Session Tools

Every Live session has a toolbar of tools for capturing evidence and controlling the device. You only get the tools that work for what you're driving — if an option isn't on the toolbar, that session doesn't support it.

Screenshot

Capture the current screen as an image. Screenshots are saved to the session gallery, so you can grab several during a session and review or download them afterwards. Use it to attach a clean capture to a bug report.

Record

Record the session to an MP4 video — ideal for capturing a reproduction of a bug that's hard to describe. Start recording before you reproduce the issue, then stop; the recording is saved for you to download.

Each recording is capped at 5 minutes, so record the reproduction rather than the whole session.

Audio / unmute

The video stream starts muted. Click the audio button to hear the device or browser — needed for testing media playback, in-app sounds, notifications, and calls.

Device controls (mobile)

The physical buttons and system gestures for phones and tablets:

• Back — the system back action.
• Home.
• Rotate between portrait and landscape.
• Volume up and down.

That is the complete set of five. There is no app-switcher / recents button.

Typing

Just type. Your keyboard goes straight into the session — the page, the app, or the browser's address bar — and international layouts, including accented and symbol keys, come out correctly.

Network, location & VPN

Change what the session sees of the outside world:

• Network — switch the session between Wi-Fi, slower mobile profiles, and fully offline.
• Location — override the GPS coordinates the session reports.
• VPN — route traffic through a different exit IP.

Full detail on Network, location & VPN.

Installing an app

Your app is chosen and installed when the session starts, from the picker — there is no mid-session install or app-switch control in the toolbar. See Installing Apps for what can be installed and the limits on the app library.

Device settings (mobile)

Toggle real device settings from the toolbar — dark mode, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth — so you can check how your app behaves under each without hunting through the OS settings app yourself.

On iOS the streamed screen is blurred while these are applied, because the agent is driving the device's own Settings app to make the change. That's expected, not a fault.

Language and timezone

Change what the session speaks and what clock it keeps. Pick a language from around 40 locales, or any IANA timezone, and it's applied without leaving the session.

Changing the language restarts whatever you're testing, so the screen you were on is lost. A dialog confirms before it happens.

Files & media

Push content onto the device or browser:

• Android — push a document to upload through an app, and push photos and videos onto the device so you can test photo pickers, uploads, and media playback with real content. Files land in Internal storage › Download.
• iOS — push images and videos into the Photos gallery.
• Browser sessions — files land in a Downloads folder so a page's file picker can reach them easily.

In a desktop browser session the panel works both ways. As well as pushing files in, it lists what's in the machine's Downloads folder, lets you delete individual files, and offers Download all as a single zip — which is how you retrieve a file the page under test generated or downloaded.

Gallery

Everything you capture — screenshots and the recording — collects here, ready to download.

Logs (mobile)

Read the live log tail from the phone or tablet while you drive it, so you can see errors and diagnostic output as they happen. Filter by text, by log level, or by the app that produced the line; pause the stream while you read a line; and clear it to mark a fresh starting point before you reproduce something.

Use Download to save what you're looking at as a .txt file on your own machine. Do that before the session ends.

Device info and live metrics (mobile)

See the details of what you're driving — model, OS version, and session information — so you can note exactly which device and build you reproduced an issue on.

The same flyout carries a live performance chart — CPU, memory, and frame rate as you go — for catching jank or a memory climb while you reproduce it. Nothing is saved afterwards, so screenshot the chart if it matters.

New Tab (Safari only)

Safari sessions get an extra New Tab button. macOS disables Safari's own "+" while automation is attached, so this is the only way to open a tab there.

Switch device

Switch device (Switch Browser on desktop) moves your reproduction to another device or browser without going back to the picker.

End session

Click End session — labelled Stop Session in a desktop browser session — when you're finished. The device is cleaned and released back to the fleet, and your session time stops counting against your allowance.

Questions

▶I recorded twice and only have one file

Only one recording survives per Live session. Starting a second recording replaces the first — the earlier video is deleted, not kept alongside. If you need two separate reproductions, download the first before you record again.

▶Do recordings have sound?

No recording has audio — on any platform. The recorder captures video only, even where you can hear the device in the live stream. If sound is part of the bug, describe it in the report or capture your own screen recording locally.

▶What happens when I change the language?

Changing language restarts something, and you lose what's on screen. On Firefox and Safari that's the whole browser, so the page you were on is gone. On a phone it's the app or browser under test. Screenshots and recordings you already captured are kept, and a confirmation dialog tells you what you're about to lose.

▶The app didn't change language

An app with no translation for the language you pick simply stays as it is. That's the app's behaviour, not a failed override.

▶How big a file can I push to a device?

Size limits, and they differ by session type. - Phones and tablets — one file at a time, up to 50 MB.

• Desktop browsers — up to 5 files per session, 15 MB each, and the "Download all" zip is capped at 50 MB.

A file over the limit is refused as you pick it, before anything uploads.