The current way on how Google Analytics is implemented is by using the i,s,o,g,r,a,m / analytics.js-method. But the new implementation of Google Analytics now wants you to use the gtag.js-way of including GA:

<!-- Global site tag (gtag.js) - Google Analytics --> <script async src="https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtag/js?id=UA-79159807-1"></script> <script> window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; function gtag(){dataLayer.push(arguments);} gtag('js', new Date()); gtag('config', 'UA-XXXXXXXX-X'); </script> 

Preconditions

Checked in latest develop branch of Magento 2.2

Steps to reproduce

Enable GA.

Expected result

Embed GA using gtag.js

Actual result

It's embedded using analytics.js-way (well, there is a UI component now for it).