Note:
Session Replay is a Beta feature. To enable this feature, contact your Customer Success Manager.
Whatfix supports Session Replay in both JS Embed and Extension delivery modes. However, it is supported only for the Whatfix Cloud deployment mode. For more information, see Understand the deployment support for Product Analytics features.
Ensure that Whatfix is embedded on all pages of the application where you want Session Replay to capture user interactions.
What is Session Replay?
Session Replay is a visual analytics tool that reconstructs an end user's journey within your application in a video-like format. It records on-screen end users’ interactions within your application including clicks, scrolls, navigations, and engagement with Whatfix Inhalt, User Actions, and Defined Autocaptured events (if Autocapture is enabled), giving you visibility into how users behave within your application.
For example, you can replay a session where a user repeatedly clicked a Submit button to determine whether they encountered a page error, a slow response, or a confusing UI state.
The following GIF shows how an end user accesses an E-commerce application and the actions they perform.
Benefits of Session Replay
Session Replay adds qualitative context to your Insights data, helping you understand not just what users did, but why.
Understand user intent: Insights shows what users did, but not the reason behind it. Insights shows what users did, but not the reason behind it. Session Replay shows exactly what happened on-screen, giving you the context behind every action.
Investigate drop-offs: Funnel Insights and User Journeys show where users abandon a workflow, but not why. Session Replay provides the visual context needed to investigate those points.
Accelerate troubleshooting and UX improvements: Product, Support, and UX teams can visually confirm issues, identify friction points, and validate design decisions without relying solely on event data.
Use cases
Evaluate new feature adoption: Product Managers can view replays of how users explore newly launched features to identify where users get stuck or disengage.
Investigate low NPS scores: UX designers can analyze sessions from users who gave poor ratings to uncover navigation pain points or confusing workflows.
Identify workflow friction: App owners can detect where users spend the most time, encounter repeated errors, or abandon tasks, helping them streamline the overall experience.
How does Session Replay work?
Note:
Session Replay relies on the browser's Sitzungs-Speicher and Lokaler Speicher to record sessions. In private or incognito browsing modes, these storage mechanisms may be blocked or unavailable. If Whatfix cannot access Session Storage or Local Storage, the session cannot be recorded and Session Replay does not work.
Session tracking
Session Replay uses Document Object Model (DOM) mutation tracking to record and visually reconstruct the end user’s experience within your application. A session is a collection of actions performed within a specified time period, in proximity to one another in the same browser tab. A session starts when a user accesses the application and ends when they close the tab, switch to another tab, or remain inactive for a defined period.
Whatfix tracks each session using a unique session ID, which enables it to group all interactions belonging to that session. Whatfix generates a new session ID (and therefore a new Session Replay) when the user closes or switches tabs, becomes inactive, or opens the application in a new tab.
Session recording
When a user interacts with your application, Whatfix records every change to the page’s DOM, including clicks, scrolls, navigations, hovers, page refreshes, and visible UI updates, along with the user’s engagement with Whatfix content, User Actions, and Defined Autocaptured events (if Autocapture is enabled).
These interactions are recorded in chronological order and combined to reconstruct a video-like playback of the session. This reconstruction shows exactly how the user experienced the application, including their journey, actions, and interaction patterns.
Info:
Session Replay does not capture events by itself. It works with Whatfix’s event capture framework. The Event stream panel displays User Actions and Defined Autocaptured events that end users engage with during a session
Events related to Whatfix content engagement, such as interactions with Pop-ups, Task Lists, or Self Help, are not listed in the Event stream panel. However, Session Replay still enables you to view these interactions in the replay.
Note:
After you enable the feature, click Publish All to start capturing and accessing Session Replays. For more information, see Publish all Whatfix content and widgets to Production and Access Session Replay.
You can filter Session Replays by Event filters or User Filters. For more information, see Filter Insights data using User Filters and see Filter Session Replay.
Whatfix automatically masks Persönlich identifizierbare Informationen (PII) displayed on your application. Additionally, you can configure capture rules and manage privacy settings. For more information, see Configure Session Replay Settings.