Understanding App Sessions and Event Tracking in Kapa.ai
kapa.ai How do app sessions work internally? If we stopped sending certain events but still have the ios SDK, would app sessions still get tracked? What about session length?
kapa.ai How do app sessions work internally? If we stopped sending certain events but still have the ios SDK, would app sessions still get tracked? What about session length?
Mixpanel computes sessions internally based on the events you send to Mixpanel, rather than relying on events generated by the SDK itself. Sessions are virtual constructs—Mixpanel generates "Session Start" and "Session End" events at query time in the UI and reports, based on your chosen session computation method (timeout-based, event-based, or property-based). These virtual session events are not sent from your application and do not count toward your data allowance. They are not stored as actual events and cannot be exported via the API—they exist only for analysis within Mixpanel reports Sessions: Compute sessions based on existing event data.If you stop sending certain events from your app, Mixpanel will only be able to compute sessions based on the events it still receives. If no user events are sent, sessions cannot be computed, as there are no events to group into sessions. The iOS SDK itself does not generate session events for Mixpanel’s session analysis; it simply sends the events you choose to track.Session length is calculated as the time between the first and last event in a session, according to your session settings. If you reduce the number or type of events sent, session length calculations may become less accurate or sessions may not be tracked at all if no qualifying events are sent Session Computation Deep-Dive.In summary: - Sessions are computed from the events you send to Mixpanel. - If you stop sending events, sessions (and session length) will not be tracked. - The iOS SDK does not automatically track sessions for Mixpanel’s session analysis unless you are sending events; legacy automatic session events are not recommended and are separate from Mixpanel’s session computation Legacy Automatically Tracked Events.If you need sessions to be tracked, ensure that relevant user events continue to be sent from your app.
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If a user opens the app and only triggers a single event (e.g., "App Open" or a foreground event), then stays on one screen without triggering any further events, the session length in Mixpanel will be calculated as zero seconds. This is because session length is determined by the time difference between the first and last event in the session. If only one event occurs, both the session start and end times are the same, resulting in a session duration of zero Session Properties Timeout-Based Sessions Examples.If the user backgrounds the app and no additional event is sent (such as a "background" or "app close" event), Mixpanel will not have another event to mark the end of the session, so the session will still be considered as having a length of zero. The session will end after the configured timeout period (default: 30 minutes of inactivity), but the session end time will still be set to the time of the last event received (the initial "App Open" event), so the session duration remains zero Session Computation Deep-Dive.In summary: - Only one event = session length of zero seconds. - Session ends after timeout, but end time is the last event received. - No additional events = no increase in session length.
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