Application Install ID

Important

Visual Studio App Center is scheduled for retirement on March 31, 2025. While you can continue to use Visual Studio App Center until it is fully retired, there are several recommended alternatives that you may consider migrating to.

Learn more about support timelines and alternatives.

What's an install ID?

App Center doesn't directly collect personal information or user-generated content of your end users. We provide services accessed by the developer using our SDK or web site. The data transmitted to these services depends largely on the type of application you have built, and which of our services your app uses.

For each App Center SDK installed inside your app, we automatically create a unique installation identifier (or install ID for short). This install ID makes it possible for our services to display and return meaningful information for a specific device. We don't map your end-user's identities to install IDs, but you can still map them for the purposes of GDPR compliance.

Map install IDs to user IDs

The easiest way to associate install IDs with users is via a login mechanism. In this pattern, the developer associates a login identity with an install ID on authentication. Since a new installation of the app SDK will result in an entirely new install ID, a robust design will include the possibility of many install IDs mapping to a single identity. For now, you must create an implementation yourself, while the App Center team looks at our designs and gauges customer interest in such a feature.

Here is how to retrieve an install ID for....