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Short answer: Real-time Activity (also called Activity) is the live feed inside Analytics that shows what’s happening right now on your links (or across your workspace): clicks, QR scans, and tracked events.
Tip: Real-time Activity is part of Advanced Analytics, which is available on paid plans.

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What you’ll see in the Activity feed

Each row represents a single action (for example: a click, a scan, or an event). ShortPen shows context like:
  • User: an anonymized user ID (not a name or email)
  • Action: what the user did (click, event, scan, etc.)
  • Action details: source, country, device, etc…
Clicks and QR scans are automatically tracked, while events require the Pixel and event-tracking configuration.

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How to open Real-time Activity

  1. Go to Links.
  2. Open the link you want to check.
  3. Click Analytics.
  4. Open the Activity tab.
If you’re new to Analytics, start from How to view analytics for your first ShortPen link or What metrics are available for individual links in ShortPen?.

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For the whole workspace

  1. In the left sidebar, open Analytics.
  2. Open the Activity view to see live actions across the workspace.
For the difference between link-level and workspace-level reporting, see Overview of ShortPen Analytics.

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Filter the feed (so it’s not overwhelming)

  1. Click Filter.
  2. Choose one or more filters (common ones are Country, Device, Source, Language, or an Event/Conversion.
  3. Close the drawer to apply them.
You can combine filters to narrow down to a specific “slice” of traffic.
Advanced filters are available on Paid Plans.

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View a single user’s full journey

  1. In the Activity table, click the anonymized user in the User column.
  2. A User details panel opens.
  3. Review the Activity history to see what the same user did (for example, which ShortPen URLs they interacted with and related context, such as referrer/source and device details).
This is especially useful when you’re debugging a campaign launch or trying to understand a specific journey (click → scan → event).
For help with event setup, see: How to enable Event Tracking on a ShortPen link

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Notes

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FAQ

It updates in real time. A short delay before totals or rows appear can be normal.
It’s an anonymized user ID ShortPen uses to group activity without revealing personal identity.