With Pendo Session Replay, you can watch how visitors interact with your application to better understand their experience with your product. This article explains how to activate and configure Session Replay for each of your applications.
Note: Session Replay is a paid add-on to Pendo. If it's included in your subscription, the Replay option appears in the left-side menu for subscription admins and for users with the Replay User permission.
Prerequisites
Session Replay is activated on a per-application basis. Before moving forward with enabling Session Replay, you must ensure that:
- You have admin permissions.
- Your web app is on web SDK version 2.214.0 or above.
- Your mobile app is on version 3.9.0 or above and built with a supported framework: UIKit, Android View, React Native, MAUI, or Flutter.
- Your mobile app is on version 3.11.0 or above if built with SwiftUI.
- If you have Content Security Policy (CSP) configured for your app, your team has updated your CSP to incorporate the necessary hosts. If you don't have an existing CSP, no updates are needed. For more information, see Existing privacy settings.
Access and privacy
After Session Replay is added to your subscription, you can access the Replay option in the left-side menu and the Replay Settings page in Pendo.
Additionally, to save space, we sometimes use Replay as a shorthand when referring to Session Replay.
Configure privacy and timeout settings
Before you activate Session Replay, you must configure your privacy settings on the Replay Settings page. This includes your starting privacy configuration, selector rules, and segment. For step-by-step privacy configuration guidelines, see Session Replay privacy.
Tip: Before you turn on Session Replay for a large audience, we recommend enabling it for a smaller segment of internal users so that you can monitor performance and ensure your privacy rules align with company policies. For more information, see Session Replay privacy and Replay performance impacts.
This also includes the inactivity timeout setting for web apps. 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 for each web app.
- Go to Settings > Subscription settings in Pendo.
- Select the Applications tab, then select the app you want to activate Session Replay for.
- Select the Replay Settings tab, then find the Replay capture settings section.
- Use the dropdown next to Inactivity timeout to select your preferred timeout period.
- Repeat steps 1 to 4 for each individual app.
Note: Mobile apps have a fixed inactivity timeout of 30 minutes, which can't be changed. A session ends when the visitor hasn’t interacted with the app for 30 minutes, after which a new replay begins if the visitor resumes activity.
Capture replays during offline periods (mobile apps only)
If visitors on mobile devices lose connectivity, the mobile SDK buffers replay data locally on the device and syncs it to Pendo automatically when connectivity is restored. This means you get complete session data even when visitors aren't continuously connected.
The Network transport setting lets you control which type of connection the SDK uses to send that buffered data. For example, if your visitors use apps in environments where cellular data is expensive or restricted, you can limit transmission to WiFi only to avoid sending large amounts of data over a mobile network. This setting is available for mobile apps on SDK 3.13.0 or above.
- Go to Settings > Subscription settings in Pendo.
- Select the Applications tab, then select the mobile app you want to configure.
- Open the Replay Settings tab.
- In the Privacy configuration section, under Network transport, select either:
- WiFi + Cellular. Buffered replay data uploads on any available network connection. This is the default.
- WiFi only. Buffered replay data uploads only when a WiFi connection is available. Replays may be delayed for visitors primarily on cellular.
Note: Offline replay data is limited to 250MB per app by default. To adjust this limit, contact Pendo support.
Activate Session Replay
After you configure your privacy settings, a subscription admin can activate Session Replay for each of your apps using the steps below.
- If you haven't already, go to Settings > Subscription settings in Pendo. If you're already on the Replay Settings page, skip to step 4.
- Select the Applications tab, then select the app you want to activate Session Replay for.
- Open the Replay Settings tab.
- Under Replay capture settings, ensure the appropriate segment is applied. If not, update as needed.
- Find the Replay activation section, then select Activate.
- If you want to activate Session Replay for more apps, repeat steps 1 to 5 for each individual app.
When activated, the Session Replay plugin is added to your SDK's JavaScript file, and Pendo begins capturing visitor interactions at the start of their next session.
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.
For information on where to find and watch replays in Pendo after they process, see Watch replays.