Watch replays

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.

Open the replay library

After 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 > Library from the left-side menu.

Apply filters

The Replays table on the Replay Library page displays up to 5,000 replays. Use the filters at the top of the page to refine the table results and find specific replays that match your criteria.

The Date Range filter applies exclusively to this page and doesn’t affect filters on other Pendo pages.

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

To apply more advanced filters, select Add filter..., then choose between filtering by a specific Event interaction, Frustration indicator, or Duration. For example, you can refine the list of replays to show specific guides seen or frustration occurrences.

• When filtering by an Event, choose an event type (Page or Feature) or Product Area, then a specific event or Product Area from the dropdown menus, then specify if it was interacted with during a replay. If needed, hover over a Page or Feature name to view the full name, description, and related metrics; or select View details to open the corresponding event details page.
• When filtering by Frustration, select the frustration indicator type and its occurrence: rage clicks, error clicks, U-turns, NPS detractors, or over-guidance.
• When filtering by Duration, select the appropriate operator (is greater than, is less than, or is in between), then specify the duration values in minutes.

After you choose your event filter rules, select Apply. You can combine multiple advanced filters.

Only "AND" rules are supported for filters. This means that the table results display replays that contain all of the selected filters, rather than replays that contain at least one.

When you apply an advanced filter, it adds inline annotations to the corresponding replays so that you can easily locate the specific interactions within a replay. Select an annotation to skip to that part of the replay, or hover over the annotation and select View details to view the details page for the corresponding event.

Save filters

You can save filters that you use often so you can monitor your replay queue for replays that are relevant to you. 

To save a filter, select Save as in the top right.

Add a title and description to the saved filter to make it easy for you to remember it at a later date.

Select Create saved filter to add this filter to your list of saved filters.

To access a saved filter at a later date, select Change saved filter in the top left.

To access your full list of saved filters, you can select All Replay saved filters in the top left.

You can also favorite your saved filters by selecting the star icon.

View suggested replays

Suggested replays is the first table to display on the Replay Library page, which provides insights paired with three to five related replays. Available insights include:

• Rage clicks. Displays the most rage-clicked Feature in the selected date range and lists the number of rage clicks during that period.
• Usage trending down. Displays Pages or Features with a significant decrease in views or clicks over the last seven days, including the percentage and number of views or clicks lost.
• Usage trending up. Displays Pages or Features with a significant increase in views or clicks over the last seven days, including the percentage and number of views or clicks gained.

Select Play suggested replays to open the queue of related replays in the replay player.

When you open the replay player, you can view any related insights derived from suggested replays within the Insight tab in the right-side panel. These insights are also available on clips saved from the replay.

 

Filters in suggested replays

The filters you apply at the top of the page impact the suggested replays shown.

Hover over the filter icon in the top-right corner of each suggestion tile to see which of your selected filters apply to the insight. Not all filters are supported for each suggestion. For example, the usage trends always provide information related to the last seven days, regardless of your current date range filter.

Event filters for specific Pages or Features function as "OR" rules and help surface relevant insights for suggested replays. With event filters applied, suggested replays might include:

• Rage clicks on the selected Pages or Features.
• Usage increased or decreases for the selected Pages or Features over the past week.
• Insights related to Features on the selected Pages, except for those specifically excluded by your filters.

Event filters only apply to suggested replays when they're inclusive of a particular Page or Feature (that is, set to "viewed" or "clicked" rather than "not viewed" or "not clicked"). For example, if you have a filter of "Page A not viewed", suggestions won't include Page A or its features, unless you also have a filter like "Feature A viewed" applied if that Feature is located on that Page.

If you have event filters applied and no suggestions display, that means no rage clicks occurred on that Page or Feature, and there wasn't at least a 50% increase or decrease in views or clicks for that Page or any Features on that Page.

Browse replays

All available replays are listed in the Replays table, which can display up to 5,000 replays. If more than 5,000 replays are available, the table count shows as 5,000+. You can apply filters to refine the table results and locate specific replays.

By default, the Replays table is sorted by Start Time in descending order. To sort the table by a different column, select the corresponding column header. Selecting the same column header again switches the sort order from descending to ascending, and selecting it a third time removes the sorting for that column.

Reorder the columns as needed by selecting a column header and dragging it to your desired placement. Adjust the width of each column by selecting and dragging the vertical resizer located to the right of the column to your desired width. These modifications don't apply to the star or Play columns.

