Skip to main content

Silent mode

A key principle of CommandBar is that user assistance is iterative:

  • As your product evolves, the way you use CommandBar to help users should too. For example, when you release new features, you can use CommandBar to make them easier for users to learn and use. When you discover new pain points or points of friction, you can create experiences
  • You can test different ways of solving the same pain point (like two versions of a nudge with different copy), and see which drives better outcomes.
  • Dead-ends help you understand where your users could use more help, to inform both your CommandBar config and your core problem.

The commonality between all these use cases is data. CommandBar generates usage data to help you understand our impact, optimize your CommandBar config, and optimize your product.

Collecting this usage data is critical, so we provide a few options for where to send it.

What is silent mode?​

By default, CommandBar logs anonymized usage data to allow you to inspect it via our Dashboard. This logging happens alongside alternative analytics destinations, whether through integrations (such as our Segment integration) or a custom destination.

However, some customers may prefer to turn off logging to CommandBar altogether. Enterprise customers have the option to enable silent mode, which does this.

The most common situations for silent mode are:

  • Your product is deployed in an air-gapped environment, which doesn't permit outgoing network requests. (Check out other tips on self-hosting CommandBar for these situations.)
  • You operate in an extremely regulated environment that restricts where usage data can live. Note that CommandBar is fully SOC 2 Type 2, HIPAA, and GDP-compliant. The vast majority of our customers from regulated industries (like finance and healthcare) do not use silent mode and remain fully in compliance.

Silent mode ensures that there is not a single automated outgoing network request generated by CommandBar from the client browser (except those generated by your use of a custom event subscriber).

⚠️ When silent mode is turned on, it is critical that you enable an alternative destination for your CommandBar analytics, so you can drive the loops described above.

How do I turn on silent mode?​

Contact your customer team representative, or ask through your preferred support channel (Slack, email, or chat).

Once I enable silent mode, can I turn it off again?​

Yes, it's possible to turn off silent mode after it is enabled. However, CommandBar will only log data that is generated after silent mode is turned off (we can't log data that was generated while silent mode was on).

Who has access to silent mode?​

Silent mode is only available to customers on the CommandBar Enterprise tier.

How does CommandBar track MAUs when silent mode is turned on?​

If you opt to use silent mode and have a contract that includes a limited number of MAUs, we will work with you to develop a solution for us to monitor your MAU usage without any outgoing network requests.