Focus your time in Recordings: 'Already Watched' & 'New User' filters
Cut through the noise in your recordings with these two new features:
1. Don’t waste time on recordings you’ve already watched
You know that feeling when you’re watching something on TV and you’re not quite sure if you’ve already seen it? Sometimes, when you’re on a roll watching multiple recordings in Hotjar, you’ll come across one that feels familiar.
Your recordings list used to be a mix of both recordings you’ve already watched and ones you haven’t. From now on, we’ll default to showing you recordings you haven’t watched so you can focus on uncovering brand new insights.
You can toggle this setting on or off at any time. So, if you’re struggling to find an interesting recording you watched recently (or you’re just in the mood for a re-run of the classics), you can focus your search on just the recordings you’ve previously seen.
2. Only see recordings of ‘new’ or ‘returning’ visitors
Segmenting by new or returning users is a classic and powerful way of segmenting users in analytics. You’ve now got a new/returning filter in your Recordings. 🎉
Here’s how the new/returning filter works, and a bit of inspiration for how it fits with your other Hotjar filters:
- New users: see how users who are unfamiliar with your site interact with it for the first time. Stack a 'Referrer URL' or 'Landing page' filter on top of ‘New users’ to focus on new visitors from a specific campaign.
- Returning users: see how your frequent visitors navigate your site after you’ve rolled out changes. You could use this filter to detect frustrated behaviors (like U-turns) in loyal segments of users.
New to Recordings filters? Have a read of our guide on how Hotjar Recordings filters work.
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We’re retiring Forms & Funnels on December 14
In a product update back in August, we gave some insight into the evolution of Hotjar and how we’re building a sharper set of tools to help you better understand your users. As part of that update, we shared an unprecedented look at our real business data with you: Hotjar Forms accounts for 2% of monthly activity, and Hotjar Funnels accounts for 6%. As a product-led company, we’re facing the music and confronting the fact that these tools don’t add significant value to you. So we announced that we would retire Hotjar’s Forms & Funnels in the spirit of doubling down on where we can add value through our flagship tools, and giving us long-needed space to build entirely new tools that better solve the problems you face today.
As of December 14, Forms & Funnels will be retired for all Hotjar users. For those who have been using these tools, this will mean that the tools and the data previously collected in them will no longer be accessible.
But we don’t want to leave you hanging, and we absolutely want you to be equipped to create experiences your users love, so we have curated a list of alternative ways to get the insights you might previously have gleaned from Forms & Funnels.
We are so excited about the opportunities that this renewed focus on both sharpening our core tools, and freeing us up to build new ones will bring. We can’t wait to bring you even more powerful insights in the future.
As always, you can check out what we’ve added recently and what we’re working on here in our public roadmap.
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Continuous Capture is here 🔁
Exciting changes are coming to the way Hotjar captures data and provides you with user insights. It’s all kicking off the week of November 30 - just two weeks from now - so read on and take note. 👩🏽🏫
First up - why are we making these changes? In short: to make Hotjar smarter and easier to use. You can see our VP of Product, Megan Murphy, run through it in under 4 mins (in the video below), or dive deeper into the blog post we put out in August.
Now to the questions you’re asking yourself...
- What exactly is changing?
- When is it happening?
- What’s in it for me?
Here’s what you need to know:
If your site is on Hotjar Business, from November 30:
- You’ll get access to our new Continuous Heatmaps. The same sessions you’re capturing in Recordings will automatically populate your Heatmaps. You’ll still have access to the current version of Heatmaps while we’re busy fine-tuning Continuous Heatmaps and adding extra features. 🙌
- The user data you capture in Hotjar will be measured in sessions instead of pageviews. This means your plan’s data capture allowance will also be expressed in sessions, starting at 500 sessions/day for our $/€99 Business plan. 📏
- Session targeting will be managed in site settings, applying to both Recordings and Continuous Heatmaps. The targeting rules you already have set up for Recordings will automatically apply to Continuous Heatmaps. 🎯
If your site is on Hotjar Plus, from November 30:
- You’ll get access to Continuous Recordings & Continuous Heatmaps. No more manually creating snapshots! You’ll still have access to the current version of Heatmaps while we’re busy fine-tuning Continuous Heatmaps and adding extra features. 🙌
- The user data you capture in Hotjar will be measured in sessions instead of pageviews. Your plan’s data capture allowance will be 100 sessions per day. 📏
- Session targeting will be managed in site settings and will apply to both Recordings and Continuous Heatmaps. 🎯
If your site is on Hotjar Basic:
- Stay tuned! We’re still fine-tuning how we’ll bring you a top-notch Recordings and Heatmaps experience based on our new way of collecting data. Details to come in early 2021. 📆
Now that you’ve got the highlights, let’s look at each of the changes in a little more detail:
Continuous Recordings
Let's face it, starting (and restarting) snapshots in order to generate recordings and heatmaps isn't a natural step in your workflow. It can be confusing. You stop seeing new recordings, you get frustrated when you realize you need to manually restart a recording snapshot to avoid gaps in your data. We’ve learned from your feedback and built a new way of capturing recordings data in Hotjar, automatically and continuously.
