A snapshot captures the state of an Acoustic Overstat-enabled web page, including all the data shown in Acoustic Overstat overlays. Saving snapshots to the Snapshot gallery gives your team fast access to page analytics without needing to re-capture pages every session.

Note: Snapshot capture does not work on hybrid applications.

Before you start

To avoid gaps in your snapshot data, clear your browser cache before loading the page — or disable browser caching entirely. This applies regardless of which capture method you use.

Tip: If you see an unexpected URL in your snapshot (for example, a login screen instead of the page you intended), use the Chrome or Firefox extension to capture the correct page directly.

Install the Snapshot Capture browser extension

The Snapshot Capture browser extension gives you direct control over which page is captured and works with both static and dynamic content. Install the version for your browser:

↓ Install for Chrome ↓ Install for Firefox

Firefox requires version 38 or higher.

Once installed, the extension adds a Capture (camera) icon to your browser toolbar.

Create a snapshot with the browser extension

1. Go to the web page you want to capture.
2. Click the Capture (camera) icon in your browser toolbar.
3. Click Ready to capture for static content. For dynamic content, use the keyboard shortcut shown in the extension window.
4. Optional: Click Validate page to check that the UI SDK is active on the page. If the SDK is missing or the page has a problem, the extension displays a message explaining the issue.
5. Enter a Snapshot name and move the snapshot to the appropriate collection.

The snapshot is saved to the Snapshot gallery. The Views field shows how many times the captured page's screenView URL was loaded — each page load within a session counts as one view.

Create snapshots directly from the Snapshot gallery

You can also create snapshots directly from the Snapshot gallery without installing any extension. This method works in any browser.

1. In the Snapshot gallery, select New.
2. Optional: Enter a name for the snapshot.
3. Enter the URL of the page to capture.
4. Select a device type:
   1. You can select one or multiple device types.
   2. Phone and tablet use default resolutions.
   3. Desktop lets you set a custom resolution.
5. Click Create.

The snapshot is added to the snapshot gallery.

Note: If the page you want to capture has a pop-up that you don't want included in the snapshot, use the browser extension instead — it gives you more precise control over what gets captured.

Create snapshots from Replay

1. While viewing a session in Replay, click the camera icon in the Replay toolbar.
2. When the capture finishes, the snapshot is added to the Snapshot gallery.

To learn more about snapshots, check out our course about Usability Analysis and Heat Maps in Acoustic Academy.