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Lantern session timeline

Written by Wendy

The Session Timeline shows the full journey of an individual quiz taker. You can see each step they took through the quiz, including the questions they viewed, answers they selected and the results they received.

Lantern’s Google Analytics integration and Advanced Analytics events respect your customers’ analytics cookie consent through Shopify’s Customer Privacy API. If analytics cookies are declined, these events are not tracked, while core Lantern quiz analytics remain unaffected. Learn more in How Lantern Handles Cookie Consent.

Accessing the Session Timeline

From your Lantern dashboard, open Advanced Analytics from the left-hand menu.
Under Lantern Events, click Explore Events. You'll find the Session Timeline in the bottom left corner

Image showing the Advanced Analytics section in the Lantern dashboard with the

Using the Session Timeline

First choose the quiz in Select a quiz (only published quizzes are listed), then type the customer's email address or Session ID in Search by session ID or email address.

Image showing the interface where a user can search for a session by email address or session ID to view detailed quiz activity.

Once you select a session, the timeline shows each event in the order it happened, including:

  • When the quiz was opened

  • Questions shown to the customer

  • Answers submitted

  • The time each event happened

  • Results and products displayed

Answers from questions set to Don't share can still appear in the Session Timeline because they remain stored in Lantern. Answers set to Don't store are deleted after the customer's results are generated and won't remain available in the timeline. Learn more about Sensitive Data Controls.

For example, we searched for a customer who completed the "Find your perfect pet food - LIVE" quiz and followed their entire journey. We can see that they opened the welcome page at 2:21 AM, entered "Buddie" as their pet's name at 2:22 AM, continued through the remaining questions and reached their product recommendations at 2:24 AM.

Image showing the first action in the timeline where the welcome screen was loaded at 2:21 AM, including the timestamp and session ID.

Image showing the timeline entry of the user responding to the first quiz question with

The products displayed on the Results Page are also recorded, allowing you to see exactly what the customer was recommended.

Image showing the final quiz interaction where the user reached the results page and viewed product recommendations at 2:24 AM.

Finding a Session ID

Go to Reporting → Sessions report in your Lantern dashboard to find a Session ID.

To narrow the list, you can filter the Sessions report by status. Select Add filter → Status, then tick one or more of Open, Started, Completed and Converted. With the filter applied, use the search box to find an email address, phone number or order number within the selected statuses. Learn how in Understanding Reporting.

Image showing the Sessions report under the Reporting tab in the Lantern dashboard, where session IDs can be copied.

The report lists your quiz sessions and their Session IDs. You can also click a Session ID to open its Session Timeline directly.

Image showing how session IDs in the Sessions report are clickable links that redirect to their corresponding Session Timeline view.

Using Session Timelines to Understand Quiz Behaviour

Session Timelines are useful when you need to investigate a specific customer's quiz journey. You can see where they went, what they selected and whether they completed the quiz.

This can help you investigate individual sessions, identify where customers may be dropping out and find areas of the quiz that could be improved.

If you need help using the Session Timeline, please contact our support team.

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