Visit our docs to learn how to get started with Continuous Recordings.
Continuous Heatmaps
Just as in Recordings, Continuous Heatmaps will mean that Hotjar automatically and continuously captures data. With session data consistently flowing into your Heatmaps, you'll be able to analyze user behavior with less hassle and you'll find more opportunity for insight across your entire site. Previously, when you wanted to view a heatmap of a particular page on your site, you had to go into Hotjar, create a snapshot, and wait for the snapshot to capture data before getting any insights. With Continuous Heatmaps, it’s as easy as opening Heatmaps, entering the URL of the page you’re interested in, and hitting ‘Go’.
We're still working on making our new Continuous Heatmaps experience top-notch. So while we're busy fine-tuning it with features like better date filters and list views, you can either opt in to the new Continuous version (with a "Beta" label) or stick with the previous ‘snapshot’ version of Heatmaps until the new one is up to snuff 😉. We'll keep you posted on when that is after the holiday season.
Capturing data in sessions
Until now, when you’ve come to Hotjar to get to work, you’ve had to grapple with understanding how we measure your traffic in pageviews, i.e. an instance of a webpage loading. Here’s the verdict from across Hotjar’s customer base: you don’t tend to think in pageviews.The more common (and complete) measure of your traffic is sessions, i.e. the unique period of time your user is actively interacting with your site. If you count yourself among the folks who have been confused by our pageviews approach - this update will be a welcome change.
Session-based continuous capture is replacing pageview-based snapshots as the core way in which Hotjar captures data. This means tha the pageview allowance in our Plus and Business plans will be replaced by a session allowance. For 98% of Hotjar customers, the new way of session-based continuous capture will mean that they will capture more data and generate more insights than ever before.
Session targeting
With data continuously rolling into Hotjar, you’ll need a place to manage how you target the visitor sessions you care about most. The place to do that is now in Site Settings. These rules will determine which session data Hotjar captures for both Recordings and Heatmaps. The end result = more consistent data in both tools. 💪
See our Site Settings & Configuration Guide to learn how to optimize your Hotjar setup to get the data you need.
We’re really excited about bringing you these changes - to give you a better understanding of your users, to help you build better experiences, and hopefully make your job just a little easier along the way. As always, our support team is here to help if you have any questions.
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Surveys: new ways to customize
We’ve launched new customization features in Hotjar Surveys that make it easier to reach out to your customers in your style.
When it comes to your site experience, looks matter. Adding new customization features has been a top request for our feedback tools - so we’re happy to be bringing you these updates, and plenty more to come.
Let’s take a look at what’s new.
Enhanced color options for your feedback widgets
Launching an on-site popup survey? Customize your widget’s background color, button color, and font color. We’ve included popular options to choose from if you’re just getting started.
💡Get inspired with 20+ on-site survey examples from other Hotjar users.
Brand your surveys
When you’re inviting your customers to an off-site survey (with an external link), you can now work with your house colors and logo to brand your feedback experience.
💡 Learn more about feedback customization over in our Hotjar Surveys docs.
We're exploring lots of improvements to Surveys, and we'd love your input: what would you like to see us add to Surveys? Let us know in this quick survey.
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Hotjar x Slack pt 2: get your team synced on Recordings & Surveys 📽📣
Hotjar insights. Delivered to your teams in Slack.
