# Does Elastic APM/RUM allow us to save sessions? **URL:** \ **Category:** Elastic Observability\ **Created:** [March 21, 2023, 4:55pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/does-elastic-apm-rum-allow-us-to-save-sessions/328187 "2023-03-21T16:55:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![bigdamhero](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/bigdamhero/32/34478_2.png) [@bigdamhero](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/bigdamhero)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2023, 4:55pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/does-elastic-apm-rum-allow-us-to-save-sessions/328187/1 "2023-03-21T16:55:16Z")
I'm trying to spec out APM to replace Dynatrace RUM. Are we able to have session playback? ---
**Author:** ![carly.richmond](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/carly.richmond/32/104935_2.png) [@carly.richmond](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/carly.richmond)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2023, 9:27am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/does-elastic-apm-rum-allow-us-to-save-sessions/328187/2 "2023-03-22T09:27:02Z")
Hi @bigdamhero, Session playback isn't currently available with Elastic RUM. The closest we have is the [Synthetics recorder](https://github.com/elastic/synthetics-recorder) that can be uploaded to Elastic Synthetics for synthetic monitoring, but that captures interactions with your own browser rather than off the RUM agent captured traces. If is a good suggestion though, so I would recommend adding a GitHub issue for it as I don't see anything currently listed. Happy to help you raise that if you're interested! ---
**Author:** ![Serak\_Shiferaw](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/serak_shiferaw/32/75697_2.png) [@Serak\_Shiferaw](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Serak_Shiferaw)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2025, 7:20am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/does-elastic-apm-rum-allow-us-to-save-sessions/328187/3 "2025-11-14T07:20:00Z")
what about session segmentation. ie. finding user journey using ip or mapped user tag or anything similar? that would help troubleshoot user reported issue or performance on specific user activity ---
**Author:** ![carly.richmond](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/carly.richmond/32/104935_2.png) [@carly.richmond](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/carly.richmond)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2025, 1:47pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/does-elastic-apm-rum-allow-us-to-save-sessions/328187/4 "2025-11-15T13:47:49Z")
You could possibly add a relevant session attribute or tag via the `tracestate` HTTP header, as discussed [here](https://www.elastic.co/docs/reference/apm/agents/rum-js/distributed-tracing#enable-tracestate). Note that you will need to ensure the `propogateTracestate` attribute is enabled as covered [here](https://www.elastic.co/docs/reference/apm/agents/rum-js/configuration#propagate-tracestate). ---
**Author:** ![Serak\_Shiferaw](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/serak_shiferaw/32/75697_2.png) [@Serak\_Shiferaw](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Serak_Shiferaw)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2025, 6:18am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/does-elastic-apm-rum-allow-us-to-save-sessions/328187/5 "2025-11-25T06:18:41Z")
no out of the box support ? do i have to design dashboard from scratch, i need some screen like trace, service inventory, … ---
**Author:** ![carly.richmond](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/carly.richmond/32/104935_2.png) [@carly.richmond](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/carly.richmond)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2025, 12:51pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/does-elastic-apm-rum-allow-us-to-save-sessions/328187/6 "2025-11-25T12:51:08Z")
There is support for distributed tracing in the agent, which would show on the service screen. Likewise the RUM sessions will show a frontend service in the central service inventory. ---
**Author:** ![Serak\_Shiferaw](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/serak_shiferaw/32/75697_2.png) [@Serak\_Shiferaw](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Serak_Shiferaw)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2025, 8:29am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/does-elastic-apm-rum-allow-us-to-save-sessions/328187/7 "2025-12-22T08:29:39Z")
> [@carly.richmond](#): > > There is support for distributed tracing in the agent, which would show on the service screen. Likewise the RUM sessions will show a frontend service in the central service inventory. Thank you Carly i am actually referring to this equivalent [New: User session analysis — Dynatrace Docs](https://docs.dynatrace.com/docs/observe/digital-experience/session-segmentation/new-user-sessions) , this would help IT Support Teams to select specific user session and troubleshoot slowest calls from browser–\> app server –\> db –\> infra , across all layers, currently user session just shows overall aggregated user experiance and not segmented per user session, thanks ---
**Author:** ![carly.richmond](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/carly.richmond/32/104935_2.png) [@carly.richmond](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/carly.richmond)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2026, 3:12pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/does-elastic-apm-rum-allow-us-to-save-sessions/328187/8 "2026-01-06T15:12:34Z")
Thanks for confirming @Serak_Shiferaw. Certainly you can pull our tracing information based on a user attribute (IP address etc.) as stated above. But in terms of a specific capability for user session analysis as you highlight there isn't a specific capability for that in the RUM agent Kibana screens. Hope that helps!