Mixpanel Session Management in Mobile App SDK Explained
how does mixpanel manage session start and end by default in the mobile app sdk ?
how does mixpanel manage session start and end by default in the mobile app sdk ?
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Based on the knowledge sources provided, I can explain how Mixpanel manages session start and end by default in the mobile app SDK.
Mixpanel's mobile SDKs have a legacy feature to automatically track common mobile events, including session events. However, the documentation recommends disabling this automatic tracking as these events rely on client-side state and can be unreliable.
For iOS (Swift), the automatically tracked session event is:
```
$ae_session (App Session) - Executes when a user spends more than 10 seconds in the app. A Session Length ($ae_session_length) property is tracked to reflect the number of seconds user spent in the session. In addition, there are two user properties tracked: Total App Sessions ($ae_total_app_sessions) and Total App Session Length ($ae_total_app_session_length).
LBKS[Mixpanel SDKs: iOS (Swift)](https://docs.mixpanel.com/docs/tracking-methods/sdks/swift#legacy-automatically-tracked-events)
The same behavior is documented for iOS (Objective-C) as well, with the session event triggering after 10 seconds in the app [Mixpanel SDKs: iOS (Objective-C)](https://docs.mixpanel.com/docs/tracking-methods/sdks/ios#legacy-automatically-tracked-events).
For session recording in iOS, the documentation mentions that recording automatically stops when the app goes to the background. If you want continuous recording, you need to restart the replay once the app becomes active again:
LBKS```
MPSessionReplay.getInstance()?.startRecording()
Mixpanel also has reserved event properties related to sessions, including:
- $event_count (Session Event Count): The number of events during a session
- $origin_start (Session Start Event Name): The original event name that triggered Session Start event
- $origin_end (Session End Event Name): The original event name that triggered Session End event
- $duration_s (Session Duration in Seconds): The duration between Session Start and Session End events
To disable automatic tracking of these events, you should set trackAutomaticEvents to false during initialization:
```
// Swift Mixpanel.initialize(token: "YOUR_PROJECT_TOKEN", trackAutomaticEvents: false)
LBKSLBKS```
objc
// Objective-C
[Mixpanel sharedInstanceWithToken:@"YOUR_PROJECT_TOKEN" trackAutomaticEvents:NO];
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