ReleasesFeature monitoring

Flag audiences

Overview

This topic explains how to use flag audiences to understand who evaluated a flag, which variation they received, and what occurred during those evaluations, based on sessions and observability data.

Flag audiences combine context information, session replays, and observability data to give teams a clear view of rollout activity and impact. They help teams:

  • Detect regressions and performance issues faster by linking flag activity to errors, traces, and latency
  • Reduce investigation time by connecting flag data with observability insights
  • Verify that rollouts target the right audiences and behave as expected
  • Review flag behavior after release to confirm performance and document results

You can access flag audiences from the Audience tab for any flag. This view displays the contexts that evaluated the flag, the variations they received, and related session and observability data. From this view, you can identify who was affected by a change, confirm rollout targeting, and investigate regressions without switching between tools.

View audiences and sessions

Use flag audiences to explore who evaluated a flag and how those evaluations changed over time. This information helps you confirm that rollouts target the right contexts, verify which variations users received, and identify performance patterns.

Open the Audiences view

Follow these steps to open the audiences view and review evaluation details:

  1. Navigate to the Flags list and select a flag.
  2. Open the flag’s Audience tab.

The Audience tab displays a chart and table of evaluated contexts, including context key, variation, and session replay link.

The Audience tab displays a chart and table of evaluated contexts, including context key, variation, and session replay link.

Understand the audience table

The audience table lists the contexts that evaluated the flag within the selected time range. Each row displays key evaluation details for a single context, including:

  • Context name or key
  • Date and time of last evaluation
  • Variation served
  • Session replay link

Each row in the audience table shows context details, the last evaluation date, the variation served, and a session replay link.

Each row in the audience table shows context details, last evaluation date, variation served, and a session replay link.

By default, the table shows evaluations from the past seven days. Data is retained for 30 days.

The audiences view displays up to 250 contexts at a time. If more than 250 contexts are available, add or adjust filters to narrow your results.

Adjust the displayed data

Use the controls at the top of the Audience tab to modify what data appears in the table and chart. You can:

  • Change environments or select a context kind from the dropdown menu of available context kinds.
  • Search for contexts by name or key.
  • View all variations or select a specific variation from the dropdown menu.
  • Choose a date range.
  • Click Show chart to display a chart of unique values for a context kind across specific dates. Click Hide chart to close it.

The Audience tab showing the environment selector, context kind dropdown, variation dropdown, date range selector, and Show chart toggle.

The Audience tab showing the environment selector, context kind dropdown, variation dropdown, date range selector, and Show chart toggle.

Refine your view

You can refine or expand your view of audience data in several ways:

  • Filter by variation to identify which contexts received it.
  • Open context details to review attributes such as name, email, or device type.

Charts update dynamically when you apply filters or specify particular contexts within a context kind.

View session data

When an observability SDK is installed, LaunchDarkly adds a session replay link beside each context. A session replay shows what a user or context experienced in your application at the time of evaluation, including interactions, page loads, and errors.

To learn more, read Session replay.

The replay opens in the session viewer, allowing you to inspect what happened at the time of evaluation.

Each context shows only the most recent session. LaunchDarkly links this session data to the corresponding context and retains it for 30 days.

Data and availability

LaunchDarkly stores audience and session data for a limited time to ensure performance and accuracy. The following details describe how this data is retained and displayed:

  • LaunchDarkly retains audience and session data for 30 days.
  • The Audiences view displays the most recent 1,000 evaluations per flag and up to 250 contexts at a time. If more than 250 contexts are available, apply filters to limit the results.
  • Supported client-side SDK versions provide access to flag audiences.
  • The observability SDK enables session replays and traces.
  • This feature is included in Guardian and Observability plans at no additional cost.

Troubleshooting

Use the following information to troubleshoot common issues with flag audiences and sessions:

  • The audience list is empty: Verify that your client-side SDK is active and the flag has received evaluations in the past 48 hours.
  • Only one context kind appears: Confirm that your application sends multiple context kinds. The selector hides when a flag receives only one kind.
  • Session links are missing: Verify that the observability SDK is installed and sending session data.
  • Health checks show mismatched context kinds: Confirm that the rollout’s Target by value matches the context kind used in evaluations.