How Do I Filter Session Data?

Hotjar's tools enable you to filter collected session data using a set of filters known as session filters. A collection of session filters can also be saved as a Segment for reuse at a later time, and this is currently only available with our Recordings tool. To view a heatmap with pre-determined filters applied, click on the Generate short link button on the bottom right of your heatmap's page. The Generate short link button will copy a short URL for the heatmap that you can revisit in the future with the pre-determined filters applied.

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How do session filters work?

Applied filters are combined using AND logic and evaluate the filter criteria based on entire user sessions, which is important to keep in mind with Heatmaps. A heatmap will show a single page's screenshot under data from sessions that match the filtered criteria at any point, on any page, during an entire session.

What filters are available?

Path/URL

Path/URL filters focus on where users have or haven't navigated.

For each path/URL filter, you can refine the filter by whether the path "contains", "starts with", "ends with", or "is". You can also filter by sessions where the path "does not contain", "does not start with", "does not end with", or "is not".

• Viewed page
• Landing page
• Exit page
• Traffic channel - You can filter your sessions by Referrer URL and UTMs.

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Session

Session filters refine your data based on broader details about the session:

• New/Returning - Specifies whether the sessions are filtered by new or returning users.
• Country - The country the session is indicated to originate from.
• Duration - The total session duration in seconds, minutes, or hours. With the options of exactly, less than, greater than, or between.
• Page count - The number of pages visited in a session. With the options of exactly, less than, greater than, or between.

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Behavior

These filters include actions performed or experienced by users during their session.

• Clicked element - An element that users have or have not clicked on.
• Entered text - Sessions where users entered or changed the text in an input field (e.g. a registration form).
• Error - A JavaScript console error occurred (not available with the Survey and Feedback tools).
• Event - An action occurred that triggered an event in Hotjar.
• Rage click - Multiple clicks on the same element during a session. Defined as five clicks within 500ms of one another.
• U-turn - Sessions where users directly returned to the previous URL within 7 seconds of leaving that URL.

Filtering by URL or CSS selector

You can use the following conditions to further refine your behavior filters (Clicked Element, Entered text, Rage click, U-turn):

• Page URL: filters sessions where the action happened on a given page.

  • See our How to Use Conditions in URL Filtering article for help using URLs as the filter condition, including using regex.

• CSS selector: filters sessions where the action happened within a given selector.

  • CSS selectors define which elements on a page will receive a specific set of CSS rules (or styles). For example, the CSS selector .button will match any element on a page that has a class attribute of button.

 

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User attributes

Filtering by User Attributes is only available after setting up the User Attributes feature, and Hotjar has received user attribute data via the Identify API.

• User Attributes - Sessions from specific users based on custom attributes you've passed to Hotjar from your data.

Depending on the attribute data type, you can refine the User Attributes filter by whether the attribute "contains", "starts with", "ends with", or "is". You can also filter by sessions where the attribute "does not contain", "is not", "is unknown", or "has any value".

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Technology

Refine collected session data based on technology used during a session.

• Hotjar User ID - Sessions relating to a Hotjar User ID, a unique anonymous identifier that Hotjar assigns to all users. Only one ID can be provided, with the options of "is" or "is not" the ID.
• Device - Sessions focused on the device type (desktop, tablet, and/or mobile).
• Screen resolution - Sessions focused on specific device pixel width or height.
• Browser - Sessions using specific browsers, including Chrome, Chromium, Safari, Firefox, Internet Explorer, Edge, Opera.
• Operating system - The operating system in use during a session. This includes Windows, macOS, Linux, Ubuntu, Android, iOS.

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Feedback

Filter sessions where a feedback response occurred.

• Feedback - Sessions where a user submitted a Feedback widget response, including Love, Like, Neutral, Dislike, and/or Hate.
• Net Promotor Score® - Sessions where a user submitted an NPS Survey. This is based on their NPS scores and includes Promoters, Passives, and/or Detractors.

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Experiment

Filter sessions based on inclusion in an experiment.

• Google Optimize - filter sessions where a user was part of a Google Optimize experiment based on the unique ID Google Optimize creates for your experiments.

• Unbounce - filter session data by Unbounce page and variant. This doesn't include Feedback widgets or Surveys.

• AB Tasty - filter sessions by AB Tasty campaigns.

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Date filter

Filter sessions based on relative or custom date ranges.

• Relative date ranges - allow you to see session data from up to 12 months in the past.
• Custom date ranges - useful for comparing session data before and after any changes. View data from a specific period through to 12 months in the past. See our article on How long does Hotjar keep my data for more information about data retention periods.

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