Metrics Glossary

Understand the nuances between metric labels for each message channel across the OneSignal ecosystem to accurately interpret messaging performance.

Overview

OneSignal records metrics for each step of a message’s journey. This journey starts in OneSignal, moves to a third-party provider, and ends with delivery to the recipient device or inbox.

This document is intended to illuminate the different metrics we capture in a message’s lifecycle and how those metrics are represented across the various touch points in the OneSignal ecosystem for each channel. Use these definitions when reconciling numbers between sources or building internal reports.

This glossary is broken down by channel. Each section includes the following:

1. Terms: This is where we establish a common glossary of metrics and their definitions.
2. Delivery lifecycle: This is where we visually represent the metrics captured at each stage of the delivery journey.
3. Metrics mapping: This is where we tie metric names across all of the OneSignal touch points.

Channel metrics comparison

Different channels contain different delivery states and user engagement metrics. The table below lists the different metrics for each channel.

Channel	Sent	Delivered	Failed	Rejected	Remaining	Clicked	Opened	Bounced	Read	Impressions	Unsubscribed	Reported as Spam	Suppressed	Frequency Capped
Push	✅	✅	✅	❌	✅	✅	❌	❌	❌	❌	✅	❌	❌	✅
Email	✅	✅	✅	❌	✅	✅	✅	✅	❌	❌	✅	✅	✅	❌
SMS/RCS	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅	❌	❌	✅	❌	❌	❌	✅	❌
In-app	❌	❌	✅	❌	✅	✅	❌	❌	❌	✅	❌	❌	❌	❌
Live Activity	✅	✅	✅	❌	❌	✅	❌	❌	❌	❌	✅	❌	❌	❌

Push terms

Metric	Definition
Sent	The number of messages sent from OneSignal, including both successfully sent to the push provider and failures. This is a composite metric.
Audience	The number of subscriptions in the targeted segment(s).
Delivered	The number of push notifications successfully sent to and accepted by the push provider (FCM, APNs, HMS).
Confirmed Receipt	The number of push notifications confirmed as received by the device, verified by the OneSignal SDK. See Confirmed Delivery for platform-specific details and requirements.
Unsubscribed	The number of push subscriptions that did not receive the message because they uninstalled the app, cleared browser data, or opted out of push and have not opened the app since. We will not attempt to send to these subscriptions in future messages.
Failed	The number of push subscriptions that did not receive a notification because of an error. We will attempt to send to these subscriptions in future messages.
Clicked	The number of clicks on a notification.
Frequency Capped	The number of push subscriptions that the notification was not sent to due to frequency cap settings.

Push lifecycle

Push metrics mapping

Dashboard

Term	Delivery Report Stat Cards	Delivery Report Timeseries Chart	Journey Node Report Stat Card	Journey Node Report Timeseries Chart	Audience Activity	Engagement Trends
Sent	Sent	❌	Sent	Sent	❌	❌
Audience	Audience	❌	❌	❌	❌	❌
Delivered	Delivered	Delivered	Delivered	Delivered	Delivered	Delivered
Confirmed Receipt	Confirmed Receipt	Confirmed Receipt	Confirmed Receipt	Confirmed Receipt	Confirmed receipt	❌
Unsubscribed	Unsubscribed	❌	Unsubscribed	Unsubscribed	Unsubscribed	Unsubscribed
Failed	Failed	❌	Failed	Failed	Failed	❌
Clicked	Clicked	Clicks	❌	Clicked	Clicked	Clicked
Influenced Opens	❌	❌	❌	❌	❌	❌
Frequency Capped	Capped	❌	Capped	Capped	❌	❌

API, CSV, and Event Streams

Term	View Message(s) API1	Notifications CSV	Event Streams
Sent	❌2	sent	❌
Audience	❌	❌	❌
Delivered	successful	delivered	message.push.sent
Confirmed Receipt	received	confirmed_receipt	message.push.received
Unsubscribed	failed	failed	message.push.unsubscribed
Failed	errored	errored	message.push.failed
Clicked	converted	converted	message.push.clicked
Influenced Opens	influenced_opens	❌	❌
Frequency Capped	frequency_capped	frequency_capped	❌

¹ We also include per-platform metrics in the API for all metrics besides ‘remaining’ (e.g., ios_clicked, android_clicked).

² The composite Sent metric does not have a direct field in the View Message(s) API. To derive it, sum successful + failed + errored. Audience activity exports also do not include a Sent field.

