Enable Session Replay

With Pendo Session Replay, you can visualize your visitors' interactions so that you can better understand their experience with your product.

This article reviews how to enable Session Replay for your applications.

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 Replay in the left-side menu. If you're interested in getting access, contact your Pendo account representative.

Prerequisites

Session Replay is enabled on a per-application basis. Before moving forward with enabling Session Replay, you must ensure that:

• You have Admin permissions.
• Your app is on agent version 2.214.0 or above.
• 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. To learn more, see Existing privacy settings.

Access and privacy

Once 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 enable 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 enable 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. To learn more, see Session Replay privacy and Replay performance impacts.

This also includes the inactivity timeout setting. 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 app.

1. Navigate to Settings > Subscription Settings in Pendo.
2. Select the Applications tab, then select the app you want to enable Session Replay for.
3. Select the Replay Settings tab, then find the Replay capture settings section.
4. Use the dropdown next to Inactivity timeout to select your preferred timeout period.
5. Repeat steps 1 to 4 for each individual app.

Enable Session Replay

Once you configure your privacy settings, an Admin user can enable Session Replay for each of your apps using the steps below.

1. If you haven't already, navigate to Settings > Subscription Settings in Pendo. If you're already on the Replay Settings page, skip to step 4.
2. Select the Applications tab, then select the app you want to enable Session Replay for.
3. Open the Replay Settings tab.
4. Under Replay capture settings, ensure the appropriate segment is applied. If not, update as needed.
5. Find the Enable Replay section, then select Enable.
   
   
   
   
6. If you want to activate Session Replay for more apps, repeat steps 1 to 5 for each individual app.

When enabled, the Session Replay plugin is added to your agent's Javascript file, and Pendo begins capturing your visitors’ interactions upon their next page reload. It typically takes one to two hours for replays to process and populate in the Replay Library.

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.

To learn where you can find and watch replays in Pendo once they process, see Watch replays.