This article covers the installation of Session Replay using the Android SDK plugin. If your app is already instrumented with Amplitude, use this option. If you use a provider other than Amplitude for in-product analytics, choose the standalone implementation.
Amplitude built Session Replay to minimize impact on the performance of the Android apps in which it's installed by:
Session Replay captures changes to an app's view tree. The view tree includes the main view and all child views recursively. It then replays these changes to build a video-like replay.
For example, at the start of a session, Session Replay captures a full snapshot of the app's view tree. As the user interacts with the app, Session Replay captures each change to the view as a diff. Later, Session Replay constructs the replay of this session by applying each of these diffs to the original view tree in sequential order.
Session replays have no maximum length.
To report issues with Session Replay for Android, see the AmplitudeSessionReplay-Android GitHub repository.
The method you use depends on the version of the Amplitude Android SDK you use.
Use the latest version of the Session Replay plugin above 0.15.2
. For a list of all available versions, see Maven Central.
The Session Replay Android plugin requires that:
Use the latest version of the Session Replay Middleware above version 0.15.2
. For a list of available versions, see all release versions on Maven Central.
The Session Replay Middleware requires that:
2.40.1
or higher of the (maintenance) Amplitude Android SDK.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.
1// Install latest version from Maven Central2implementation("com.amplitude:plugin-session-replay-android:@{$ android.session_replay.version $}")3// You will also need the Amplitude Analytics SDK if it's not already installed4implementation("com.amplitude:analytics-android:[1.16.7, 2.0.0]")
Configure your application code:
1import com.amplitude.android.Amplitude 2import com.amplitude.android.Configuration 3import com.amplitude.android.plugins.SessionReplayPlugin 4 5// Initialize Amplitude Analytics SDK instance 6val amplitude = Amplitude(Configuration( 7 apiKey = API_KEY, 8 context = applicationContext, 9 defaultTracking = DefaultTrackingOptions(sessions = true),10))11 12// Create and Install Session Replay Plugin13// Recording will be handled automatically14val sessionReplayPlugin = SessionReplayPlugin(sampleRate = 1.0) 15amplitude.add(sessionReplayPlugin)16 17// Send replay data to the server18amplitude.flush()
1// Install latest version from Maven Central2implementation("com.amplitude:middleware-session-replay-android:@{$ android.session_replay.version $}")3// You will also need the (maintenance) Amplitude Analytics SDK if it's not already installed4implementation("com.amplitude:android-sdk:[2.40.1,3.0.0]")
Configure your application code.
1import com.amplitude.api.Amplitude 2import com.amplitude.api.SessionReplayMiddleware 3 4// Initialize (maintenance) Amplitude Analytics SDK instance 5val amplitude = Amplitude.getInstance() 6 .initialize(this, AMPLITUDE_API_KEY) 7 // Replay events will be flushed on close as well 8 // If setFlushEventsOnClose(false) you must call flush() manually 9 .setFlushEventsOnClose(true)10 11// Create Session Replay Middleware12val sessionReplayMiddleware = SessionReplayMiddleware(amplitude, sampleRate = 1.0) 13 14// Add session replay middleware15// Recording will be handled automatically16amplitude.addEventMiddleware(sessionReplayMiddleware)17 18// Track events19amplitude.logEvent("Setup (maintenance) Amplitude Android SDK with session replay!")20 21// Send replay events to the server22amplitude.uploadEvents()23 24// You can also call flush() on the middleware directly to only send replay events25// sessionReplayMiddleware.flush()26 27// Always flush before app exit (onPause)28// override fun Activity.onPause() { sessionReplayMiddleware.flush() }
The Sample Rate in these code sample is set to 1.0
. This ensures Amplitude captures sessions during testing, can cause overages if used in production.
Pass the following options when you initialize the Session Replay plugin:
Name | Type | Required | Default | Description |
---|---|---|---|---|
sampleRate |
Number |
No | 0.0 |
Use this option to control how many sessions to select for replay collection. The number should be a decimal between 0 and 1, for example 0.4 , representing the fraction of sessions to have randomly selected for replay collection. Over a large number of sessions, 0.4 would select 40% of those sessions. |
enableRemoteConfig |
boolean |
No | true |
Enables or disables remote configuration for this instance of Session Replay. |
maskLevel |
String |
No | medium |
Sets the privacy mask level. |
Enable remote configuration to set Sample Rate and Masking Level in Amplitude.
With enableRemoteConfig
set to true
, settings you define in Amplitude take precedence over settings you define locally in the SDK. For this reason, while testing your application, you should disable remote configuration to ensure you can set sampleRate
to 1
, and ensure you capture test sessions.
