When Is Google Analytics 4?

Thinking about Google Analytics 4 probably feels like showing up to a party after the music has stopped. The big switch from Universal Analytics (UA) has already happened, with standard UA properties officially ceasing to process new data on July 1, 2023. This date marked the formal end of an era and the beginning of the full transition to GA4 as the standard for measuring web and app traffic. This article will walk you through the key dates of the transition, explain why the change was necessary, and outline what you need to do now that GA4 is here to stay.

A Quick Timeline of the Google Analytics 4 Transition

If you're feeling a bit behind, don't worry - many people are still wrapping their heads around the new platform. Understanding the timeline can help catch you up and highlight what’s most urgent now.

Here are the milestone dates you should know:

October 2020: Google first introduced Google Analytics 4, initially called "App + Web," as the new default property type. For nearly three years, it ran alongside Universal Analytics, giving everyone a long runway to adopt the new platform.
October 2022: The official countdown began. Google announced the sunset dates for Universal Analytics, signaling that the end of the old platform was near.
July 1, 2023: This was the main event. All standard, non-360 Universal Analytics properties stopped collecting and processing new data. Since this date, any new activity on your website is only being recorded in GA4.
October 1, 2023: For users of the paid enterprise version, Analytics 360, this was the deadline when their Universal Analytics properties stopped processing new data.
July 1, 2024: This is the most critical deadline you need to be aware of right now. On this date, access to the Universal Analytics interface and all its historical data will be turned off completely. After July 1, 2024, your years of UA data will be gone for good unless you’ve already exported it.

Why Did Google Switch to Analytics 4?

This transition was much more than just a facelift, it was a fundamental reimagining of how digital analytics works. Google had compelling reasons to rebuild from the ground up, mainly revolving around user behavior, technology, and privacy.

From Sessions to Events: A More Flexible Data Model

Universal Analytics was built for the desktop web of the early 2000s. Its core logic was based on sessions and pageviews. This model worked well when a "visit" meant someone loading a series of pages on a single device.

But today, a user journey is much more fragmented. Someone might watch a video, scroll down a page without loading a new one, download a file, submit a form, and interact with a mobile app. In UA, tracking these actions often required custom event configurations or "Goals," which felt bolted on.

GA4 flips this around with an event-based data model. In GA4, everything a user does is an event. A page_view is an event. A scroll is an event. A purchase (purchase event) is on the same level as a click (click event). This flat structure is far more flexible and accurately captures the variety of ways users interact with modern websites and apps.

Focus on Cross-Device and Cross-Platform Journeys

The old session-based model struggled to connect the dots when a single user visited your business on their laptop, then later on your mobile app through their phone. Universal Analytics would often see this as two different users, making it difficult to get a unified view of the customer journey.

GA4 was built specifically to solve this. It uses a combination of data streams (one for your website, one for your iOS app, and one for your Android app) that all feed into the same property. By using multiple identity signals, like user ID, Google signals, and device ID, it can stitch together a user's journey across different platforms, giving you a more complete picture of their behavior.

Adapting to a Privacy-Centric Future

Perhaps the biggest driver for GA4 was the changing privacy landscape. Universal Analytics relied heavily on third-party cookies to track users across the web. With regulations like GDPR and CCPA, and browsers like Safari and Firefox (and soon Chrome) blocking third-party cookies, this model was on borrowed time.

GA4 is designed to be more privacy-conscious and less reliant on cookies. It offers more granular privacy controls, includes features like IP anonymization by default, and uses machine learning to model user behavior and fill in gaps in data created by privacy settings. This "blended" data approach helps you get insights even when you don't have a complete dataset, preparing your analytics for a future without cookies.

"But Google Automatically Switched Me to GA4, Right?"

Yes and no. In early 2023, you might have noticed Google automatically created a GA4 property for your account if you hadn't already. While this was a helpful nudge, it's a mistake to assume this auto-created property is fully configured and ready to go.

Think of the automatic migration as setting up the basic plumbing. It started collecting fundamental data like pageviews, sessions, and some standard events, but it very likely missed all the custom tracking you had in place in UA.

