If you've used developer tools in your browser, such as Chrome DevTools, then some of the features in Dev Tools by Fullstory should seem relatively familiar.
Both Chrome DevTools and Fullstory Dev Tools give you the ability to view the Console and see a waterfall-style breakdown of Network Requests in a Network Tab.
There are some key differences:
- Fullstory Dev Tools allows you to see Console and Network details for sessions as they occurred for real users, in real environments, either in realtime or in the past; Chrome DevTools allows you to debug and emulate environments in realtime, but it doesn't give you the ability to see what the session looked like for another real user at a past point in time.
- Because Fullstory Dev Tools depends on the data capture snippet loading on a page, some initial network requests may only have partial or inferred data; Chrome DevTools can give you more visibility into the details for the initial requests that happen as a page loads, before the Fullstory capturing snippet might begin capturing.
- Beyond just the Console and the Network tabs, Chrome Dev Tools gives you the ability to view Elements, Sources, Performance, Memory, Application, Security, and Audits.
It's important to remember that Dev Tools by Fullstory isn't designed to replace Chrome DevTools or any other developer tools you may use in your favorite web browser. Rather, the magic of Fullstory Dev Tools is that it gives you some of the rich details you'd expect from your favorite browser debugging toolkits alongside the visual context of a customer's real experience, brought to life with pixel-perfect playback.