The default columns in the Replays table and order of these columns is as follows:

• 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 30-day expiration limit still applies to favorited replays.
• The Play column indicates whether you've watched a replay. If you haven't watched it, the value displays as Play. After the playback starts, this value changes to Rewatch.
• Visitor ID shows the visitor associated with the replay.
• Account ID shows the account associated with the replay.
• Start Time is the date and time that Pendo started capturing this visitor's interactions in the replay.
• Duration represents the total amount of time that the visitor interacted with your app in a single “session”, which has no maximum length. The “session” ends when when a visitor's inactivity timeout is reached, the visitor closes their browser tab, or the visitor switches to a different Visitor or Account ID (whichever comes first). If a visitor accesses your app through multiple browser tabs or devices, these instances are considered separate sessions and captured as distinct replays. To learn more, see Time calculations for Replay.
  • 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.
  • By default, the maximum inactivity period is set to 30 minutes. This means that after 30 minutes of inactivity, the system stops capturing the visitor and begins capturing a new replay when the visitor becomes active again.
    
    An Admin can adjust this timeout period to 1 hour, 4 hours, 12 hours, or 24 hours using the Inactivity timeout setting on the Replay Settings page. To modify this setting, navigate to Settings > Subscription Settings > Applications, open the relevant app, then select the Replay Settings tab and locate the Replay capture settings section.
    
    

• % Active Time shows the portion of a replay where the visitor actively engages with your app by moving their mouse, clicking, and performing other interactions. A higher percentage indicates a replay with lots of user activity.
• Frustration indicates potential user friction within your app. Hover over each icon to view the number of frustration indicators captured in the replay. To review these instances, refer to the event log of the individual replay.
  
  • Rage clicks are denoted by an angry icon and signify repetitive clicks in a focused area of your UI.
  • Error clicks are denoted by an alert icon and signify when a click generated a client-side JavaScript error. For it to qualify as an error click, the client-side JavaScript error must occur within 100 milliseconds of the Feature click. If an error message is explicitly defined, it appears in the event log, which you can copy to your clipboard to share with your team.
  • U-turns are denoted by a reverse arrow icon and signify when a visitor navigated to a Page and returns to the previous Page within seven seconds. Even if Feature clicks occur within those seven seconds, it's still considered a U-turn. However, if other Pages are navigated to within seven seconds, that isn't considered a U-turn. U-turns are only identified on tagged Pages.
  • Over-guidance is denoted by a guide icon and signifies when at least three guides appear to a visitor within five minutes, when five guides appear within six or more minutes, or when 10+ guides appear within 61+ minutes.
  • NPS detractors are denoted by a broken heart icon  and signify when a visitor submitted an NPS response rating of 0 to 6.
• 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.
• App indicates which app the replay was captured in if you have Session Replay enabled for multiple apps.

You can also add additional columns to the table by selecting the Manage columns icon in the top-right corner of the table.

Select Add column at the bottom of the modal. Additional column options include:

• Event Count indicates the total number of actions captured during a replay. These actions encompass all visitor interactions within your app, including those that aren't specifically tagged in Pendo and any changes made to the webpage structure, known as DOM mutations.
• Expires On indicates the date in which the replay expires.
• All visitor, account, and parent account metadata fields that are available in Settings > Data Mappings.

Note: Replays take one hour to process and display in the Replay Library, and all replays automatically delete after 30 days. If you think replays are missing from the library, see our troubleshooting article on Missing replays. 

Watch replays on the player page

To access a visitor’s replay, select Play or Rewatch from the Replays table. This opens the player page, which provides a playback of the user’s interactions with your app.

At the top of the player page, you can take a few different actions:

• Return to the library. Select < Back to library to open a different replay or update your filters.
• Navigate through the queue. Use the Previous and Next arrows to navigate between replays in the queue, which consists of replays in the Replays table in the library or those related to your previous selection (like suggested replays or quick filters). The text to the left of the buttons shows the total number of replays in the queue and your current position. For extensive queues, apply event filters in the replay library to focus on the most relevant and meaningful replays.
• Favorite. Select the star icon to mark this replay as a favorite. A yellow star indicates it's currently favorited, while a white star means it isn't favorited. Filter by favorited replays using the star icon in the replay library.
• Share. Use this button to copy the replay link to your device’s clipboard or create a clip to share key moments in the video with other users in your Pendo subscription.

