Recording modes
Multiplayer is versatile by design, supporting multiple options to capture recordings.
This ensures Multiplayer can be used for any support or engineering workflow and use case.
TL;DR
| Capture mode | Capture method | Overview | Output | Issue types |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Automatic | Debugging agent CLI | Automatically capture and resolve bugs in your application | Recording > Issue > PR | • All application errors and exceptions (frontend and backend) |
| On-demand | Browser-extension, in-app widget | Manually start/stop recordings to capture bugs or unexpected behaviors | Recording > Issue | • Unexpected behaviors • End-user issue reports • Manually reproduced application errors and exceptions (frontend and backend) |
| Continuous | Browser-extension, in-app widget | Manually enable/disable a rolling capture of your work. Recordings for errors and exceptions are auto-saved. You can also manually save recordings for your last 2 minutes of work | Recording > Issue | • Unexpected behaviors • End-user issue reports • Application (frontend and backend) errors and exceptions experienced while continuous mode is enabled or manually reproduced |
Recording options overview
Multiplayer is very versatile and offers multiple options for capturing session recordings:
- Install the debugging agent CLI
- Install the browser extension
- Install the JavaScript client library (including optional in-app widget)
- Install the React Native client library for mobile apps
For advanced options and all supported languages please check the CLI apps guide.
(1) Automatic
When using the debugging agent CLI, recordings of errors and exceptions are automatically captured, deduplicated, triaged, and fed to your preferred coding agent to generate an accurate fix.
Review this guide to for details on how the debugging agent works.
(2) On-demand
Manually select when to start / end a recording for full control.
End-users, Technical Support, Developers, QAs, PMs, and external partners can instantly record and share issues, explore system behavior, and collaborate with sketches and annotations to fix bugs.
Supported clients
How it works
Manually starting and saving a recording may look differently according to the recording option you've chosen. For example:
In the browser extension follow these steps:
- Toggle on “Enable session recording on this site”
- Select a Multiplayer workspace and project
- Click "Start recording" to record your session
- Click "Stop" to stop recording or "Delete" to discard the recording
- In the "Save Recording" pop up you can (optionally) add notes and comments
- Click "Save" to save the recording, it will immediately appear in your "Session" tab, within your specified Multiplayer workspace and project
In the in-app widget the button text may be customized. By default you'd see this workflow:
- Login into the application where the widget was installed
- Click on the widget icon. By default the text is "Record an issue"
- Click the "Start recording" button and perform the steps to reproduce an issue
- Once you're ready to submit the issue go back to the widget, optionally add notes and comments
- Click "Submit recording"
- The recording will appear in the Multiplayer project of the team responsible for that end-user application
(3) Continuous
Overview
Manually enable/disable a rolling capture of your work. Recordings for errors and exceptions are auto-saved. You can also manually save recordings for your last 2 minutes of work.
Supported clients
How it works
Enabling continuous recording may look differently according to the recording option you've chosen. For example toggle "Continous recording" on in the browser extension or in the in-app widget.
- It keeps rolling window of up to 2 minutes of user session data.
- Data that is older than 2 minutes is automatically discarded.
- At any point, you can manually save the most recent window of data using “Save recording.”
- If an exception or error occurs, the snapshot that includes it is automatically saved in your "Sessions" tab.
Auto-saved recordings
See here a full list of which triggers create an auto-saved session recording.
Programmatic triggers
You can programmatically save a specific session recording, when the auto-save attribute is attached to a span. Here are the instructions per language
FAQ
(1) What is the perfomance overhead of each recording mode?
Multiplayer is designed to be lightweight and minimally impact your application performance.See here what is the performance overhead for each recording mode.
(2) Can I use more than one recording mode?
Yes, you can alternate recording modes according to your needs. All recording modes are available on all of our plans, including open source.
(3) Where can I see the recordings?
All recordings, regardless of mode, are saved in the web dashboard "Recordings" tab.
Next steps
🚀 If you’re ready to trial Multiplayer with your own app, you can follow the steps in the quickstart.
📌 If you have any questions shoot us an email! 💜