Email terms

Metric	Definition
Sent	The number of emails sent from OneSignal, including both successfully sent to the email service provider and failures. This is a composite metric.
Audience	The number of subscriptions in the targeted segment(s).
Delivered	The number of emails successfully delivered to the recipient’s inbox server.
Failed	The number of emails unable to be delivered to the inbox, excluding bounces. This may include failures reported by the ESP or OneSignal delivery failures.
Suppressed	The number of emails blocked due to prior bounces or spam reports to protect sender reputation. This metric is only recorded for apps configured to use OneSignal email.
Bounced	The number of emails rejected due to invalid addresses, full inboxes, sender reputation, or DMARC issues. These addresses are added to a Suppression List, either managed by OneSignal or a third party ESP.
Reported as Spam	The number of recipients who marked the email as spam. These addresses are added to a Suppression List, either managed by OneSignal or a third party ESP.
Unsubscribed	The number of recipients who opted out of receiving emails.
Total Opens	Total number of times the email was opened, including repeats.
Total Clicks	Total number of times links were clicked in an email, including repeats.
Unique Opens	Count of individual recipients who opened the email. This metric is used with confirmed deliveries to determine open rate.
Unique Clicks	Count of individual recipients who clicked the email. This metric is used with confirmed deliveries to determine click rate.

Why do we differentiate between total and unique clicks or opens?

Unique clicks and opens are only counted once per subscriber, regardless of how many times that subscriber opens or clicks the same email. Total clicks and opens are not unique per subscriber and count every time an email is clicked or opened.

Email lifecycle

Email metrics mapping

Dashboard

Term	Delivery Report Stat Cards	Delivery Report Timeseries Chart	Journey Node Report Stat Card	Journey Node Report Timeseries Chart	Audience Activity	Engagement Trends
Sent	Sent	Sent	❌	Sent	❌	❌
Audience	Audience	❌	❌	❌	❌	❌
Delivered	Delivered	Delivered	Delivered	Delivered	Delivered	Delivered
Failed	Failed	Failed	Failed	Failed	Failed	❌
Suppressed	Suppressed	Suppressed	Suppressed	Suppressed	Suppressed	❌
Bounced	Bounced	Bounced	Bounced	Bounced	Bounced	❌
Reported as Spam	Reported as Spam	Spam	Reported as Spam	Spam	Complained	❌
Unsubscribed	Unsubscribed	Unsubscribed	Unsubscribed	Unsubscribed	Unsubscribed	Unsubscribed
Total Opens	Total Opens	Total Opens	Total Opens	Total Opens	❌	❌
Total Clicks	Total Clicks	Total Clicks	Total Clicks	Total Clicks	❌	❌
Unique Opens	Unique Opens	Unique Opens	Unique Opens	Unique Opens	Opened	Opened
Unique Clicks	Unique Clicks	Unique Clicks	Unique Clicks	Unique Clicks	Clicked	Clicked

API, CSV, and Event Streams

Term	View Message(s) API	Notifications CSV	Event Streams
Sent	platform_delivery_stats.email.successful	❌	message.email.sent
Audience	❌	❌	❌
Delivered	platform_delivery_stats.email.received	email_delivered	message.email.received
Failed	platform_delivery_stats.email.failed	email_failed	message.email.failed
Suppressed	platform_delivery_stats.email.suppressed	❌	message.email.suppressed
Bounced	platform_delivery_stats.email.bounced	email_bounced	message.email.bounced
Reported as Spam	platform_delivery_stats.email.reported_spam	email_reported_spam	message.email.reported_as_spam
Unsubscribed	platform_delivery_stats.email.unsubscribed	email_unsubscribed	message.email.unsubscribed
Total Opens	platform_delivery_stats.email.opened	email_opened	message.email.opened
Total Clicks	platform_delivery_stats.email.clicked	email_clicked	message.email.clicked
Unique Opens	platform_delivery_stats.email.unique_opens	email_unique_opens	❌
Unique Clicks	platform_delivery_stats.email.unique_clicks	email_unique_clicks	❌

SMS/RCS terms

Metric	Definition
Sent	The number of messages sent from OneSignal, including both successfully sent to Twilio and failures. This is a composite metric.
Audience	The number of subscriptions in the targeted segment(s).
Delivered	The number of messages successfully delivered to the carrier as reported by Twilio. Metrics are categorized further to distinguish between SMS/MMS and RCS.
Failed	The number of messages that failed to be sent to Twilio.
Suppressed	The number of messages not sent to the recipient because they opted out of receiving messages from the sender.
Rejected	The number of messages not delivered by the carrier due to number blockage, velocity blockage, or the recipient is on a block list. This is a derived metric and is a sum of provider errors and provider failures.
Provider Errored	This number counts the phone numbers for which Twilio failed to send the message.
Provider Undelivered	This counts the phone numbers for which Twilio sent the message, but failed to deliver it.
Read (RCS only)	The number of recipients that read an RCS message.
Total Clicks	Total number of times a link in the message was clicked. Includes when a single link was clicked multiple times.
Unique Clicks	The number of unique link clicks across all links in the message. These are unique per subscriber.
Replied	The number of keywords that have been received by OneSignal excluding consent keywords.
Unsubscribed	The number of opt-out keywords that have been received by OneSignal.

