FAQ: What is a viewport?

One of the visitor details that is available from the table in Visitors is the viewport. In this help doc, we’ll explain what it is and how to access it. 

What is a viewport?

The viewport is the part of a webpage that you can see without scrolling. While it may remain a standard size for most of your visitors, some visitors may customize this size. For example, they may have two browser windows open side-by-side on their screen, which would impact the viewport size. 

This information is helpful from a technical and diagnostic perspective to ensure that the viewport is optimized for all visitors. 

What’s the difference between a viewport and device type?

Device type gives a general view of what device the visitor is one, limiting it to desktop, tablet or mobile. Among these devices there may be differences in the viewport based on the device’s screen size, resolution, orientation and manual adjustments.

As in the example above, a desktop visitor could have multiple windows open on one screen which would impact the visible size for the web page. A visitor on an iPad could also use split screens which too would impact the webpage view. 

How do you find the viewport from Visitors?

There are two ways to access the viewport information:

From filters

  1. Click the Filter button located in the upper right corner of the page just above the table
  2. Scroll to find Viewport and click on it
  3. Select from Viewport Width and/or Viewport Height
  4. Enter a custom range. 
  5. Click Done to continue to the table or click Save Segment at the bottom of the filter drawer to save the filter(s) as a segment. Segments are your desired combinations of filters that can be easily accessed through our Segment drop-down at the top of the table in Visitors.

The table will automatically sort to show visitors with your selected Viewport range. Click here to learn more about filters.

From a column in the table

  1. Click the column editor icon located to the far right of table header
  2. From the gray-colored columns, select Viewport Width and/or Viewport Height. They will automatically move to the top group of columns shown in dark blue color. These are the active columns that will show in your table
  3. Drag and drop the dark blue columns to rearrange the order that will show in your table
  4. Click the Done button in the upper right corner of the screen to save your changes. If you click the X located in the upper left corner of the screen, your changes won’t be saved. 

Once the column is added, you can view the viewport information directly from the table within Visitors. Click here to learn more about customizing columns.