Watch replays

Last Updated: December 04, 2023 22:08

You can watch replays captured with Session Replay through various locations in Pendo.

Note: Session Replay is a product available as an add-on to new or existing Pendo subscriptions. If you have access to Session Replay, you'll see the Replay option in the left-side navigation menu. If you're interested in getting access, contact your Pendo account representative.

View the Replay library

Once Session Replay is added to your subscription, the Replay Library page is available for all Viewer roles in your subscription to access replays.

To open the Replay Library page, select Replay from the left navigation menu.

Apply filters

Once you're on the Replay Library page, the Replays table displays up to 5000 replays. Use the filters at the top of the page to refine the table results and find specific replays that match your criteria.

For Date Range, this filter applies exclusively to this page and doesn’t affect filters on other Pendo pages. In addition, Last 7 Days and Last 14 Days don’t include replays from today.

Use the search field to filter the table results by a specific visitor.

You can also use our Events filters, which let you refine the table results based on specific event interactions within replays, including Page views, Feature clicks, and guide views. If you select multiple events, the filters work as “AND'' rules rather than “OR” rules. This means the results display replays that contain all of the selected events, rather than replays that contain at least one of the selected events.

When you apply an event filter, it adds inline annotations to the corresponding replays so that you can easily locate the specific interactions within a replay.

Find replays

In the Replays table, you can find the list of all available replays sorted by Start Time (when we started capturing the visitor's interactions) in ascending order. You can also sort by the other columns by selecting the corresponding column header.

A few notes on some of the table columns:

Use the star icon in the first column to favorite replays. To view only favorited replays, select the star icon in the top filters. The 14-day expiration limit still applies to favorited replays.
Duration is the total amount of time the visitor interacted with your app in a single “session”. The “session” ends when the visitor closes the browser tab, when the visitor logs out of your app, or at midnight in your subscription’s time zone—whichever comes first. If they accessed your app through multiple browser windows, browser tabs, or devices, these are all considered separate sessions and captured as separate replays. To learn more, see Time calculations for Replay. In addition, like other Pendo data, replays process at the start of every hour. If an individual replay spans multiple hours, Pendo extends the original replay duration as new data becomes available.
Event Count shows how many total events were interacted with in a given replay, which includes both browser events and Pendo events. Track Events are also included in this count if you have the subscription setting Count Track Events Received for a Visitor as Time in the Application enabled.
Guide Count shows how many guide events were interacted with in a given replay. This count represents unique events, rather than total guide views, and includes Resource Center views.

Note: Replays take one hour to process and display in the Replay Library, and all replays automatically delete after 14 days. If you think replays are missing from the library, see our troubleshooting article on Missing replays.

Watch replays with the Replay player

To access a visitor’s replay, select the link in the first Visitor ID column. This opens the Replay Player page, which provides a playback of the user’s interactions with your app.

Below is a review of each feature available when watching the replay:

Go back. Return to the Replay Library to access a new replay or update your filters.
Visitor ID. See the visitor associated with the replay.
Favorite. Select the star icon to mark this replay as a favorite. A yellow-filled star indicates it's currently favorited, while a white-filled star means it's not favorited. You can filter by favorited replays using the star icon on the Replay Library page.
Copy link. Use this button to copy the replay link to your device’s clipboard so that you can share the replay with other users in your Pendo subscription.
Replay queue. Use the Previous and Next arrows to navigate between replays in the Replays table. The text displayed to the left of the buttons indicates the total number of replays in the table and your current position within them. If you have an extensive queue of replays, we recommend applying event filters on the Replay Library page. This helps ensure that you focus on the most relevant and meaningful replays.
Annotations. If you select specific event filters on the Replay Library page, the replay is marked with annotations to denote specific events related to the filters (a Page view, Feature click, or Guide view). Select the annotation to skip to that part of the replay, or hover over it and select View Details to go to the relevant Feature Details, Page Details, or Guide Details page in Pendo.
Play or pause. Use this button to start or stop the replay. Alternatively, you can use the spacebar on your keyboard or select the replay itself to play or pause.
Rewind and fast-forward. Use these buttons to move back or forward by 10 seconds.
Playback speed. Adjust the speed of the replay. 1x is the speed at which the visitor used your app. Pendo saves your selected speed for future viewings.
Length. See the length of the replay, along with your current position in the video.
Skip inactivity. Toggle this option to skip through periods where the visitor is showing no interaction with the app. Pendo saves this selection for future viewings.
Cursor and player settings. Select the Player settings button to customize playback. You can choose whether the replay displays a colored path that follows the visitor’s cursor, pick your preferred color for the cursor path, and control if replays start automatically when opened from the library or queue. Pendo saves your selected preferences for future viewings.
Full screen. Use this button to adjust the video size to the size of your screen. Alternatively, double-click on the video to open or close full screen mode.
Visitor and account metadata. View the latest metadata captured for the visitor in the replay. Select the Edit visitor and account metadata icon to add, remove, and reorder the values to your preference.
Event log. View the visitor metadata and specific events associated with a replay. The visitor metadata includes the visitor's browser, operating system, start time, and device size. The events include tagged and untagged Pages, tagged Features, and guides. The blue horizontal line in the event log automatically scrolls based on your placement in the video. If an event is placed before the blue line, that means it has already been interacted with in the video.

