Dashboard: Understanding Recent Activity

Recent Activity on your Dashboard shows how people engage with your reels and playlists. Every time someone opens a share link, ReelCrafter creates a session and tracks what they do: what they play, how long they stay, and what they click or download.

Jump to: Understanding the layout · Reading engagement data · Troubleshooting your analytics · Common questions

Understanding the layout

How is Recent Activity organized?

The Dashboard is the first screen you see when you log in. Recent Activity appears on the left side, showing every reel or playlist that’s been opened.

Sessions are organized in a hierarchy you can expand:

1. Reels or Playlists tab — choose which you want to view
2. List view — shows each reel or playlist with a “Last opened” badge (green if within 24 hours)
3. Expand a reel or playlist — see each share link and how many sessions it has
4. Expand a share link — see individual session cards
5. Session card — shows event count, date/time, location, and device for one visitor
6. View Events — see every action the visitor took in detail

You can filter by date range (last 7, 30, or 90 days) and use Hide sessions with no activity to focus on sessions where someone actually interacted.

What information is on a session card?

Each session card gives you a quick snapshot of one visitor's activity:

• Event count — the number in the circle shows how many actions they took (plays, pauses, seeks, clicks, downloads)
• Date and time — when the session started
• Location — city and country, derived from their IP address
• Device — desktop or mobile

From a session card, you can:

• Expand Engagement Overview — see which tracks and videos were played
• Click View Events — see every action in detail
• Click Archive session — remove it from your Dashboard (you can recover it later from your Archive)

Reading engagement data

A session represents one visitor opening your share link. Events are the individual actions they take within that session—plays, pauses, seeks, downloads, and link clicks.

Think of Engagement Overview as a summary of what someone played, and View Events as the raw activity log showing every action they took.

Engagement Overview: What did they play?

Click Engagement Overview on a session card to expand it. This shows you which tracks and videos the listener engaged with during the session.

For each item, you’ll see:

• Media type icon — waveform for audio, video icon for video
• Title — the track or video name (truncated if long)
• Percentage and duration — how much they heard/watched (e.g., “13% of 3:26”)
• Progress bar — visual representation of which portions were played

What do the green and red flags mean?

The green flag marks where the listener hit play for the first time. This might be the beginning of the first track, or somewhere in the middle if they jumped ahead.

The red flag marks where they stopped playing. If the flags are on different tracks, the listener moved between multiple items during the session.

Important: Engagement Overview is not a heat map. It shows what was played, not how many times. If someone replays the same section multiple times, you won’t see darker colors. Use View Events to see repeated plays.

View Events: The full play-by-play

Click View Events to open a sidebar showing every action the listener took, in order. While Engagement Overview summarizes what was played, View Events shows each individual action as it happened.

Each event shows:

• Action type — Play, Pause, Seek, Stop, Link Click, Download, etc.
• Media name — which track or video
• Position — where in the track (e.g., “from 0:00” or “from 1:50 to 2:10” for seeks)
• Total time spent on reel — how long they’d been on the page when this action occurred

Use the Sort by dropdown to switch between:

• Most recent (default) — latest actions first
• Chronological order — follow their journey from start to finish

The “Total time spent on reel” column shows how long the page had been open when each action occurred.

What actions are tracked?

ReelCrafter tracks these user-initiated actions in View Events:

• Audio: Play, Pause, Seek, Stop
• Video: Video Play, Video Pause, Video Seek, Video Stop
• Downloads: Track downloads (shows format, e.g., “Single track, mp3 format”), video downloads (MP4), and full reel ZIP downloads
• Link clicks: Contact info links and links in Text blocks

Not currently tracked: Image downloads or clicks on image-linked URLs.

Troubleshooting your analytics

Identifying your own test sessions

Sessions from your IP address show a special icon and tooltip: “This session was created by you, or someone with the same IP address as one of your recent logins.”

To keep your Dashboard focused on real listeners:

• Archive individual sessions: Click Archive session on any session card to remove it from your Dashboard. You can recover archived sessions later from your Archive.
• Hide all inactive sessions: Use the Hide sessions with no activity toggle to filter out opens where no one pressed play or interacted.
• Disable tracking on a link: If a share link doesn’t need tracking (like one posted publicly on your website), expand the share link, go to Tracking, and turn off Enable tracking.

Understanding high event counts

The number in the circle shows how many user-initiated actions occurred during the session: plays, pauses, seeks, link clicks, downloads, etc.

A high event count means the visitor took many actions during the session. This could include playing and pausing media, seeking to different positions, clicking links, or downloading files. A high count indicates engagement breadth (many actions), but it doesn't directly measure time spent listening. Open View Events to see exactly what they did.

Sessions with no activity

A session with “(no activity)”—sometimes called an empty session—means someone opened your reel but didn’t press play or interact with anything. Common causes:

• They opened on mobile and plan to listen later on desktop
• A browser tab refreshed in the background
• They left the reel open in a tab, causing repeated empty sessions
• They glanced at the page but got distracted
• An email security scanner automatically opened the link. Corporate email systems (like Mimecast, Proofpoint, and Barracuda) scan links to check for malware before delivering emails. These often appear from data center locations like Ashburn, Virginia or Boardman, Oregon. ReelCrafter filters out known automated scrapers (like link previews from LinkedIn or Slack), but some may slip through.

Use the Hide sessions with no activity toggle to filter these out and focus on real engagement.

Location data limitations

Location is derived from IP addresses and isn’t always accurate. Common reasons for unexpected locations:

• ISP routing: Internet providers sometimes route traffic through different cities
• VPN usage: The location will show wherever the VPN is based, not the actual listener
• Travel: Someone might open on a different network than usual
• Mobile networks: Can report inconsistent locations

Think of location as a general indicator, not precise data. If you’re expecting someone in New York and the session shows Chicago, they might still be your contact.

Common questions

What does “Just opened!” mean?

If someone opens your reel while you’re viewing your Dashboard, that session appears highlighted with a “Just opened!” label. You can watch their activity appear in real time.

Can I see who specifically listened to my reel?

ReelCrafter shows you session data (location, device, time, behavior) but not names or email addresses. Sessions are organized by share link, so if you create a unique link for each person, you’ll know who opened it. Keep in mind that anyone with a link can share it with others.

How long is session data retained?

Starter plans retain 90 days of session data. Professional plans retain up to 12 months and can set custom date ranges.

Can I get notified when someone opens my reel?

To get notified when someone opens your reel, expand the share link, go to Tracking, and turn on Email notifications. You’ll receive an email when that link is opened. You can also set this as the default for all new share links in Reel Settings.

Can I delete tracking data for a share link?

To delete tracking data for a share link, expand the share link on the reel detail page, go to Tracking, and click Delete tracking data. This removes all session history for that link.