iOS session replay

🚧 NOTE: iOS session replay is considered beta and is free while in beta. We are keen to gather as much feedback as possible so if you try this out please let us know. You can send feedback via the in-app support panel or one of our other support options.

Installation

Install and configure PostHog as you normally would. Ensure you've enabled session recordings in your project settings and then add config.sessionReplay = true to your PostHog configuration alongside any of your other configuration options.

Requires PostHog iOS SDK version >= 3.6.0, and it's recommended to always use the latest version.

let config = PostHogConfig(apiKey: apiKey)
// Enable session recording. Requires enabling in your project settings as well.
// Default is false.
config.sessionReplay = true

// Whether text inputs are masked. Default is true.
// Password inputs are always masked regardless
config.sessionReplayConfig.maskAllTextInputs = true

// Whether images are masked. Default is true.
config.sessionReplayConfig.maskAllImages = true

// Whether network requests are captured in recordings. Default is true
// Only metric-like data like speed, size, and response code are captured. 
// No data is captured from the request or response body.
config.sessionReplayConfig.captureNetworkTelemetry = true

// Whether replays are created using high quality screenshots. Default is false.
// Required for SwiftUI.
// If disabled, replays are created using wireframes instead.
// The screenshot may contain sensitive information, so use with caution
config.sessionReplayConfig.screenshotMode = true

// Deboucer delay used to reduce the number of snapshots captured and reduce performance impact. Default is 1s
config.sessionReplayConfig.debouncerDelay = 1.0

Additional options

Capture network telemetry

In iOS, PostHog uses method swizzling on URLSession methods, which allows for the out-of-the-box collection of network data.

However, URLSession’s async/await-powered APIs which are not exposed to the objc runtime and cannot be swizzled. As a result, network telemetry cannot be automatically captured.

For apps using async URLSession methods, PostHog provides wrapper functions that you can use to manually capture network logs.

import PostHog

func fetchData(from url: URL) async throws -> Data {
   // let (data, _) = try await URLSession.shared.data(from: url)      // ⬅ replace this
   let (data, _) = try await URLSession.shared.postHogData(from: url)  // 🦔 with this

  // your logic here...
  return data
    
}

You can find a list of available methods to use manually here.

Note: Only metric-like data like speed, size, and response code are captured. No data is captured from the request or response body.

Masking and redacting

Your replays may contain sensitive information. For example, if you're building a banking app you may not want to capture how much money a user has in their account.

To replace any type of UIView with a redacted version in the replay, set the accessibilityIdentifier to ph-no-capture:

let imvProfilePhoto = UIImageView(frame: CGRect(x: 50, y: 50, width: 100, height: 100))
imvProfilePhoto.accessibilityIdentifier = "ph-no-capture"

Note: For SwiftUI please refer to the Masking in SwiftUI section below

Note: A technical issue is causing the SwiftUI Text view to be detected as a SwiftUI Image view. This means that it'll be automatically masked if maskAllImages is set to true, even if the maskAllTextInputs is disabled. We're investigating this issue.

Masking in SwiftUI

• When using the SwiftUI TextField with UITextInputTraits, setting traits such as TextField("Email", text: ...).keyboardType(.emailAddress) will always be automatically masked since it's for private text.

• The SwiftUI SecureField view is always automatically masked.

• You can manually mark a SwiftUI View for masking using the postHogMask(_:) view modifier:

  Swift

  // This view will be masked in session replay recordings
  MyCoolView()
    .postHogMask()

Limitations

• On iOS, minimum deployment target is iOS13
• SwiftUI is only supported if the screenshotMode option is enabled.
  • Text views in SwiftUI are considered images, so they are masked unless maskAllImages is disabled.
• Custom views are not fully supported if screenshotMode is disabled.
• WebView is not supported. A placeholder will be shown.
• Flutter for iOS isn't supported.