kapa.ai How does the 'first time filter' work when using Cohorts?

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The First Time Filter in Mixpanel allows you to analyze events that occur for the first time for each user, which can be particularly useful when creating cohorts.When you apply a First Time Filter to an event in a cohort definition, Mixpanel will scan each user's history to determine if the event was the first instance performed by that user, based on timestamp. This helps you create cohorts of users who performed a specific action for the first time within a given timeframe.For example, you can create a cohort of "New Users" by filtering to "users who watched a video for the very first time in the past 30 days" as mentioned in the documentation Cohorts: Group users by demographic and behavior.Some important points about the First Time Filter: 1. It's computed on-the-fly by examining each user's event history 2. When there are events with identical timestamps (e.g., multiple "first-time" purchases in the same second), all of those events will be considered as "first time" and will match the filter 3. You can also analyze the Nth time an event was performed by using First Time Filters in funnelsThis feature is particularly useful for answering questions like: - How many users sign up or perform a key event for the first time each week? - Which referrers do most first-time users come from? - How quickly do users make a purchase after their first engagement? - How well do users retain after performing a key event for the first time?Advanced Features documentation provides more details on how to implement and use this functionality.When using First Time Filter in cohorts, you're essentially creating a group of users based on when they first performed a specific action, which you can then use in your analyses across different Mixpanel reports.

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In Mixpanel, the number of sessions is calculated based on how sessions are defined in your project settings. Mixpanel computes sessions automatically from the events you send, creating virtual "Session Start" and "Session End" events according to your configuration.

Mixpanel offers three ways to define and calculate sessions: 1. Timeout-Based Sessions (Default): A session starts when a user performs any event and ends after a period of inactivity (default: 30 minutes). When a user is inactive for the specified timeout period, the session ends, with the end time being the timestamp of the last event performed before inactivity.2. Event-Based Sessions: Sessions are defined by specific start and end events (e.g., "Login" and "Logout"). A session begins when the start event occurs and ends when the end event occurs.3. Property-Based Sessions: Sessions are defined by a property value (e.g., "session_id"). All events with the same property value are considered part of the same session.Sessions: Compute sessions based on existing event data

When analyzing sessions in Mixpanel reports, you can count them in different ways: - In Insights, you can track the total number of sessions over time or count sessions that contained a particular event by selecting "Sessions" from the measurement dropdown.- In Funnels, you can choose to count by "Sessions" instead of "Uniques" or "Totals" in the conversion criteria. This counts how many sessions included the steps in your funnel.- In Flows, selecting the "Sessions" counting method weights the flow by the number of sessions rather than unique users.Session Controls in Reports

- Sessions are reset every 24 hours at midnight (according to your project timezone), so the maximum session length is 24 hours. - Certain API events are excluded from session calculations by default. - You can analyze session metrics like duration, event count, and which events started or ended sessions using the properties automatically added to session events.Session Computation Deep-DiveSince Mixpanel computes sessions on the fly, you can change your session definition at any time, and it will apply historically to your data.

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You can calculate the average session duration in Mixpanel using the "Session Duration (Seconds)" property that's automatically associated with Session Start/End events. Here are two approaches:

You can use Insights to calculate the average session duration across all users: 1. Create an Insights report with the "Session End" event 2. Select the "Session Duration (Seconds)" property 3. Use the Average aggregation 4. Optionally, divide by 60 using a formula to convert to minutesMixpanel Community: Top posts from 2021 mentions this approach, and the FAQ section of the documentation confirms it: "To find the average session duration across all users, you may refer to this report here: https://mixpanel.com/s/3rXLmT"

If you want to calculate the average session duration per user: 1. Use the "Aggregate Properties per User" feature 2. Select "Sum" to add up all session lengths for any given day 3. This will be divided by the number of unique users 4. Apply a formula (divide by 60) to express values in minutesAs noted in the FAQ section: "You can use our aggregate properties per user feature. If you select 'Aggregate Properties per User' and then 'Sum', it will add up all Session Lengths for any given day and divide it by all unique users."You can also use the Time to Convert chart in Funnels to estimate average session length, especially when determining an appropriate session timeout period that aligns with your users' behavior.

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