Well, that's an easy one.
Then, whoever pulls the values is in the experiment.
There you go.
I like when they're short and sweet, right?
Our next question comes from RamwiseMatt, also
on Stack Overflow.
He says Firebase's A/B testing tool
allows us to target users in an experiment by device language.
How is this device language understood?
Is it the user's preferred language, or the language
of the device in the absence of the user preferred language,
or is the language that the app has been configured
to based on best effort match with the localizations
available?
JON SKRIP: OK.
Yeah, good question.
So there's two kind of options that you
have moving forward with this.
The language, specifically, is determined
by the device language.
So whatever the user's preferred language is on their device,
that will be what is targeted by language.
The other option that you have, kind of, that's
not directly language, but you can
target countries or regions.
If you specifically want people speaking Spanish in Spain,
you can target both language, Spanish, and country, Spain.
Otherwise, I mean, really it depends
on what you're looking for-- what you're looking to target.
JEN PERSON: So basically, you're saying
you can do by location or language,
or even a combination thereof, which
could probably give you that customization
that you're looking for?
JON SKRIP: Right.
But yeah, if there's any after the fact translation happening,
there's not really a good way to target
that because that's the user's kind of setup specifically.
JEN PERSON: Cool.
This is actually why I love doing this show,
because it's great.
I get to give you the questions, and then you
put the answers in here.
So I always end up learning so much,
and then I go back through and answer people
like it was my idea.
JON SKRIP: I knew the whole time.
JEN PERSON: Yes.
Jon, thanks so much for coming on and answering
all these burning questions about A/B testing.
I really appreciate it.
And thank all of you who have asked questions and submitted
questions.
And if you have your own burning question,
be sure to put it on social media
with the hashtag #askfirebase, and who knows,
you might see it on a future episode.
Also, if you like what you see here,
be sure to subscribe to the Firebase YouTube channel,
where you'll see all sorts of other interesting content.
Thanks so much for watching, and we'll
see you on a future episode.
Yeah, see, you know.
Last time I was on, I was like, who was I on with?
I started waving and they were just like--
JON SKRIP: I think it was Jason.
JEN PERSON: Yeah, it probably was.