Google has changed the Google Analytics real time reports in Universal Analytics to show data “in the last 5 minutes.” This is instead of it showing real time analytics for “right now.” It seems that no actual metric or measurement changes were made, that this was only a content change in the report. The GA4 real time report shows users in the last 30 minutes while Universal Analytics real time reports shows users in the last 5 minutes.
In fact, the GA4 real time and UA3 real time metrics are still completely different – so I just think this is a name change and the metrics have really not changed in Universal Analytics.
Here is a screenshot:
Compare that to it use to saying “Real Time” just yesterday. Here is an older screenshot of that:
Yes, Google Analytics 4 real time metrics are the last 30 minutes but Universal Analytics was showing this as “real time” until now and changed it to the last 5 minutes.”
Here is what GA4 shows if you forgot:
Others are seeing this as well – so this probably just rolled out:
Universal Google Analytics Real-time report @googleanalytics is showing Users in Last5 Minutes. (number of users during the last 5 min)@rustybrick @JohnMu pic.twitter.com/fuNClaLKF3
— Shameem Adhikarath (@shemiadhikarath) May 12, 2022
Is there any update i am missing?
Old universal analytics shows “in last 5 minutes” in real time traffic.@rustybrick @JohnMu pic.twitter.com/l3YkZaphXk— Farhan Khan (@Iam_FarhanKhan) May 12, 2022
Again, this might just be a change to the text above the real time metric, so it aligns better with the GA4 real time title. Again, the GA4 real time and UA3 real time metrics are still completely different – so I just think this is a name change and the metrics have really not changed in Universal Analytics.
The GA4 shows users in the last 30 minutes while Universal Analytics shows users in the last 5 minutes. This is probably to help communicate why UA3 and GA4 are different.
Forum discussion at Twitter.