The Session Replay SDK offers three ways to mask user input, text, and other view components.
Session Replay for Android supports three levels of masking, configurable with the the maskLevel
config option.
Use this option in the Session Replay configuration.
Mask level | Description |
---|---|
light |
Masks all password, email address, and phone numbers. Doesn't block credit card numbers. |
medium |
Masks all editable text views. |
conservative |
Masks all text views. |
Use this option in your application's layout XML.
View | Description |
---|---|
<EditText> |
Session Replay masks all text input fields by default. When a users enters text into an input field, Session Replay captures asterisks in place of text. To unmask a text input, add the tag amp-unmask . For example: <EditText android:tag="amp-unmask" android:text="Unmask this"> . |
<TextView> |
To mask text within non-input elements, add the tag amp-mask . For example, <TextView android:tag="amp-mask" android:text="Mask this"/> . When masked, Session Replay captures masked text as a series of asterisks. |
non-text elements | To block a non-text element, add the tag amp-block . For example, <ImageView android:tag="amp-block"/> . Session Replay replaces blocked elements with a placeholder of the same dimensions. |
Import the SessionReplay
class, then call one of the methods below from your application's code.
1import com.amplitude.android.SessionReplay
Method | Description |
---|---|
unmask(view: View) |
Session Replay masks all text input views by default. When a user enters text into an input view, Session Replay captures asterisks in place of text. To unmask a text input, call SessionReplay.unmask(view) where view is a reference to the text input you want to unmask. |
mask(view: View) |
To mask text within non-input views, call SessionReplay.mask(view) where view is a reference to the text input you want to mask. When masked, Session Replay captures masked text as a series of asterisks. |
block(view: View) |
To block a non-text view, call SessionReplay.unmask(view) where view is a reference to the View you want to block. Session Replay replaces blocked views with a placeholder of the same dimensions. |
The Session Replay plugin follows the Android SDK's optOut
setting, and doesn't support user opt-outs on its own.
1// Set optOut on the Amplitude SDK2val amplitude = Amplitude(Configuration(3 apiKey = API_KEY,4 optOut = true,5 /* other configuration */6))7amplitude.add(SessionReplayPlugin(/* session replay options */))
Session Replay is available to Amplitude Customers who use the EU data center. Set the serverZone
configuration option to EU
during initialization. For example:
1// Set serverZone on the Amplitude SDK2val amplitude = Amplitude(Configuration(3 apiKey = API_KEY,4 serverZone = ServerZone.EU,5 /*, other configuration */6))7amplitude.add(SessionReplayPlugin(/* session replay options */))
By default, Session Replay captures 0% of sessions for replay. Use the sampleRate
configuration option to set the percentage of total sessions that Session Replay captures. For example:
To set the sampleRate
consider the monthly quota on your Session Replay plan. For example, if your monthly quota is 2,500,000 sessions, and you average 3,000,000 monthly sessions, your quota is 83% of your average sessions. In this case, to ensure sampling lasts through the month, set sampleRate
to .83
or lower.
Keep the following in mind as you consider your sample rate:
.01
. If this value doesn't capture enough replays, raise the rate over the course of a few days. For ways to monitor the number of session replays captured, see View the number of captured sessions.1// This configuration samples 1% of all sessions2amplitude.add(SessionReplayPlugin(sampleRate = 0.01))
Once enabled, Session Replay runs on your app until either:
amplitude.remove(sessionReplayPlugin)
Call amplitude.remove(sessionReplayPlugin)
before a user navigates to a restricted area of your app to disable replay collection while the user is in that area.
This requires keeping a reference to the SessionReplayPlugin instance val sessionReplayPlugin = SessionReplayPlugin(/* session replay options */)
.
Call amplitude.add(sessionReplayPlugin)
to re-enable replay collection when the return to an unrestricted area of your app.
You can also use a feature flag product like Amplitude Experiment to create logic that enables or disables replay collection based on criteria like location. For example, you can create a feature flag that targets a specific user group, and add that to your initialization logic:
1import com.amplitude.android.Amplitude 2import com.amplitude.android.Configuration 3import com.amplitude.android.plugins.SessionReplayPlugin 4 5// Your existing initialization logic with Android SDK 6val amplitude = Amplitude(Configuration(apiKey = API_KEY /*, ... other configuration */)) 7 8if (nonEUCountryFlagEnabled) { 9 // Create and Install Session Replay Plugin10 val sessionReplayPlugin = SessionReplayPlugin(sampleRate = 0.5)11 amplitude.add(sessionReplayPlugin)12}
Session replay uses existing Amplitude tools and APIs to handle privacy and deletion requests.
