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Recording modes for full stack session recordings

Multiplaye is versatile by design. We support four options to record full stack session replays (browser extension, in-app widget, SDK, mobile).

For each option, you can record full stack session recordings in three different recording modes.

This ensures Multiplayer can be used for any support or engineering workflow and use case.

Recording options overview​

Multiplayer is versatile by design and you can select between 4 options how to capture your full stack session recordings:

Each recording option supported the below three recording modes.

(1) On-demand recording​

Overview​

Capture full stack session recordings on demand with a browser extension, in-app widget, or SDK. You can manually select when to start / end a recording.

Developers, QA, product, support, and even external partners can instantly record and share issues, explore system behavior, and collaborate with sketches and annotations to fix bugs or design new features.

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

(2) Continuous recording​

Screenshot of a browser extension with continuous options

Overview​

Multiplayer keeps a rolling record of your recent activity. If something doesn’t work as expected, you can manually save the recording and continue working.

If you encounter exceptions or errors Multiplayer will automatically save recordings that include them. This makes it effortless to capture elusive, hard-to-reproduce problems.

How it works​

To turn this mode on, 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

(3) Remote recording​

(coming soon - contact us if you’re interested in early beta).

Silently capture user sessions without any manual steps or bug reports. Multiplayer detects and records issues even when users don’t notice or don’t report them, giving your team complete context to resolve problems faster and avoid unclear, incomplete tickets.

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 regardless of the recording option or billing plan you choose.

(3) Where can I see the recordings?

All recordings, regardless of mode, are saved in the "Sessions" tab of your specified Multiplayer workspace and project. In the

Next steps​

👀 If this is the first time you’ve heard about us, you may want to see full stack session recordings in action. You can do that in our free sandbox: sandbox.multiplayer.app

🚀 If you’re ready to trial Multiplayer, the fastest way to get started is to install our browser extension from the Chrome Web Store (Chrome, Firefox, and Edge supported).