Just as important as getting user behavior insights: getting your team aligned on what’s next.
Whether your team’s got new targets, you’re going through a redesign, or you’re prioritizing product optimizations—whatever you're working on, you’ll back up your plans for your next moves fast with experience insights from real users in Hotjar, and by getting the conversation flowing in Slack.
Earlier this year we launched our Slack integration with the ability to forward Incoming Feedback and now we're back with part two: bringing Hotjar Recordings and Surveys into your Slack channels.
Get a heads-up about important recordings in Slack 📽
If you’re already a Hotjar Recordings wiz, you’ll know about Segments. Recordings filters help you narrow your focus on certain kinds of recordings— saving a ‘Segment’ makes a filter recipe easy to come back to.
Forwarding Recordings Segments into Slack makes life a little easier:
- Get notified when a new recording matches your segment criteria
- See handy info right away, like referrer URLs, landing and exit pages, device and OS data, as well as users’ feedback and behaviors (U-turns and rage clicks)
- Notify folks on your team about insightful recordings. As easy as @ing them.
Ready to get Recordings notifications in Slack? When you save a Recordings segment, simply toggle on Slack notifications. ✅
Bring the voice of your customer to your teams in Slack 📣
Getting your team invested in user feedback has never been easier. Running on-site surveys on your product landing pages? Ongoing Net Promoter Score™️ surveys? Targeted audience research? Whenever you create a survey, just toggle on Slack under 'Forward Response' and pick the relevant channel(s) you want to receive your survey responses in.
💡 Questions about the Slack integration? We've got you covered in the help docs.
The Slack integration is available on Hotjar Business.
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The sharpest knives in the drawer: how we’re making Hotjar’s tools smarter and easier to use
If you’re serious about cooking, you don’t want a swiss army knife in your kitchen. You want a proper set of kitchen knives. The same principle applies to software tools, and how we’re thinking about building Hotjar.
In this update, we reflect on Hotjar’s past and look boldly ahead to its future: a sharper set of tools for understanding how users really experience your site and how to provide them with better experiences.
For all the nitty-gritty details, you can read more HERE.
Watch the video and continue reading below for the quick version of the update.
1. Hotjar’s way of chewing data is changing: pageviews will soon be gone, sessions will replace them, and this will make using Hotjar a lot simpler.
Hotjar capturing data based on pageviews has limited our product innovation. Pageviews are a static instance of a webpage loading: inherently inconsistent and unreflective of the dynamic experience on a website today. Hotjar’s way of working is evolving to capture user sessions: recording a user’s visit to your site (a session) and providing behavior analytics based on their whole visit. We will be updating our subscriptions to be based on how many user sessions you want to capture on your site per month.
2. No more ‘snapshots’ of data filling up inconsistently: Hotjar is heading to Continuous Capture
Manually starting and restarting a ‘snapshot’ of pageviews to analyze user behavior has been an unnatural step in our users’ workflow. There’s inherent gaps in this kind of data. With our new Continuous Capture mode of gathering insights, you just need to open Hotjar and all the sessions within your plan’s sample will be available to analyze. Less manual work, cleaner data, better Hotjar.
3. Hello Surveys 2.0, goodbye Forms and Funnels
We’re merging Polls and Surveys into one more powerful Surveys tool. Adding context to behavior analytics data through user feedback is key to improving site experience and increasing conversions. We’re doubling down on the analytical depth of Hotjar’s feedback tools.
We’re retiring Forms and Funnels. For us to focus on improving Hotjar’s flagship tools (Heatmaps, Recordings, our feedback tools) we have had to make difficult decisions and prioritize: Forms and Funnels are underused, and we’re open about them not being competitive tools in their space. They’re no longer going to be part of the Hotjar toolkit.
4. We’re changing the prices on Hotjar’s paid plans.
Hotjar’s basic plan is staying free forever. We’re increasing prices of our two most affordable plans - the Plus plan and the lowest tier within our Business plans - by 10 bucks per month. That’s it - nothing crazy or drastic. That’s already gone into effect for new customers. For existing customers: we’ll be in touch to give you plenty of heads-up of the date new pricing comes into effect.
Read on for the story of why and how we’re evolving Hotjar, and more cooking analogies than you can shake a pepper mill at.
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