A data stream in Google Analytics is a flow of data from your website or app to your Google Analytics account. Think of your Google Analytics account as a lake where all of your data is collected. A Data Stream is like a river that connects your various apps and websites to your "lake".
How Many Google Analytics Data Streams Can You Have?
Currently, you create create up to 50 streams within a GA4 property. As a rule, you should have one stream per app or website. For example, if you have an IOS app, an Android app, and a website, you should have 3 data streams.
How Is Data Collected From A Google Data Stream?
Google provides you with a snippet of code that you add to your app or website. This code begins to collect data and sends it to your analytics property so that you can begin viewing reports.
Can I use The Same GA4 Data Stream In Multiple Places?
No, you should create one Google Analytics data stream for each of your apps or websites. If you make the mistake of using the same data stream code snippet for multiple apps or websites, it will muddy your data.
Can I Have Multiple Data Streams Flowing To The Same Analytics Property?
Yes you can. You can connect data streams from your IOS app, your Android app, and your website all to the same property. I imagine that this setup would work best if your apps and websites all logically connected so that you would benefit from seeing how users interact on all three platforms in the same reports.
Can I create a new property for each GA4 data stream?
Yes. Instead of combining data from all of your Google analytics data streams, you can separate them and create one property for each of your data streams. This will ensure that you data is easy to separate and analyze individually.