How is an event stream different from session replay?

Session Replay is the visual, video-like reconstruction of what happened during a user session. The event stream is the structured timeline beside it: it names and organizes events, and provides shortcuts to the exact moments when they occurred.

What types of events can it contain?

Depending on the project and plan, an event stream can include clicks, screen positions, gestures, invisible keystrokes, page events, comments, JavaScript errors, API errors, and behavioral insights. Mobile app streams can also include app visibility, replay details, and quality changes.

Can an event stream take me to the exact moment an event happened?

Yes. In Contentsquare’s Session Replay player, selecting an action or event moves the replay to the moment it occurred. Teams can also expand or collapse events, filter event types, and search for visible terms in the list.

Is the session replay event stream available for mobile apps?

Contentsquare documents the event stream for both web projects and Mobile Apps projects. The mobile version supports replay details, app foreground or background visibility, and gesture events in addition to common event types.

Does the event stream show personal or sensitive information?

The information shown depends on the data captured and the privacy configuration for the project. Contentsquare says Session Replay automatically masks personal information such as card and bank details, but teams should still review their consent, masking, and data-handling settings for their own implementation.

How should teams use an event stream with other analytics?

Use aggregated analyses such as Journeys, funnels, or segmentation to identify where a pattern occurs and which audiences are affected. Then use the event stream and replay to inspect the context of representative sessions and decide what to test or fix.

What is a session replay event stream?

Definition

In digital experience analytics, the event stream is the timeline layer inside the Session Replay player. Contentsquare organizes events under each pageview and highlights them as the replay reaches that point. Depending on the project and plan, entries can include clicks, screen positions, gestures, page events, comments, JavaScript and API errors, and insights such as rage clicks or repeated field interactions.

Users can expand or collapse events, filter event types, search the list, or select an event to jump to its exact moment. On mobile apps, the stream also supports app visibility, replay details, and gestures, making it useful across web and app experiences.

A session replay event stream is not the replay itself. The replay provides a visual reconstruction of the session; the event stream provides the structured timeline for finding and interpreting important moments.

What does that mean

Think of it as a table of contents for a session replay: each row points to something the user did or something the experience recorded, so you can go straight to that moment instead of watching the whole session.

Why this matters

Understanding the event stream turns replay review from broad watching into targeted investigation. Product and UX teams can connect visible behavior to what happened immediately before and after it, while Data and IT teams can use the same timeline to validate patterns, errors, and technical signals.

Use cases

Find the moment behind a drop-off

Aggregated analytics can show that users leave a page or journey step, but not what they were doing just before they left. For Product and UX/UI teams, the event stream makes it possible to move from the relevant pageview to the clicks, scrolling, gestures, or other actions around that point in the replay. This creates a clearer, faster path from a drop-off signal to a testable experience hypothesis.

Investigate errors in context

A JavaScript error, API error, or other technical issue is difficult to diagnose when it is separated from the user’s experience. For IT and Product teams, filtering or searching the event stream and jumping to the exact moment of the error shows what the user saw and did around it. The result is better evidence for reproducing the issue, prioritizing a fix, and checking whether the problem affected a critical journey.

Validate patterns across important cohorts

A behavior may appear only for a particular audience, device, app version, or journey. For Data and Ecommerce teams, the event stream helps inspect representative replays after a segment or journey has been isolated, making it easier to compare whether the same pageview or interaction pattern is repeated. This supports more confident conclusions about whether an issue is broad, localized, or tied to a specific experience.

How Contentsquare helps

Session Replay places the event stream alongside a visual replay so teams can find friction, errors, and behavior patterns without watching every second.
Error Analysis helps prioritize important errors and connect technical issues with the behavior and business impact around them.
User Segmentation lets teams analyze specific cohorts and inspect whether event-stream patterns differ by audience or behavior.
Impact Quantification quantifies how selected events or insights affect users, conversions, revenue, and other business goals.

FAQs on session replay event stream

It is an ordered timeline of user actions, page events, and other signals displayed inside a session replay player. It helps people navigate directly to moments that matter, such as a click, gesture, error, or insight.

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