Tip: If you want to share a replay without creating a clip, 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 &clipStart=32m46s to the end of the URL. The timestamp supports hours, minutes, and seconds, and the clipStart parameter is case-sensitive.

The video section of the player includes the following components:

1. Annotations. If you select advanced filters in the replay library, the replay is marked with annotations to denote specific events related to the filters (for example, a Page view or rage click). Select the annotation to skip to that part of the replay, or hover over it and select View details to go to the relevant details page in Pendo.
2. Timeline. Like a standard video player, select anywhere in the timeline to navigate through the playback. Inactive portions are highlighted in yellow. Hover over an inactive section of the timeline to view the duration of user inactivity. 
3. 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.
4. Rewind and fast-forward. Use these buttons to move back or forward by 10 seconds.
5. 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.
6. Length. See the length of the replay, along with your current position in the video.
7. Show all frustrations. Turn this on to view all frustration types as timeline annotations.
8. Cursor and player settings. Select the Player settings button (gear icon) to customize playback. Pendo saves your selected preferences for future viewings. Settings include the following:
   • Show path. Turn this on to view a colored path that follows the visitor's cursor in the replay.
   • Path and click color. If you choose to show the path, select your preferred color for the visitor's cursor.
   • Auto-start. Turn this on to start replays automatically when opened from the library or queue.
   • Skip inactivity. Turn this on to skip periods where the visitor shows no interaction with the app.
9. Create a clip. Clip a specific portion of the replay to save or share with other Pendo users in your subscription. For more information, see Create replay clips.
10. 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.

Tip: 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.

The right-side panel on the player page includes supplementary information related to the visitor and events they interacted with in the replay.

Next to the Visitor ID, select the Open Visitor Details icon to open the details page for that visitor.

Below the Visitor ID, view the latest Visitor and account 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.

The Event log section includes tagged and untagged Pages, tagged Features, guides, and frustration indicators. If you see that there are multiple matching Pages or Features, this means that those Pages and Features share tagging rules.

You can search the event log, or filter by event types to see events that you're most interested in. Select the All event types dropdown at the top of the event log, then select the checkboxes next to the types of events you want to see. The event log updates with only those event types. 

Select Clear to undo your selections and see all event types. At the bottom of the event log, select Resume auto-scroll to be taken directly to the events displayed at the current timestamp that the video player is paused on.

In the list of events in the event log, you can select a timestamp to the left of an event to have the player automatically scroll based on your placement in the video. 

Select the ellipsis (three dots) located to the right of an event to open the related details page for that event or to view additional replays where visitors interacted with that specific event. If a Page is untagged, select Tag page to tag the Page in your app.

The Trends section provides options for you to generate funnel or data explorer reports using the data in this replay. For instructions on how to generate these reports from this page, see the sections below.

Generate funnel report

To generate a funnel report, select the funnel report type.

Next, select one or more events to include as steps in the funnel report by checking the boxes to the left of those events.

After you've selected all of the events you want to include in the report, select the Create funnel button. This action takes you to the report creation page pre-populated with the events you selected. From here, you can continue to edit, save, and run the report.

For more information about this report type, see Funnels.

Generate data explorer report

To generate a data explorer report, select the data explorer report type.

Next, select one or more events to include as steps in the data explorer report by checking the boxes to the left of those events.

After you've selected all of the events you want to include in the report, select the Create data explorer report button. This action takes you to the report creation page pre-populated with the events you selected. From here, you can continue to edit, save, and run the report.

For more information about this report type, see Data Explorer.

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 player page. 

Once selected from either of these funnel locations, this opens an overlay of the player page that populates a queue of replays based on the order of visitors in the funnel breakdown table. Choosing to watch replay samples simply starts your viewing experience at the beginning of the queue, rather than starting at a specific visitor within the queue.

If any of these options are unavailable to select, this means that any available replays have reached the 30-day limit and expired.

Details pages

When viewing the details page for a Page, Feature, or guide, select Watch replays in the top-right corner of the page to view all replays that interact with that specific Page, Feature, or guide.

When viewing the details page for a visitor or account, 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 a visitor or account's details page, 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 a visitor's 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 30-day limit and expired.

When viewing the details page for an NPS survey, 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.

Listen

When viewing a feedback item in Listen, select Watch replay to observe the visitor's interactions leading up to the submission of that feedback. This functionality is exclusive to feedback submitted through poll responses.

View additional resources

Visit the Pendo Academy to learn more on how to set up Session Replay and how you can leverage it for analytics.