Here’s what’s commonly missing from those auto-generated properties:

Custom Conversions: The specific "Goals" you set up in UA (like form submissions or PDF downloads) were not automatically recreated as "Conversions" in GA4. You have to set those up yourself.
E-commerce Tracking: If you run an online store, the auto-migration didn’t configure the detailed e-commerce tracking needed to measure products, transactions, and revenue.
Data Filters & Exclusions: It didn't carry over your filters for excluding internal traffic from your office IPs, which can skew your data.
Linkages with Other Platforms: Connections to Google Ads, Search Console, and other tools likely need to be re-established.

The main takeaway is to treat the auto-created property as a starting point. You'll need to review and complete the setup to ensure it's tracking what actually matters to your business.

Okay, I’m Behind. What Do I Need to Do Now?

If you're reading this and feeling a sense of panic, take a deep breath. You can still get everything on the right track. Here are the immediate steps to prioritize.

Step 1: Save Your Historical UA Data (Immediately!)

This is your top priority. After July 1, 2024, all your historical data inside the Universal Analytics interface will disappear forever. Don’t wait until the last minute. You have a few options for exporting it:

Manual Exports: For specific reports, you can go into your UA property, open the report, and export it as a Google Sheet, Excel (XLSX), or CSV file. This is fine for top-level reports but can be incredibly tedious for preserving a lot of data.
Google Sheets Add-on: The Google Analytics Spreadsheet Add-on is a great free tool for pulling larger amounts of data from the API directly into Google Sheets.
The Reporting API: If you have technical resources, you can use the Google Analytics Reporting API to programmatically export your data into a database like BigQuery. This is the most robust method for saving everything.

Regardless of the method, make a plan to save your year-over-year data for key metrics like traffic, conversions, and user behavior.

Step 2: Complete Your GA4 Property Setup

Now that your old data is safe, focus on making your GA4 property useful. Run through this checklist:

Recreate Conversions: Identify what your Goals were in UA and set up corresponding Conversion Events in GA4. For example, if you tracked a newsletter sign-up, you'll need to create a generate_lead event and mark it as a conversion.
Set Up E-commerce Tracking: If applicable, work with your developer or use a plugin to implement GA4's e-commerce events like view_item, add_to_cart, and purchase.
Exclude Internal Traffic: Define your office and home IP addresses as "Internal Traffic" in the GA4 settings to keep your data clean.
Extend Data Retention: By default, GA4 only keeps granular, user-level data for 2 months. You can - and should - change this in the settings to 14 months to give you more runway for analysis.
Link Other Services: Go to the Admin section and link your GA4 property to Google Ads, Search Console, and Merchant Center to get the most out of your data.

Step 3: Get Familiar with the New GA4 Reports

Finally, start exploring the new interface. It’s undeniably different from UA, and reports are organized differently. Here’s a quick guide:

Reports Tab: This is where you'll find your pre-built, high-level dashboards for traffic acquisition, engagement, and user demographics. It feels similar to the old UA reports but with different metrics.
Explore Tab: This is where the magic of GA4 happens. The "Explore" section is a free-form canvas where you can build custom reports, funnels, and path explorations that were only available to paid UA users. This is where you’ll do your deep-dive analysis.

Start by finding where your go-to reports from UA live now, then branch out and try building a custom report in the Explore section to answer a specific business question.

Final Thoughts

The transition to Google Analytics 4 wasn't just a simple update, it was a necessary evolution. The official end of Universal Analytics on July 1, 2023, cemented GA4's place as the new standard, and it's essential for anyone who relies on web data to get on board now - especially with the final deletion of historical UA data approaching fast on July 1, 2024.

We know that learning an entirely new analytics platform and recreating years of reports from scratch can be a huge headache. Building dashboards in GA4's "Explore" section or pulling data into Looker Studio takes time and a steep learning curve. Instead of wrestling with a new interface, we made it possible to just connect your data and ask for dashboards in plain English. With Graphed, you can sync your GA4 account in seconds and create reports by simply saying, "Show me a comparison of traffic sources driving conversions this quarter." It's like having an analyst who speaks your language and gives you answers in real-time, letting you focus on the insights instead of the setup.