Session Replay

Session replay is a tool that recreates user sessions from your app or website, giving you an in-depth, video-like view of how users are interacting with your product. 

Session replay allows you to pinpoint exactly where users run into issues during their sessions, or what grabbed their attention and led them to have a successful experience. 

The session begins when a user logs into your app or visits your site and it ends after 30 minutes of inactivity or an active session, up to 6 hours.

Now, what creates this complete picture?

  • 🎥 In-Depth Replay: Go beyond standard video replays. Userback captures not just the actions but the intent behind them. See each click, hover, and scroll, revealing the story of how users truly interact with your website or application.
  • 🔍 Console Logs: Transform your technical troubleshooting with Console Log Capture. Catching errors and warnings as they happen.
  • 📈 Event Tracking: Elevate your understanding with our sophisticated Event Tracking. We move past numbers to narratives, capturing each user action as a chapter in a broader story, highlighting their journey and preferences.
  • 💥 Rage Clicks: Turn user frustration into actionable insights. Rage Click Detection does more than track annoyed clicks; it highlights critical usability issues, guiding you to make targeted improvements where they matter most.

    Fullscreen - Preview of Session Replay

Activating Session Replay

Ensure the Userback widget is installed on your App or website.

If you haven't already done so, here's how to get started: Install the Userback Widget.

  1. Navigate to Widget Settings in Userback.
  2. Click the Settings button.
  3. Toggle the domains that you would like to have Sessions recorded on.
  4. Configure any privacy rules and console log settings as needed

Watching Session Replays

Sessions can be viewed directly from feedback or Survey responses. Session replay adds additional context to a response and the user behavior that might have influenced it.

For example, a session replay attached to a bug report is likely to show the bug along with the steps taken to replicate it. A session attached to a survey could help highlight some of the meaning behind the answers.

Each feedback that includes a Session Replay is marked with a Borderless - Session Replay Icon icon. 

Watching session replay from Surveys

  1. In a survey, select the responses menu
  2. Click a response and click the Session Replay button
  3. When users are identified, clicking the user from the responses menu will allow you to view all sessions for that user.

Watching session replays from bug reports and feedback

  1. In your feedback project, click the feedback tab and select a feedback.
  2. On the right panel under the Overview tab, click the Session Replay button 

    Session Replay Available

Using the Session Player

Userback's Session Player transforms how you interact with and understand user behavior. It’s designed not just for replaying sessions but for providing an insightful and interactive exploration of user interactions. Here’s how it elevates your analysis:

Advanced Playback Features:

  • Effortless Navigation: Play, pause, and skip through sessions with ease, ensuring you never miss a crucial user interaction.
  • Rapid Speed Adjustment: Swiftly locate key moments by speeding up the playback by up to 8x, making your analysis both thorough and time-efficient.
  • Event and Console Log Overlays: These overlays add a layer of depth to your session replays, offering detailed insights into user actions and the technical events behind them.

Customize Your Analytical Approach:

  • Timeline Customization: Selectively display the most relevant events on your timeline, focusing your analysis on significant user actions.
  • Skip Inactivity: This feature allows you to bypass periods of no user activity, concentrating your attention on the most dynamic and interactive segments of the session.
  • Event-Specific Navigation: Directly jump to specific events within the session, streamlining your analysis and saving valuable time.

    Session Player

 


 

Frequently Asked Questions

Which HTML elements does Userback Session Replay support?

Userback Session Replay supports most HTML elements, including forms, buttons, links, and images. However, it does not support the following HTML elements: iFrame, video, audio, or canvas. We do expect to add Canvas support soon!

Can I download Session Replays as a video?

Although Session Replays resemble videos in their behavior, they're a recreation of the browser experience played back in a video-like format. For those with a technical side, inspect the player to get a better understanding of how this works.

Is Userback Session Replay GDPR-compliant?

Yes, Userback Session Replay is GDPR-compliant. You can configure it to automatically mask sensitive data, such as passwords and credit card information. Click here to go to Privacy Settings.

How does Userback Session Replay handle user privacy?

Userback Session Replay is designed to protect user privacy. It allows you to configure which pages or URLs to record, and you can also exclude certain IP addresses or user agents from being recorded. Click here to go to Privacy Settings.

Can I download Session Replays as a video?

Although Session Replays resemble videos in their behavior, they're a recreation of the browser experience played back in a video-like format. For those with a technical side, inspect the player to get a better understanding of how this works.

Is Userback Session Replay GDPR-compliant?

Yes, Userback Session Replay is GDPR-compliant. You can configure it to automatically mask sensitive data, such as passwords and credit card information. Click here to go to Privacy Settings.

How does Userback Session Replay handle user privacy?

Userback Session Replay is designed to protect user privacy. It allows you to configure which pages or URLs to record, and you can also exclude certain IP addresses or user agents from being recorded. Click here to go to Privacy Settings.

What are some common Session replay use cases?

  • Troubleshooting bug reports
  • Reviewing users such as Detractor in an NPS to gain additional context to their answers
  • Looking at rage clicks and cross-correlation with any bug reports or survey responses
  • Looking at user flows within your application
  • Identifying opportunities to survey users to gain additional user insight

Why is the session replay not recording?

Session replay will only record where the page size (DOM) is less than 5MB. Anything over 5MB will not be recorded.

Why is the session replay different from what the user experienced?

It is entirely possible that between the time the session replay was recorded and when you are watching it, there have been changes to the page such as CSS changes. What you’re seeing is the updated page (DOM) and the user experienced the old version. This could be reflected in the mouse movements and click events that were recorded not aligning with the replay. We offer a CSS storage option for session replay to ensure the accuracy of sessions on our custom plan.

How long are session replays?

Active session replays can be up to 6 hours in length however after 30 minutes of inactivity, a new session will be created.

What permissions do collaborators have with session replay

Session replay is disabled for collaborators by default. To enable session replay for collaborators, head to the members page and edit the member.

If a collaborator has access to a project with Session Replay enabled, and users have been identified, they will be able to view all sessions associated with users on that project. When viewing sessions for a user, the collaborator will have viewing access to sessions across all projects that user is associated with.

What does LIVE/ONLINE mean

Live / Online means that the user session is current and has not yet been completed.

The session will be available for viewing once the user either logs out of your application / leaves the website or closes the browser. If the user is inactive for more than 30 minutes, the session will save and a new recording will start