Session Replay: A DVR for Your User's Experience

Why it exists

Traditional analytics tell you what happened—for example, that 50% of users dropped off at checkout. They don't tell you why. Session replay was created to fill this gap by showing you the qualitative user experience behind the quantitative data.

The mental model

Think of session replay as a DVR for your user's journey. It records everything from the user's perspective—their screen, clicks, scrolls, and inputs—and lets you play it back exactly as it happened. It's the closest you can get to looking over a user's shoulder without being there.

How it works

A script on your site or app captures the user's entire journey. This includes the visual rendering of the page (the user's view), all user inputs like mouse movements and clicks, and technical context like network logs or console errors. This data is then stitched together into a replayable, video-like format for analysis.

When to use it

Use it to understand and reproduce complex bugs that are hard to diagnose from logs alone. Use it to analyze conversion funnels by watching where users get stuck or confused. It's also valuable for studying general website usability, observing customer behavior, and even identifying fraudulent activity patterns.

When not to use it

Do not use it as your primary tool for aggregated, quantitative trends; that's what tools like web analytics are for. Avoid watching sessions without a clear question or hypothesis, as it's an inefficient use of time and can lead to privacy violations. Capturing user sessions carries a heavy responsibility to protect user data.

One canonical example

A company sees a high drop-off rate on their sign-up form. By watching session replays, they discover that a password requirement tooltip is covering the "Submit" button on mobile devices, preventing users from completing the form. The analytics showed the drop-off; the replay showed the cause.