When will session recordings appear on my dashboard?

📘

Data is sent asynchronously

All analytics data recorded by Smartlook, such as events or screen recordings, is sent to Smartlook servers in batches.

Smartlook uses various techniques to acquire analytics data from the application. First, the data is stored in an intermediate cache inside the application. Then, when a suitable network connection is available and the project settings and limits allow, the data is sent in batches to the Smartlook servers.

Understanding active sessions

In the dashboard, currently active sessions are listed in the Active sessions tab. If the device is online, active sessions appear as soon as the application starts. However, it could then take several minutes before data related to the sessions is uploaded, processed, and ultimately available for viewing. When the user closes the application on their device, the session stays active for a few more minutes before the data is processed to be sure that the user is really done with the app. If the user returns to the app after a short period of time (generally 5 minutes), Smartlook continues with recording into the active session once the application is active again.

Once the session is complete, it is moved to the All visitors tab.

For more information on sessions, see Users and Sessions.

Uploading your data

When the data is uploaded depends on several factors.

Events are recorded practically as they happen and then sent to the server in batches every few minutes.

Video frames are gathered with the maximal frequency as configured. However, if no UI change is detected, Smartlook slows down the frequency to conserve system resources. Video batches are sent to servers in intervals that also depend on the UI changes, when suitable network connection is available. By default, video data is not sent when the device is connected to a mobile data network. The video data is held in cache until the app runs on a wifi network. If you would like the app to send data over a mobile network, you can enable mobile network uploading in your project settings.

For more information, see Screen Recording Quality.

Offline recording

When the device has no suitable network connection or no network connection at all, the recorded data is cached. Cached data size is limited, so cached data is sent the next time the app runs with a suitable network connection.

Cache Size

The cache size is limited by an algorithm that combines the data age, size, and the overall free space in the device storage.

Currently, the maximum data size in the Smartlook cache is 200 MB or a maximum of 20% of free storage space if it is less than 200 MB. All data older than 30 days is deleted regardless of the cache size.

Recording limitations

Your project has two limitations for recording your user sessions. You might come across a few instances where the SDK will not record.

The parallel limit defines the number of active sessions that are allowed to be recorded at the same time. A session that is being actively processed by our backend is still considered active. If the number of active sessions surpasses this limit, no new session recordings are recorded.

You also have a maximum number of sessions that can be recorded per month. If you surpass this limit, no new session recordings are recorded until the next month.

📘

Parallel and number of sessions limits

Both parallel limit and number of sessions are given by the purchased package. If you are reaching these limits, feel free to contact our sales team or upgrade your package.