What’s Changing?
We’ve improved how we track player sessions and views to ensure that billable metrics align with actual engagement.
Key Improvements:
✅ Views are now based on meaningful engagement (watching for at least 3 seconds).
✅ Sessions stitch together multiple interactions to track continuous viewing.
✅ More reliable tracking across network conditions.
These updates help ensure you only get billed for real engagement and receive more accurate analytics.
What is a Player Session?
A player session represents a continuous viewing experience by a single user. It starts when they begin watching and ends when they stop engaging. A session begins when a viewer loads the Bambuser player and starts a video (e.g., pressing play or autoplay triggering).
How Do Sessions Work?
- If a viewer stays active, their session continues.
- If they pause or leave and return within 15 minutes, it’s still the same session.
- If there’s no activity for 15 minutes, the session ends.
- If the viewer returns after 15 minutes, a new session starts.
By grouping events into sessions, we prevent duplicate counting and ensure that pauses or short breaks don’t create multiple views.
What Counts as a View?
A view is now defined as:
✅ A session that lasts at least 3 seconds
✅ A session that is not a FAB (floating action button) preview
This prevents accidental or irrelevant views (e.g., quick page loads where the user doesn’t actually watch).
How Do Reloads & Browser Behavior Affect Views?
To prevent inflated view counts, we handle page refreshes, tab closures, and browser restarts carefully.
| Action | Same Session? (Cookies Enabled) | Same Session? (Cookies Disabled) |
|---|---|---|
| Refresh the page | ✅ Yes | ✅ Yes |
| Close and reopen tab | ✅ Yes | ❌ No |
| Close and reopen browser | ✅ Yes | ❌ No |
This ensures that repeated page loads don’t generate multiple views, aligning with billable metrics.
Why Are View Counts Different in New Insights?
1. More Robust View Counting & Session Lifecycle
- Previously: Views were tied to client-defined session_id, scoped across the entire domain. This session lifecycle was poorly defined, leading to inconsistent view counting based on session duration and cross-video interactions.
- Now: Sessions are scoped to individual video objects and terminate after 15 minutes of inactivity, ensuring consistent lifecycle management and accurate view counting.
2. More Reliable Session Tracking
- Legacy System: Views were counted per played video within a session, but the session lifecycle was unpredictable. Interruptions like pauses or short breaks were inconsistently handled.
- New System: A session stitches together continuous interactions, meaning users who pause and return within 15 minutes are counted correctly within the same session.
- ✅ Benefit: The new system ensures better session integrity, making view counts more accurate.
3. Introduction of a Minimum View Duration Requirement
- Previously: Views were counted as long as playback occurred, even for extremely short sessions.
- Now: A session must last at least 3 seconds to be counted as a view.
- ✅ Benefit: This eliminates accidental views (e.g., quick page loads where users don’t actually watch).
4. Fixes to Previously Undercounted Cases
Some legitimate views were missed in the old system due to reliance on client-side tracking events. Now:
- If an on-play event was lost but the user continued watching, the new system still counts it as a view.
- ✅ Benefit: Views are no longer dependent on a single event firing correctly.
Summary: How the New System Affects View Counting
| Scenario | Legacy Behavior (Views Missed/Inaccurate) | New Insights Behavior (Views Counted Correctly) |
|---|---|---|
| Short Sessions (<3 sec) | View was counted as long as playback occurred | Must last 3+ sec to be counted |
| Repeated Views (After 15+ min gap) | Only one view counted, even if a user returned much later | Two views counted if a user returns after 15 minutes |
| Lost On-Play Event | No view was counted, even if the user watched for a long time | View is now counted based on session duration |
How Will This Affect My Data?
🔹 View counts may appear different than before, but they are now more accurate and aligned with billable metrics.
🔹 Previously unfiltered views (e.g., quick page loads) are now excluded.
🔹 Sales and engagement tracking are more precise, reducing duplication.
📌 Reminder: Most of our past reports focused on viewers (unique users), whereas the new system is aligned with billable views. This will naturally cause some differences in reporting.
Final Thoughts
These updates provide:
✅ More accurate billing—you only pay for real views.
✅ Smarter session tracking—ensuring pauses & reloads don’t inflate view counts.
✅ Better data consistency—ensuring valid views are always counted.
If you have any questions or need help interpreting your reports, we’re here to support you! 🚀