Tips: Use keyboard shortcuts to quickly control replay playback. To rewind or fast-forward, use the arrow keys or j and l respectively. To play or pause, use the spacebar.

When sharing replays with others, you can specify a starting timestamp by adding it to the URL. For example, to start the replay at 32 minutes and 46 seconds, add ?startTime=32m46s to the end of the URL. The timestamp supports hours, minutes, and seconds, and the startTime parameter is case-sensitive.

Watch replays from other places in Pendo

You can also watch replays contextually from other locations within Pendo, which are all detailed below.

Funnels

When viewing a funnel chart, hover over or select the bar chart to view how many visitors dropped off of the funnel or continued to that step, and then select Watch replay samples.

When viewing a funnel breakdown, select Watch replay samples above the table or the Watch replay samples icon next to the preferred visitor in the table to open an overlay of the Replay Player page.

Once selected from either of these funnel locations, this opens an overlay of the Replay Player page that populates a queue of replays based on the order of visitors in the funnel breakdown table.

If any of these options are unavailable to select, this means that any available replays have reached the 14-day limit and expired.

Details pages

On the Page Details, Feature Details, and Guide Details pages, select Watch replays in the top-right corner of the page to view all replays that interact with that specific Page, Feature, or guide.

On the Visitor Details and Account Details pages, select Watch replays in the top-right corner of the page for the relevant visitor or account to view all replays from that specific visitor or account.

When selecting Watch replays from the Visitor Details and Account Details pages, you're prompted to select a quick filter to help you find the most relevant replays for the specified visitor or account.

Most recent replays opens a queue of all replays for the visitor or account that's sorted by the start time of the replay.
Most activity opens a queue of all replays for the visitor or account that's sorted by the highest number of generated events, encompassing both browser events and Pendo events.
Most-clicked Feature opens a queue of all replays for the visitor or account that contain the Feature that's received the most interactions for that visitor or account.
Most-used Page opens a queue of all replays for the visitor or account that contain the Page that's received the most visits for that visitor or account.
Go to library opens the Replay Library and displays all replays for the specified visitor or account.

Once you choose a filter and are on the overlay of the player page, you can navigate to the Replay Library page by selecting ... > View all replays. This action organizes the table according to the selected filter or sorting preference that corresponds with your chosen quick filter. For example, if you initially selected the Most recent replays quick filter, the Replay Library table sorts by the Start Time column in descending order. Similarly, if you chose the Most-clicked Feature quick filter, this filters the replays based on that specific Feature.

Also on the Visitor Details page, select View Activity > Watch replay to view replays associated with the events in the log. Note that this option isn't available to select if the associated replays have reached the 14-day limit and expired.

On the NPS Details page, select the dropdown button next to Add to Dashboard, then select Watch replays to view all replays that interact with that specific NPS survey.

Once selected on any of these pages, you’re directed to the Replay Library with the relevant filters pre-selected.

Visual Design Studio

When tagging or viewing a tagged Feature in the Visual Design Studio, select the Feature name, then select Watch replays to view all replays where visitors interact with that specific Feature.

Once selected, you’re directed to the Replay Library with the relevant filters pre-selected.