SMS/RCS lifecycle

SMS/RCS metrics mapping

Dashboard

Term	Delivery Report Stat Cards	Delivery Report Timeseries Chart	Journey Node Report Stat Card	Journey Node Report Timeseries Chart	Audience Activity	Engagement Trends
Sent	Sent	Sent	Sent	Sent	❌	❌
Audience	Audience	❌	❌	❌	❌	❌
Delivered	Delivered	Delivered	Delivered	Delivered	Delivered	Delivered
Failed	Failed	❌	Failed	❌	Failed & Rejected	❌
Suppressed	Suppressed	❌	Suppressed	❌	Suppressed	❌
Rejected	Rejected	❌	Rejected	❌	Failed & Rejected	❌
Provider Errored	❌	Failed (Errored)	❌	Failed (Errored)	❌	❌
Provider Undelivered	❌	Failed (Undelivered)	❌	Failed (Undelivered)	❌	❌
Read	Read	Read	Read	Read	Read	Read
Total Clicks	Total Clicks	❌	Total Clicks	❌	❌	❌
Unique Clicks	Unique Clicks	❌	Unique Clicks	❌	❌	❌
Replied	❌	❌	❌	❌	❌	Replied (keywords)
Unsubscribed	❌	❌	❌	❌	❌	Unsubscribed

API, CSV, and Event Streams

Term	View Message(s) API	Notifications CSV	Event Streams
Sent	platform_delivery_stats.sms.successful	❌	message.sms.sent
Audience	❌	❌	❌
Delivered	platform_delivery_stats.sms.provider_successful	❌	message.sms.delivered
Failed	platform_delivery_stats.sms.failed, platform_delivery_stats.sms.errored1	failed, errored1	message.sms.failed
Suppressed	platform_delivery_stats.sms.suppressed	❌	❌
Rejected	❌	❌	❌
Provider Errored	platform_delivery_stats.sms.provider_errored	❌	❌
Provider Undelivered	platform_delivery_stats.sms.provider_failed	❌	message.sms.undelivered
Read	❌	❌	❌
Total Clicks	❌	❌	❌
Unique Clicks	❌	❌	❌
Replied	❌	❌	❌
Unsubscribed	❌	❌	❌

¹ The sum of failed and errored, which are both recorded in OneSignal’s internal system when attempting to send to Twilio, result in Failed.

In-app terms

Metric	Definition
Impression	The number of times a message successfully displayed on a device.
Card Impressions	The number of times a card within a carousel was displayed on a device. A carousel message will have multiple cards, but not all cards may be viewed by each user. Only applies to carousels.
Total Clicks	The number of times a button block, image block, or background was clicked. It does not include “Close Button” clicks.
Unique Clicks	The first time a button block, image block, or background was clicked. It does not include the “Close Button” clicks.

In-app lifecycle

There is no delivery lifecycle to consider. All metrics captured for an in-app message are from the device through the OneSignal SDK.

In-app metrics mapping

Dashboard

Term	Delivery Report Stat Cards	Journey Node Report Stat Card	Journey Node Report Timeseries Chart	Audience Activity	Engagement Trends
Impressions	Impressions	Impressions	Impressions	Impression	Impressions
Card Impressions	Card Impressions	Card Impressions	❌	❌	❌
Total Clicks	Total Clicks1	Total Clicks1	❌	❌	❌
Unique Clicks	❌2	❌2	❌	Clicked	Clicked

¹ We filter out “Close Button” clicks out of Total Clicks on the IAM Delivery Report stat card.

² While we don’t have a label on the dashboard for unique clicks, we show unique clicks count alongside the CTR.

Event Streams

Term	Event Streams
Impressions	message.iam.impression
Card Impressions	message.iam.page_displayed
Total Clicks	message.iam.clicked
Unique Clicks	❌

Live Activities terms

Metric	Definition
Sent	The number of messages sent from OneSignal, including both successfully sent to the push provider and failures. This is a composite metric.
Delivered	The number of Live Activity updates successfully sent to and accepted by the push provider (APNs).
Confirmed Receipt	The number of Live Activity updates confirmed as received by the device.
Unsubscribed	The number of push subscriptions that did not receive the message because they uninstalled the app, cleared browser data, or opted out of push and have not opened the app since. We will not attempt to send to these subscriptions in future messages.
Failed	The number of push subscriptions that did not receive a notification because of an error. We will attempt to send to these subscriptions in future messages.

Live Activities lifecycle

Live Activities metrics mapping

Dashboard

Term	Delivery Report Stat Cards	Audience Activity	Engagement Trends
Sent	Sent	❌	❌
Delivered	Delivered	Delivered	Delivered
Confirmed Receipt	❌	❌	Confirmed Receipt
Failed	Failed	Failed	Failed
Unsubscribed	Unsubscribed	Unsubscribed	Unsubscribed
Clicked	Total clicks	Clicked	Clicked

API, CSV, and Event Streams

Term	View Message(s) API	Notifications CSV	Event Streams
Sent	❌	❌	❌
Delivered	successful	delivered	message.live_activity.sent
Confirmed Receipt	❌	confirmed_receipt	message.live_activity.delivered
Failed	errored	errored	message.live_activity.failed
Unsubscribed	failed	failed	message.live_activity.unsubscribed
Clicked	❌	❌	message.live_activity.clicked

---