Session Replay Android Middleware

This article covers how to install Session Replay using the Android SDK middleware. If your app already uses the (maintenance) Amplitude SDK, use this option.

If your app already uses the (latest) Amplitude Android SDK, use the Session Replay Android SDK Plugin.

If you use a provider other than Amplitude for in-product analytics, choose the standalone implementation.

Before you begin

The Session Replay Middleware requires that:

1. Your application targets Android.
2. You use version 2.40.1 or higher of the (maintenance) Amplitude Android SDK.
3. You can provide a device ID to the SDK.

Supported Android versions

Session replay supports down to Android 5.0 with a minimum SDK of 21 minSdk = 21. This should support over 99.6% of global Android devices according to Google's distribution data in Android Studio.

Quickstart

Add the latest version of the Session Replay middleware to your project dependencies.

// Install latest version from Maven Central
implementation("com.amplitude:middleware-session-replay-android:0.26.1")
// You will also need the (maintenance) Amplitude Analytics SDK if it's not already installed
implementation("com.amplitude:android-sdk:[2.40.1,3.0.0)")

Configure your application code.

import com.amplitude.api.Amplitude
import com.amplitude.api.SessionReplayMiddleware

// Initialize (maintenance) Amplitude Analytics SDK instance
val amplitude = Amplitude.getInstance()
    .initialize(this, AMPLITUDE_API_KEY)
    // Replay events will be flushed on close as well
    // If setFlushEventsOnClose(false) you must call flush() manually
    .setFlushEventsOnClose(true)

// Create Session Replay Middleware
val sessionReplayMiddleware = SessionReplayMiddleware(amplitude, sampleRate = 1.0)

// Add session replay middleware
// Recording will be handled automatically
amplitude.addEventMiddleware(sessionReplayMiddleware)

// Track events
amplitude.logEvent("Setup (maintenance) Amplitude Android SDK with session replay!")

// Send replay events to the server
amplitude.uploadEvents()

// You can also call flush() on the middleware directly to only send replay events
// sessionReplayMiddleware.flush()

// Always flush before app exit (onPause)
// override fun Activity.onPause() { sessionReplayMiddleware.flush() }

Configuration

Pass the following options when you initialize the Session Replay middleware:

Mask on-screen data

The Session Replay SDK offers four ways to mask user input, text, and other view components.

Mask level

Session Replay for Android supports three levels of masking, set through the privacyConfig option with PrivacyConfig(maskLevel = MaskLevel.MEDIUM). The default level is medium.

Use this option in the Session Replay configuration.

Privacy tags in layout XML

Use this option in your application's layout XML.

Privacy methods on the Session Replay SDK

Import the SessionReplay class, then call one of the methods below from your application's code.

import com.amplitude.android.sessionreplay.SessionReplay

Privacy modifiers in Jetpack Compose

For composables, use the privacy modifiers instead of layout XML tags or the SessionReplay methods. These modifiers require version 0.21.0 or higher of the Session Replay Android SDK or plugin.

Import the modifier you need from com.amplitude.android.sessionreplay.compose, then add it to the composable's modifier chain.

import com.amplitude.android.sessionreplay.compose.ampMask
import com.amplitude.android.sessionreplay.compose.ampUnmask
import com.amplitude.android.sessionreplay.compose.ampBlock

// Mask text that Session Replay captures by default
Text(
    text = "Account number: 123456789",
    modifier = Modifier.ampMask(),
)

// Unmask an input field that Session Replay masks by default
TextField(
    value = username,
    onValueChange = { username = it },
    modifier = Modifier.ampUnmask(),
)

// Block a composable and everything it contains
Box(modifier = Modifier.ampBlock()) {
    Text("Session Replay doesn't capture this content")
}

A privacy modifier applies to the composable you add it to and to everything nested inside it. When a nested composable has its own privacy modifier, that modifier takes precedence for that composable and its descendants.

User opt-out

The Session Replay middleware follows the Android SDK's optOut setting and doesn't support user opt-outs on its own.

import com.amplitude.api.Amplitude
import com.amplitude.api.SessionReplayMiddleware

// Set optOut on the Amplitude SDK
val amplitude = Amplitude.getInstance()
        .initialize(this, AMPLITUDE_API_KEY)
        .setOptOut(true)

amplitude.addEventMiddleware(SessionReplayMiddleware(amplitude, /* session replay options */))

EU data residency

Session Replay is available to Amplitude Customers who use the EU data center. Set the serverZone configuration option to EU during initialization. For example:

import com.amplitude.api.Amplitude
import com.amplitude.api.SessionReplayMiddleware

// Set serverZone on the Amplitude SDK
val amplitude = Amplitude.getInstance()
        .initialize(this, AMPLITUDE_API_KEY)
        .setServerZone(AmplitudeServerZone.EU)

amplitude.addEventMiddleware(SessionReplayMiddleware(amplitude, /* session replay options */))

Sampling rate

By default, Session Replay captures 0% of sessions for replay. Use your SDK's sampleRate configuration option to set the proportion of sessions to capture.

For manual and dynamic sampling, quota planning, and quota accounting, go to Configure Session Replay sampling.

// This configuration samples 1% of all sessions
amplitude.addEventMiddleware(SessionReplayMiddleware(amplitude, sampleRate = 0.01))

Disable replay collection

After it starts, Session Replay runs in your app until either:

• The user leaves your app.
• You call sessionReplayMiddleware.stop().

Call sessionReplayMiddleware.stop() before a user navigates to a restricted area of your app to disable replay collection while the user is in that area.

