July 19, 2026
App tracking without the creepy vibes
Using self-hosted Umami for iOS app analytics
Tiny app tracker wins over privacy fans as self-hosting crowd says “finally”
TLDR: A developer made a small open-source tool that lets iPhone apps send usage stats to a self-hosted Umami dashboard instead of a big third-party tracker. The community reaction is mostly glowing, with fans praising the privacy angle and one mild complaint turning into proof that the project fixes problems fast.
A developer just turned a personal frustration into a tiny, privacy-friendly app tracker—and the real buzz is how quickly the self-hosting crowd rallied behind it. Instead of using a big analytics tool that nags users for extra tracking permission or sends data to outside companies, this setup lets app makers keep their numbers on their own Umami server. In plain English: your app can now sit in the same dashboard as your website and quietly count launches, screen views, and button taps without dragging in a bloated tracking monster.
And the comments? Very much giving “this is the kind of nerdy life hack we love to see.” One early reaction basically summed up the whole mood: this is a neat tweak that lets a self-hosted Umami setup handle apps too. Another person jumped in with a full-on fan post—“great project” energy, no notes. The hottest thing here isn’t a screaming argument, but a surprisingly united chorus of privacy lovers, self-hosters, and lightweight-software fans acting like they just found their new favorite tool.
There was even a tiny dash of drama, because these threads can never stay fully calm: one commenter recalled an old timezone bug, then immediately undercut the complaint by admitting it got fixed the very next week. That’s basically the closest this discussion gets to scandal—a minor gripe turned into a flex about fast fixes. So yes, the community verdict is almost suspiciously wholesome: less tracking creepiness, more control, and a dashboard now pretending apps are websites with cute little icons.
Key Points
- •The article introduces **umami-swift**, an open source Swift package for sending iOS app analytics to a self-hosted Umami instance.
- •Apps are added to Umami as websites using stable pseudo-domains, allowing app metrics to appear in the same dashboard as website metrics.
- •The package provides a small API with methods to configure tracking, send named events, record screen views, and opt out of analytics.
- •Events and screen views are queued to disk and sent in batches so analytics data is preserved across launches without network connectivity and does not block the UI.
- •The implementation works by calling Umami’s `/api/send` and `/api/batch` endpoints directly with JSON payloads identified by `website-id` rather than API keys.