You ship a feature and need to know immediately when adoption stalls or spikes. Amplitude's real-time alerts let you watch feature adoption as it happens, triggering notifications when adoption drops or deviates from baseline. Here's how to set them up so you get alerted before adoption becomes a problem.

Track Feature Adoption Events

First, instrument your feature to send adoption events. This gives Amplitude the data it needs to set up meaningful alerts.

Initialize the Amplitude SDK and track first-use

Import the Amplitude JavaScript SDK and fire an event when users first interact with the feature. Trigger this on page load or when the user clicks the primary CTA—be explicit about what 'adoption' means in your context.

javascript

import * as amplitude from '@amplitude/analytics-browser';

amplitude.init('YOUR_API_KEY', {
  userId: user.id,
  defaultTracking: true
});

// Track feature adoption
amplitude.track('Feature Adopted', {
  feature_name: 'new_dashboard',
  adoption_date: new Date().toISOString(),
  user_plan: user.subscriptionTier
});

Initialize Amplitude and track when a user first adopts your feature with relevant context.

Set user properties to classify adopters

Use setUserProperties() to mark adopters with a user property. This lets you segment by adoption status and build alerts around specific user cohorts.

javascript

amplitude.setUserProperties({
  'has_adopted_new_dashboard': true,
  'first_adoption_date': new Date().toISOString(),
  'adoption_cohort': 'early_adopter'
});

// Track ongoing engagement
amplitude.track('Feature Engagement', {
  feature_name: 'new_dashboard',
  action: 'view_report',
  session_duration: 240 // seconds
});

Set user properties to enable segmentation; track engagement separately to measure usage depth.

Watch out: Don't fire adoption events on every interaction. Use a flag on the user object to ensure the 'Feature Adopted' event fires only once per user, then track engagement separately.

Create a Segment for Adopters

Once adoption events are flowing, create a segment in Amplitude to isolate adopters. This segment becomes the target for your alert conditions.

Build a segment in the dashboard

In Amplitude, go to Analytics > Segmentation and click Create Segment. Name it 'New Dashboard Adopters'. Define the segment as users where the Feature Adopted event occurred AND the has_adopted_new_dashboard property is true within the last 30 days.

Refine the segment with properties

Add filters to target the right audience. For example, only include users on the 'pro' or 'enterprise' plan if that's who you're rolling out to. This prevents alerts from firing on noise from free-tier users.

javascript

// Example: Segment definition structure for Amplitude API
// GET /api/2/cohorts to list existing cohorts
const segmentFilter = {
  filter: {
    operator: 'and',
    predicates: [
      {
        stream: 'events',
        name: 'Feature Adopted',
        filters: [{
          name: 'feature_name',
          operator: 'is',
          value: 'new_dashboard'
        }]
      },
      {
        stream: 'users',
        name: 'user_plan',
        operator: 'is',
        value: ['pro', 'enterprise']
      }
    ]
  },
  lookbackWindow: 30 // days
};

Example structure for filtering a segment to focus on relevant adopters.

Tip: Use time-based segments. A segment filtered to 'adopted in the last 7 days' is more actionable for alerts than 'has ever adopted'—the latter catches stale data.

Create and Configure a Real-Time Alert

With your adoption segment ready, set up a real-time alert that notifies you when adoption metrics deviate from normal.

Navigate to Alerts and create a new alert

In Amplitude, click Alerts in the left sidebar. Click Create Alert and select Real-time as the alert type. Choose Trigger when an event or user count drops/rises to monitor adoption velocity.

Set your alert condition

Define the metric: count of Feature Adopted events or active users in your 'Adopters' segment. Set a condition like 'drops below 20 events per hour' or 'active users in segment fall below 50'. Choose a time window (1 hour, 6 hours, 1 day) that matches your expected adoption cadence.

javascript

// Example: Real-time alert configuration
const alertConfig = {
  name: 'New Dashboard Adoption Drop',
  type: 'realtime',
  metric: 'count',
  event: 'Feature Adopted',
  eventFilter: [{
    name: 'feature_name',
    operator: 'is',
    value: 'new_dashboard'
  }],
  condition: {
    operator: 'below',
    value: 20 // threshold: fewer than 20 adoptions per hour
  },
  windowSize: 'hour',
  notificationChannels: ['slack', 'email'],
  slackWebhook: 'https://hooks.slack.com/services/YOUR/WEBHOOK/URL'
};

Configure a real-time alert to monitor adoption event count with a defined threshold.

Set notification channels and save

Select where to send alerts: Slack for immediate visibility, Email for record-keeping, or both. Save the alert. Amplitude will now monitor adoption in real-time and notify you when the condition is breached.

Tip: Set thresholds 20–30% below your baseline adoption rate. If your feature typically gets 50 adoptions per day (∼2 per hour), set the alert to 1–2 events per hour. Test thresholds for a few days to avoid alert fatigue.

Common Pitfalls

Tracking adoption too broadly (e.g., 'viewed the feature') instead of a concrete action. Be specific: 'completed first workflow' or 'created a report'—fuzzy definitions lead to noisy alerts.
Alert thresholds that are too sensitive cause alert fatigue. New features have volatile adoption curves; give them a week of baseline data before tuning alerts.
Forgetting to segment by user properties. An adoption drop might be normal if it's only affecting a low-priority user segment. Always layer in plan tier, company size, or other cohort filters.
Not accounting for expected adoption patterns. If your feature rolls out gradually (beta users first), an alert calibrated to the full rollout will fire constantly during early phases. Adjust thresholds as rollout expands.

Wrapping Up

You now have real-time visibility into feature adoption. Monitor how quickly users embrace new features and get alerted before adoption becomes a problem. If you want to track feature adoption automatically across tools and surface insights without manual threshold tuning, Product Analyst can help.

How to Set Up Alerts for Feature Adoption in Amplitude

Track Feature Adoption Events

Initialize the Amplitude SDK and track first-use

Set user properties to classify adopters

Create a Segment for Adopters

Build a segment in the dashboard

Refine the segment with properties

Create and Configure a Real-Time Alert

Navigate to Alerts and create a new alert

Set your alert condition

Set notification channels and save

Common Pitfalls

Wrapping Up