How To Distinguish Between Google Universal Analytics And Google Analytics 4？

Google Analytics 4 has been released for a month, but a lot of people confuse Google Universal Analytics with Google Analytics 4.

In this section, I will introduce a few distinguishing points.

Report Interface

There are big changes in the report interface.

The first is the page structure of the report. Google Universal Analytics has very few navigations on the left, only 5, while Google Analytics 4 has many, basically the entire column is filled.

The second is the management interface. Google Universal Analytics has three columns, namely Account, Property and Views, while Google Analytics 4 has only two columns, Account and Property.

There are no Views in Google Analytics 4.

Tracking Code and ID

Google Universal Analytics tracking code:

<!-- Global site tag (gtag.js) - Google Analytics -->
<script async src="https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtag/js?id=UA-69988360-1"></script>
<script>
  window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || [];
  function gtag(){dataLayer.push(arguments);}
  gtag('js', new Date());

  gtag('config', 'UA-69988360-1');
</script>

Or

<!-- Google Analytics -->
<script>
(function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){i['GoogleAnalyticsObject']=r;i[r]=i[r]||function(){
(i[r].q=i[r].q||[]).push(arguments)},i[r].l=1*new Date();a=s.createElement(o),
m=s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];a.async=1;a.src=g;m.parentNode.insertBefore(a,m)
})(window,document,'script','https://www.google-analytics.com/analytics.js','ga');

ga('create', 'UA-XXXXX-Y', 'auto');
ga('send', 'pageview');
</script>
<!-- End Google Analytics -->

There are two forms of tracking code for Google Universal Analytics. The first one is created by default now, and the second one is earlier. Currently, both can be used.

Tracking code for Google Analytics 4:

<!-- Global site tag (gtag.js) - Google Analytics -->
<script async src="https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtag/js?id=G-HZ4RDGTX66"></script>
<script>
  window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || [];
  function gtag(){dataLayer.push(arguments);}
  gtag('js', new Date());

  gtag('config', 'G-HZ4RDGTX66');
</script>

Note that their ID are different.

• Google Universal Analytics is UA-69988360-1, which starts with UA and is Tracking ID.
• Google Analytics 4 is G-HZ4RDGTX66, which starts with G and is the Measurement ID.

If you see the Tracking ID at the beginning of UA is Universal Analytics, and you see the measurement ID at the beginning of G is Google Analytics 4.

Data Protocol

Google Universal Analytics and Google Analytics 4 have different protocol versions for sending data.

This is the data sent by Google Universal Analytics:

https://www.google-analytics.com/collect?v=1&_v=j87&a=1690320590&t=event&ni=1&_s=1&dl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ichdata.com%2F%3Futm_source%3DAdmin%26utm_medium%3DAdmin%26utm_campaign%3DAdmin&ul=en&de=UTF-8&dt=GA%E5%B0%8F%E7%AB%99%20%7C%20%E4%B8%80%E4%B8%AAGoogle%20Analytics%E5%92%8CAdobe%20Analytics%E7%BB%8F%E9%AA%8C%E5%88%86%E4%BA%AB%E5%B9%B3%E5%8F%B0&sd=24-bit&sr=1440x900&vp=1425x151&je=0&ec=Bot%20Scoring&ea=true&el=0.9&_u=SCCAAUADQAAAAC~&jid=&gjid=&cid=105905222.1604898134&tid=UA-69988360-1&_gid=1600763907.1604898134&gtm=2wgas1MQ8Z6H&cd3=%E5%B9%BF%E4%B8%9C%E7%9C%81&cd4=14.21.179.0.741&cd7=1&cd8=0.9&z=1007491371

This is the data sent by Google Analytics 4:

https://analytics.google.com/g/collect?v=2&tid=G-HZ4RDGTX66&gtm=2oeas1&_p=45516402&sr=1440x900&ul=en&cid=105905222.1604898134&_s=1&dl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ichdata.com%2F%3Futm_source%3DAdmin%26utm_medium%3DAdmin%26utm_campaign%3DAdmin&dr=&dt=GA%E5%B0%8F%E7%AB%99%20%7C%20%E4%B8%80%E4%B8%AAGoogle%20Analytics%E5%92%8CAdobe%20Analytics%E7%BB%8F%E9%AA%8C%E5%88%86%E4%BA%AB%E5%B9%B3%E5%8F%B0&uid=GA1.1.105905222.1604898134&sid=1605153337&sct=9&seg=1&en=page_view&_eu=C&up.IP=14.21.179.0.741&up.Page=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ichdata.com%2F%3Futm_source%3DAdmin%26utm_medium%3DAdmin%26utm_campaign%3DAdmin&up.utm_source=Admin&up.City=%E5%B9%BF%E4%B8%9C%E7%9C%81

Note the V behind collect, this is the data protocol version, the first Google Universal Analytics is V=1, the second Google Analytics 4 is V=2.