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User’s Guide
 

Website and Mobile Application Session Data

About Sessions

A session represents the period of time that a user interacts with your website or mobile application (app). During a session, information about the user and the user’s behavior is collected by SAS Customer Intelligence 360. Information can also be collected after a session ends.

A session begins when a user first accesses your website or mobile app.

Note: For mobile apps, a system event that is generated while the app is in the background does not begin a new session. A custom event that is sent while the app is in the background begins a new session.

A session ends when one of these situations occurs:

  • A user closes all instances of a web browser.
  • The amount of time that a user is active in a web or mobile session is longer than the maximum time that is allowed in a session.
  • A user stops interacting with the web or mobile session for enough time to trigger the inactivity time-out.

The following settings are used to specify the time limits of a session. You can specify different values for mobile and web time limits for these settings.

When you set these values, consider the effect that they have on downstream data collection. For example, assume that you set high values for Session Duration for Data Collection and Maximum Session Duration. In this situation, your data would have fewer sessions because the sessions have a longer maximum length and do not time out as quickly. Each session might also contain more event data because a user’s actions are all in one session.

Alternatively, lower values for these settings can result in more sessions with less event data in each.

Examples of Sessions

The examples in this section assume that the following values are set. You can set these values in AdministrationAdministrationthen selectTasks. Click Page and Session in Digital.

  • The value of Session Duration for Data Collection for web and mobile is set to 30 minutes. As a result, when a session is inactive for more than 30 minutes, the session ends.
  • The value of Maximum Session Duration for web and mobile is set to 45 minutes. As a result, when a session continues for more than 45 minutes, the current session ends and a new one begins. When you have multiple sessions, the collected data is associated with a new session ID when the user returns to the website or mobile application.

Single Web Session

This is an example of a single web session:

  1. A user starts an instance of a web browser and accesses your website for 5 minutes.
  2. The user opens a second instance of a browser and navigates to a different website for 15 minutes.
  3. The user returns to the first instance of the browser and continues to navigate your website for 15 minutes.
  4. The user closes the first instance of the browser.
  5. The user closes the second instance of the web browser.

Notice these things about the example:

  • The total duration is 35 minutes, which is less than the Maximum Session Duration.
  • There are 15 minutes of inactivity, which occur when the user is navigating another site.
  • The user closes all instances of the browser to end the session.

Single Mobile Session

This is an example of a single mobile session.

  1. A user opens your mobile application.
  2. The user accesses your application for 10 minutes.
  3. The users switches to another application without closing your application. Although your application does not have focus, it continues to run in the background.
  4. Five minutes later, the user picks up their phone and opens your mobile app again.
  5. The user accesses your application for 5 minutes.
  6. The user closes your application so that it is no longer running. For example, swiping up on an iOS device closes the application and removes that application from memory.

Notice these things about the example:

  • The total duration is 20 minutes, which is less than the Maximum Session Duration.
  • The inactive time is 5 minutes, which is less than the Session Duration for Data Collection.
  • Switching focus to another application does not end the session if your application is still running in the background. However, closing the application in a way that stops the application from running does end the session.

How SAS Customer Intelligence 360 Identifies New or Returning Sessions

In SAS Customer Intelligence 360, a session is classified as either a session that is started by a new user or  a session that is started by a returning user. The classification of new or returning user depends on the presence of the SAS Customer Intelligence 360 visitor cookie.

  • If the cookie is present at the beginning of the session, then the session is classified as started by a returning user.
  • If the cookie is not present at the beginning of the session, then the session is classified as started by a new user. In addition, a cookie is created so that in future sessions the user is recognized as a returning user.
Note: To find the visitor cookie, look for either _SI_VID_1.<external_tenant_ID> or _SI_VID_3.<external_tenant_ID>. For more information about cookies, see How Data Is Collected.

Examples of Sessions Classified as New or Returning

These are some examples that illustrate when a session is classified as started by a new or returning user:

  • A user visits the site with a browser or device that they have used before to access the site. As a result, the visitor cookie exists and the session is classified as started by a returning user.
  • A user deletes the visitor cookie, and then later revisits the site. Because the visitor cookie is missing, the session is classified as started by a new user.
  • A user visits the site with a device or browser that has not been used before. Because the visitor cookie is not present on the new browser or device, the session is classified as started by a new user.
  • A user visits a site for the first time, so the session is classified as started by a new user. While the user is accessing the site, the session times out and a new session is automatically started by SAS Customer Intelligence 360. The new session is classified as started by a returning user, because SAS Customer Intelligence 360 added the visitor cookie at the start of the previous session.

Session Attributes

Session attributes contain information about web and mobile sessions and can be used for targeting. You can add session attributes as criteria on the Targeting tab of web or mobile spot tasks to define the target audience for the task. For example, target new users who are using Chrome by adding the following current session attributes and values as targeting criteria:

  • Add Browser Name and set the value to Chrome.
  • Add New or Returning User and set the value to New.

The following types of session attributes are available for targeting:

  • browser and device details such as browser name, browser platform, mobile app version, and so on.
  • domain information for the page in the browser.
  • geographic information such as current city, country, postal code, and so on. This information is based on the IP address that is provided with the page view.
  • the language preference that is set in the browser.
  • whether the session is started by a new or returning user.
TipFor more information about what session data is stored, see the SESSION_DETAILS table.
Last updated: August 11, 2026