Session Monitoring for Android App

⚙️ Configure Session Monitoring for an Android Application

📄 Overview

GermainUX automatically generates a session ID and associates it with telemetry collected during an Android application session.

The session ID enables GermainUX to correlate:

Most applications should use the session ID generated by GermainUX. Configure a custom session ID only when it is required to correlate GermainUX telemetry with an existing application or cross-system session.

🚀 Automatic Session Identification

No additional configuration is required to use automatic session identification.

After the GermainUX Mobile App library initializes, it generates and assigns a session ID to collected telemetry.

Automatic identification avoids:

🔧 Configure a Custom Session ID

A custom session ID can be assigned:

Use a stable, unique, non-sensitive value.

Do not use:

A monitoring correlation ID should be separate from the credential used to authenticate the user.

📦 Set the Session ID During Initialization

Set the ID through GermainAPMConfiguration when it is already available during application startup.

☕ Java

import android.app.Application;
import com.germainsoftware.apm.mobile.library.GermainAPM;
import com.germainsoftware.apm.mobile.library.GermainAPMConfiguration;

public class MonitoredApplication extends Application {

    @Override
    public void onCreate() {
        super.onCreate();

        GermainAPMConfiguration config =
            new GermainAPMConfiguration(
                "https://YOUR_GERMAINUX_HOST/ingestion/fact"
            );

        config.setSessionId(
            "YOUR_MONITORING_SESSION_ID"
        );

        GermainAPM.init(this, config);
    }
}

🍃 Kotlin

import android.app.Application
import com.germainsoftware.apm.mobile.library.GermainAPM
import com.germainsoftware.apm.mobile.library.GermainAPMConfiguration

class MonitoredApplication : Application() {

    override fun onCreate() {
        super.onCreate()

        val config = GermainAPMConfiguration(
            "https://YOUR_GERMAINUX_HOST/ingestion/fact"
        )

        config.setSessionId(
            "YOUR_MONITORING_SESSION_ID"
        )

        GermainAPM.init(this, config)
    }
}

Replace the sample value with the application-generated correlation ID.

🕒 Set the Session ID at Runtime

If the session ID becomes available after initialization, assign it using GermainAPM.setSessionId().

☕ Java

GermainAPM.setSessionId(
    "YOUR_MONITORING_SESSION_ID"
);

🍃 Kotlin

GermainAPM.setSessionId(
    "YOUR_MONITORING_SESSION_ID"
)

Set the ID before collecting the events or transactions that must be associated with it.

For example, an application may initially use the GermainUX-generated session ID and assign an application correlation ID after authentication or after a business session begins.

📋 Session-ID Requirements

A custom session ID should be:

Do not reuse a single static value across users, devices, or application launches.

If multiple users can use the application on the same device, update the session and user context whenever the active application session changes.

👥 User and Session Identification

The user ID and session ID serve different purposes:

Use pseudonymous values where possible. Do not place user-identifying information inside the session ID if it can be stored separately under approved privacy controls.

🔗 Cross-System Correlation

A custom session ID can help correlate Android telemetry with:

For reliable correlation:

1. Propagate an approved correlation ID through the relevant requests.

2. Capture that identifier in each monitored system.

3. Keep clocks synchronized.

4. Avoid changing the ID during an active transaction.

5. Do not expose security credentials as correlation identifiers.

A mobile session may contain many backend requests and business transactions. Use transaction-level correlation IDs when a session ID is too broad.

📊 Analyze Sessions

In GermainUX, sessions can be analyzed by:

Session analysis helps determine what happened before an error, where users abandoned a workflow, and which releases or devices are associated with poor experiences.

🔒 Privacy

Before configuring session identification:

Session IDs should support analysis without granting access to the application or exposing the user’s credentials.

✅ Validation

After configuring session monitoring:

1. Start the application and generate a session.

2. Confirm that collected events contain a session ID.

3. Navigate across multiple screens.

4. Execute a transaction.

5. Generate a controlled handled exception.

6. Verify that all events appear under the expected session.

7. Start a new application session.

8. Confirm that it does not reuse the previous session ID unintentionally.

9. Test runtime assignment if the ID is set after initialization.

10. Verify that the ID contains no sensitive information.

❗ Troubleshooting

🔍 Telemetry has no session ID

Verify that:

👤 Multiple users appear in one session

Confirm that the application updates the user and session context when the active user changes. Do not reuse identifiers across login, logout, or account-switching boundaries.

💔 One user journey is split across sessions

Check whether:

⁉️ Sessions from different users are combined

Verify that the custom session ID is unique and not a hard-coded, user-level, device-level, or globally shared value.

ℹ️ Get Help

The Germain Team can help you set this up. Contact GermainUX Support.