Segments
Segmentation is not finished yet and is parked under Coming soon. The page opens and does build segments, but it is thin for day-to-day work and a saved segment is only read in two places.
Where this stands today#
In the left navigation the item is called Segments, sits under the Coming soon group and carries a Soon badge. The route is /segments.
The page works: it builds segments, saves them and deletes them. But while it lives in that group, do not plan analysis around it. Four things are missing:
- AND only. The conditions of a segment are always combined with AND. There is no OR, and no nesting into groups.
- A short field and operator list. Not every dimension you see in reports is offered here, and there are five operators.
- No editing, no size. A saved segment cannot be edited — only created and deleted — and the page never tells you how many users it matches.
- A narrow place to use it. A saved segment does not apply to the standard reports.
No completion date has been announced.
What you see if you open it#
Two cards, side by side.
The first, Build a segment (shared condition DSL):
- A Segment name box.
- A Scope picker with three options: User, Session, Event.
- Condition rows. Each row is a field, an operator and a value box. Fields are listed under their technical names rather than the report labels:
ft_channel,ft_source,ft_medium,ft_campaign,lt_channel,geo_country,ua_device_class,event_nameandpage_path. - The operators: equals, not equals, contains,
>and<. - A + Add condition (AND) link for the next row, and a Save segment button.
The second, Saved segments: a table of Name and Scope with a Delete link on each row. Deleting asks for no confirmation. A note under the card points you at Explore for using them.
What the scope changes#
This is the one choice whose meaning you have to know, because it changes the answer completely:
| Scope | What is kept |
|---|---|
| User | every event of any user who had at least one matching event — including events that do not match themselves |
| Session | every event of any session that had at least one matching event |
| Event | only the matching events |
For example, a user-scoped "event_name equals purchase" means "everything buyers did"; the same condition at event scope means "the purchases themselves".
On save, every condition whose value box was left empty is thrown away, with no message. If all of them are empty, you save a segment with no filter, which behaves in the builder exactly like All users. After saving, try the segment once in an exploration: if the numbers match All users, your conditions did not survive.
Where it is used today#
Two places, and only these two:
- The Segment picker in the exploration builder. The chosen segment applies to the whole table. The builder itself is a premium feature — see explorations.
- Segment overlap. That page needs two saved segments to compute how their user sets intersect, and it has no other source for them. So until you have built at least two here, that page has nothing to compare. Details in segment overlap.
Creating and deleting segments requires analyst access or above on the property. The role split is covered in roles and data restrictions.
What answers the same questions meanwhile#
None of these is full segmentation, but each answers most of what sends you to a segment, with numbers you can trust:
- Explorations — instead of filtering down to one group, put that dimension in the rows and see all the groups side by side. For a two-variable question, pivot one of them. This is usually more direct than building a segment at all.
- The report tables themselves — the acquisition and engagement reports carry a secondary dimension and a row search, which is generally enough for "mobile users from Tehran". See traffic acquisition for how that works.
- Audiences — if your goal is not analysis but pushing a group of users out to another system, that belongs in audiences, which has a fuller definition and activation path. See audiences and destinations.
Saved segments belong to the property and will not be discarded when this page is finished. If you need two segments today for Segment overlap, build them — just remember that you cannot edit them, so changing one means deleting it and building it again.
Frequently asked questions#
Does a saved segment apply to the standard reports?
No. Segments are read in exactly two places today: the Segment picker in the exploration builder, and the Segment overlap page. No standard report — acquisition, engagement, events, e-commerce — has a segment picker.
Why does my segment return everyone?
Most likely your conditions had empty values. On save, any condition whose value box is empty is dropped, silently. If all of them are empty, you save a segment that applies no filter at all, which behaves exactly like All users. Delete it and rebuild it with the values filled in.
Who can create or delete a segment?
Creating and deleting a segment needs analyst access or above on that property — the same bar as authoring an exploration or a custom definition. With read-only access you can see the list, but saving and deleting are refused.
Can conditions be combined with OR?
No. The conditions of one segment are always combined with AND, and the button says so: "+ Add condition (AND)". For OR logic, build two separate segments for now and compare them on the Segment overlap page.
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