Call sessionReplayMiddleware.start() to re-enable replay collection when the user returns to an unrestricted area of your app.

To capture only specific screens, initialize the middleware with autoStart = false so it doesn't start on launch, then call start() and stop() as the user enters and leaves those screens:

// Add the middleware without starting capture
val sessionReplayMiddleware = SessionReplayMiddleware(amplitude, sampleRate = 1.0, autoStart = false)
amplitude.addEventMiddleware(sessionReplayMiddleware)

// Start capture when the user enters a screen you want to record
sessionReplayMiddleware.start()

// Stop capture when the user leaves that screen
sessionReplayMiddleware.stop()

You can also use a feature flag product like Amplitude Experiment to enable or disable replay collection based on criteria like location. For example, create a feature flag that targets a specific user group, and add it to your initialization logic:

import com.amplitude.api.Amplitude
import com.amplitude.api.SessionReplayMiddleware

// Your existing initialization logic with Android SDK
val amplitude = Amplitude.getInstance().initialize(this, AMPLITUDE_API_KEY)

if (nonEUCountryFlagEnabled) {
  // Create and Install Session Replay Middleware
  val sessionReplayMiddleware = SessionReplayMiddleware(amplitude, sampleRate = 0.5)
  amplitude.addEventMiddleware(sessionReplayMiddleware)
}

WebView and MapView support (Beta)

By default, Session Replay blocks web views and map views in a capture. To enable capture of these components, use the settings described in Mask on-screen data.

Web view session replay injects JavaScript into the rendered page. To enable this, the SDK sets javaScriptEnabled to true on the unmasked web view.

Log Recording

Session Replay supports recording logs in Android applications. To enable log recording, send log messages through the recordLog(level, message, timestamp) API and configure the limits through recordLogOptions parameter while initializing Session Replay.

import com.amplitude.android.plugins.SessionReplayPlugin
import com.amplitude.android.sessionreplay.config.RecordLogLevel
import com.amplitude.android.sessionreplay.config.RecordLogOptions

val sessionReplayPlugin = SessionReplayPlugin(
    recordLogOptions = RecordLogOptions(
        logCountThreshold = 2000,
        maxMessageLength = 4000
    )
)
amplitude.add(sessionReplayPlugin)

sessionReplayPlugin.recordLog(RecordLogLevel.Error, "This is an error log")

// You can also create custom log levels
sessionReplayPlugin.recordLog(RecordLogLevel("debug"), "This is a debug log")

Session Replay supports predefined log levels (Error, Warn, Log) and custom log levels. Create custom log levels by passing any string value to RecordLogLevel(...).

If you have implemented a log system, you can make single-point modifications to integrate log recording functionality. See the following examples for more information.

Timber

If you use Timber, you can integrate it with a custom tree.

import com.amplitude.android.plugins.SessionReplayPlugin
import com.amplitude.android.sessionreplay.config.RecordLogLevel
import timber.log.Timber

class AmplitudeLogRecordTree(private val plugin: SessionReplayPlugin) : Timber.Tree() {
    override fun log(priority: Int, tag: String?, message: String, t: Throwable?) {
        val recordLevel = when (priority) {
            android.util.Log.ERROR -> RecordLogLevel.Error
            android.util.Log.WARN -> RecordLogLevel.Warn
            android.util.Log.INFO -> RecordLogLevel.Log
            android.util.Log.DEBUG -> RecordLogLevel("debug")
            android.util.Log.VERBOSE -> RecordLogLevel("verbose")
            else -> return
        }
        plugin.recordLog(recordLevel, message)
    }
}

val sessionReplayPlugin = SessionReplayPlugin()
amplitude.add(sessionReplayPlugin)

Timber.plant(AmplitudeLogRecordTree(sessionReplayPlugin))

Data retention, deletion, and privacy

Review consent guidance when you implement capture.

Retention period

For native and Flutter SDK retention guidance and the effective date of changes, go to the Session Replay data lifecycle reference.

DSAR API

For replay metadata returned by the DSAR API, go to Session Replay DSAR metadata.

Data deletion

For user and project deletion behavior, go to Session Replay data deletion.

Bot filter

For bot filtering and property-filter restrictions, go to Session Replay bot filtering.

Session Replay storage

If a user opts out of tracking in your app, use the optOut configuration option to disable replay collection for that user.

The SDK stores replay data locally. It retries transient upload failures, subject to retry and storage limits.

Amplitude recommends setting amplitude.setFlushEventsOnClose(true) in the Amplitude SDK configuration (the default) to send session data to the server on each app exit.

Jetpack Compose Support (Alpha)

Session Replay supports Jetpack Compose for Android applications. This feature is currently in Alpha. To use Jetpack Compose with Session Replay, ensure you use version 0.20.4 or higher of the Session Replay Android SDK or plugin.

To control what Session Replay captures in a composable, use the privacy modifiers in Jetpack Compose. Masking support for Compose requires 0.21.0 or higher.

Known limitations

Keep the following limitations in mind as you implement Session Replay:

• Session Replay doesn't stitch together replays from a single user across multiple projects. For example:

  • You instrument multiple apps as separate Amplitude projects with Session Replay enabled in each.
  • A known user begins on one app, and then switch to another.
  • Amplitude captures both sessions.
  • The replay for each session is available for view in the corresponding host project.

• The User Sessions chart doesn't show session replays if your organization uses a custom session definition.

• Session Replay can't capture the following Android views:

  • Canvas Views