[Question] Mobile Conventions - where are Android and iOS conventions being defined

[crsantos]

Why this issue

This is more like a question, to kick off the discussion, so I can understand what is the process of adding new features to the SDK and how can I contribute to it as a mobile developer.

What

I started exploring OTel recently and I'm testing this Swift SDK.

As I can see there are some Mobile events conventions already defined on the spec, but nothing more than that.

Although the spec is new, and it doesn't have a lot of mobile on that, I'm seeing that Android SDK implemented a lot of things, like:

• Android instrumentation on the SDK
  • ActivityLifecycle / Tracer
  • started, resumed, stopped, paused
  • time on screens
• Screen
  • VisibleScreenTracker
  • Screen Name, Last Screen Name
• Metrics like:
  • Storage
  • Heap
  • Battery
• ANR (application not responding) detector
• Slow rendering detection
• Crash reporting

Questions

• Should something be defined first on OTEL spec, and only then implemented on SDKs? Or the other way around?
• Since Android has a lot of advance, do we have a communication channel with that project so we can have some kind of parity?
• Do we need to agree on an attribute name for, e.g.: ANR detection, Slow Rendering? To make it a standard across channels?
  • Where is that being discussed? On the specification repo?

Thanks in advance.

[nachoBonafonte]

There is a Opentelemetry SIG group focused on building the spec for these, otel-client-side or otel-client-side-telemetry, the spec is still not official but it is quite advanced in several areas, they have a channel also in the CNCF slack. The swift library has way less instrumentation implemented as part of the framework, but we are totally open to new contributions.

[bidetofevil]

We are discussing in in the context of Android the newly formalized Android SIG and trying to build Semantic conventions around mobile telemetry that works cross-platform. Perhaps we can create a new Slack channel to discuss and coordinate how we go about doing this?

[crsantos]

Thank you so much @nachoBonafonte and @bidetofevil for the replies.

🤦 I guess I should have started reading about SIG groups (that I had absolutely no idea about) and join the CNCF slack first and that's what I'm going to do right away.

What I suggest, and I can do that if you agree, I can update this repo's README with the link to the slack channel. That's why I didn't find it in the first place. Just like the links android repo has:

We are also available in the #otel-android channel in the CNCF slack. Please join us there for further discussions.

[crsantos]

Meanwhile, I think my original question still make sense, on if there's an alignment between mobile platforms, that I feel that should be key to the success of OTel in mobile.

But looking at #otel-client-side-telemetry, it's a start!

Perhaps we can create a new Slack channel to discuss and coordinate how we go about doing this?

I'm new here, not trying to create entropy 😄 whatever you folks think it's better if you think we can do that on #otel-client-side-telemetry, I'm fine with that.