If you have followed the get started guide, you should have configured your receiver. The receiver will send the install referrer to the Adjust SDK and the Adjust backend.

You can test this by triggering a test install referrer. Run the following with the adb tool in Android Studio. Remember to replace com.your.appid with your app ID.

adb shell am broadcast -a com.android.vending.INSTALL_REFERRER -n com.your.appid/com.adjust.sdk.AdjustReferrerReceiver --es "referrer" "adjust_reftag%3Dabc1234%26tracking_id%3D123456789%26utm_source%3Dnetwork%26utm_medium%3Dbanner%26utm_campaign%3Dcampaign"

In some cases you may use a different receiver for the INSTALL_REFERRER intent. If you have followed this guide, replace com.adjust.sdk.AdjustReferrerReceiver with your broadcast receiver.

You can also remove the -n com.your.appid/com.adjust.sdk.AdjustReferrerReceiver parameter so that all the apps in the device will receive the INSTALL_REFERRER intent.

If you set the log level to verbose, you should be able to see the log from reading the referrer:

V/Adjust: Referrer to parse (adjust_reftag=abc1234&tracking_id=123456789&utm_source=network&utm_medium=banner&utm_campaign=campaign) from reftag

You should also see a click package added to the SDK's package handler:

V/Adjust: Path:      /sdk_click
    ClientSdk: android4.28.0
    Parameters:
      app_token        abc123abc123
      click_time       yyyy-MM-dd'T'HH:mm:ss.SSS'Z'Z
      created_at       yyyy-MM-dd'T'HH:mm:ss.SSS'Z'Z
      environment      sandbox
      gps_adid         12345678-0abc-de12-3456-7890abcdef12
      needs_attribution_data 1
      referrer         adjust_reftag=abc123&tracking_id=123456789&utm_source=network&utm_medium=banner&utm_campaign=campaign
      reftag           abc123
      source           reftag
      tracking_enabled 1

If you perform this test before launching the app, you won't see the package being sent. The package will be sent once the app is launched

If you would like to test how your app receives unencoded referrer values, test with our example app. You can alter the content you pass so that it fires with intent inside of the onFireIntentClick method in MainActivity.java:

public void onFireIntentClick(View v) {
    Intent intent = new Intent("com.android.vending.INSTALL_REFERRER");
    intent.setPackage("com.adjust.examples");
    intent.putExtra("referrer", "utm_source=test&utm_medium=test&utm_term=test&utm_content=test&utm_campaign=test");
    sendBroadcast(intent);
}

Feel free to alter the second parameter of putExtra method with content of your choice.

Triggering an event at app launch might not do what you expect.

Android calls the onCreate method on the global Application class multiple times. It will call it at app launch, as well as when the app captures a system or app event.

The Adjust SDK is ready for initialization at this point, but it will not have actually started. This will only happen when an activity takes place. For example: when a user launches the app.

If you trigger an event at app launch the Adjust SDK would start and send the events. This would happen even if the app was not launched by the user and was instead triggered by external events.

This means that triggering an event on app launch could lead to reporting inaccuracies.

If you want to trigger an event after the install, use the attribution callback.

If you want to trigger an event when the user launches the app, use the onCreate method for the given activity.