While privacy laws and regulations vary across states and countries, certain constants exist, including the requirements to disclose in a privacy notice the categories of personal information you are collecting, the purposes for its use, and the categories of third parties with which personal information is shared. When implementing a session replay tool, you should review your privacy notice to make sure your disclosures remain accurate and complete. And as a best practice, review your notice with legal counsel to make sure it complies with the constantly evolving privacy laws and requirements applicable to your business and personal information data practices.
If your Amplitude plan includes Session Replay, Amplitude retains raw replay data for 30 days from the date of ingestion.
If you purchase extra session volume, Amplitude retains raw replay data for 90 days from the date of ingestion. If you need a more strict policy, contact Amplitude support to set the value to 30 days.
Changes to the retention period impact replays ingested after the change. Sessions captured and ingested before a retention period change retain the previous retention period.
Retention periods are set at the organization level. Replays that are outside of the retention period aren't viewable in Amplitude.
The Amplitude DSAR API returns metadata about session replays, but not the raw replay data. All events that are part of a session replay include a [Amplitude] Session Replay ID
event property. This event provides information about the sessions collected for replay for the user, and includes all metadata collected with each event.
1{ 2 "amplitude_id": 123456789, 3 "app": 12345, 4 "event_time": "2020-02-15 01:00:00.123456", 5 "event_type": "first_event", 6 "server_upload_time": "2020-02-18 01:00:00.234567", 7 "device_id": "your device id", 8 "user_properties": { ... } 9 "event_properties": {10 "[Amplitude] Session Replay ID": "cb6ade06-cbdf-4e0c-8156-32c2863379d6/1699922971244"11 }12 "session_id": 1699922971244,13}
Session Replay uses Amplitude's User Privacy API to handle deletion requests. Successful deletion requests remove all session replays for the specified user.
When you delete the Amplitude project on which you use Session Replay, Amplitude deletes that replay data.
Session Replay uses the same block filter available in the Amplitude app. Session Replay doesn't block traffic based on event or user properties.
If a user opts out tracking in your app, use the optOut
configuration option to disable replay collection for that user.
flush()
to transfer the session replay data to the server.Amplitude recommends setting flushEventsOnClose = true
in the Amplitude SDK Configuration (the default) to send session data to the server on each app exit.
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:
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:
Session Replay supports attaching to a single instance of the Amplitude SDK. If you have more than one instance instrumented in your application, make sure to start Session Replay on the instance that most relates to your project.
For more information about individual statuses and errors, see the Session Replay Ingestion Monitor. |
Session Replay requires that the Android SDK send at least one event that includes Session Replay ID. If you instrument events outside of the Android SDK, Amplitude doesn't tag those events as part of the session replay. This means you can't use tools like Funnel Analysis, Segmentation, or Journeys charts to find session replays. You can find session replays with the User Sessions chart or through User Lookup.
If you use a method other than the Android SDK to instrument your events, consider using the Session Replay Standalone SDK for Android.
In some scenarios, the length of a replay may exceed the time between the [Amplitude] Start Session
and [Amplitude] End Session
events. This happens when a user closes the [Amplitude] End Session
occurs, but before the Android SDK and Session Replay plugin can process it. When the user uses the app again, the SDK and plugin process the event and send it to Amplitude, along with the replay. You can verify this scenario occurs if you see a discrepancy between the End Session Client Event Time
and the Client Upload Time
.
Session replays may not appear in Amplitude due to:
Ensure your app has access to the internet then try again.
Session Replay requires that at least one event in the user's session has the [Amplitude] Session Replay ID
property. If you instrument your events with a method other than the Android SDK, the Android SDK may send only the default Session Start and Session End events, which don't include this property.
For local testing, you can force a Session Start event to ensure that Session Replay functions.
[Amplitude] Session Replay ID
property. After processing, the Play Session button should appear for that session.As mentioned above, the default sampleRate
for Session Replay is 0
. Update the rate to a higher number. For more information see, Sampling rate.
Session replay doesn't require that all events in a session have the [Amplitude] Session Replay ID
property, only that one event in the session has it. Reasons why [Amplitude] Session Replay ID
may not be present in an event include:
sampleRate
. Increasing the sampleRate
captures more sessions.getSessionReplayProperties()
doesn't return the [Amplitude] Session Replay ID
property. This can result from optOut
and sampleRate
configuration settings. Check that optOut
and sampleRate
are set to include the session.In general, replays should be available within minutes of ingestion. Delays or errors may be the result of one or more of the following:
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October 30th, 2024
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