Navigation Instrumentation

Generates: Spans

Tracks screen navigation and route changes when using React Navigation.

Setup

Navigation instrumentation requires React Navigation v5.x or higher. The SDK currently supports:

• Stack Navigator - JavaScript-based stack navigation
• Native Stack Navigator - Native platform navigation

Register the navigation container to start tracking:

import { NavigationContainer } from '@react-navigation/native';
import { Pulse } from '@horizoneng/pulse-react-native';

const navigationIntegration = Pulse.createNavigationIntegration();

function App() {

  return (
    <NavigationContainer
      onReady={(ref) => navigationIntegration.registerNavigationContainer(ref)}
    >
      {/* Your screens */}
    </NavigationContainer>
  );
}

Configuration

Navigation instrumentation is enabled by default. You can disable it if needed:

Pulse.start({
  autoDetectNavigation: true  // Enabled by default
});

When autoDetectNavigation: false, navigation spans are not automatically tracked. No spans are created for screen transitions.

Generated Telemetry

Type: Span
Span Name: Navigated
Span Kind: INTERNAL

Attributes

Navigation-Specific Attributes

Attribute	Description	Example	Always Present
pulse.type	Instrumentation type	"screen_load"	✅ Yes
screen.name	Current screen name	"DetailsHome", "DetailsInfo"	✅ Yes
last.screen.name	Previous screen name	"DetailsInfo", "DetailsHome"	⚠️ Only if previous screen exists
routeHasBeenSeen	Whether route was visited before	true, false	✅ Yes
routeKey	Unique route identifier	"DetailsHome-Oht5epi34smXv9IlxNggQ"	✅ Yes
phase	Navigation phase	"start"	✅ Yes
platform	React Native platform	"react-native"	✅ Yes

Note: The screen.name attribute in navigation spans refers to the React Native screen name, while screen.name in global attributes refers to the native Android activity.

Sample Payload: First Visit to Screen

{
  "name": "Navigated",
  "kind": "INTERNAL",
  "startTimeUnixNano": "1732737006000000000",
  "endTimeUnixNano": "1732737006014440000",
  "duration": "14.44ms",
  "attributes": {
    "pulse.type": "screen_load",
    "screen.name": "DetailsInfo",
    "last.screen.name": "DetailsHome",
    "routeHasBeenSeen": false,
    "routeKey": "DetailsInfo-z46JYmBeWWnsPCJU4H7A8",
    "phase": "start",
    "platform": "react-native",
    "session.id": "dce09977c69b0a5c15aa5fd01f817514"
  }
}

Sample Payload: Returning to Screen

{
  "name": "Navigated",
  "kind": "INTERNAL",
  "startTimeUnixNano": "1732737007000000000",
  "endTimeUnixNano": "1732737007007270000",
  "duration": "7.27ms",
  "attributes": {
    "pulse.type": "screen_load",
    "screen.name": "DetailsHome",
    "last.screen.name": "DetailsInfo",
    "routeHasBeenSeen": true,
    "routeKey": "DetailsHome-Oht5epi34smXv9IlxNggQ",
    "phase": "start",
    "platform": "react-native",
    "session.id": "dce09977c69b0a5c15aa5fd01f817514"
  }
}

Note: All navigation spans include global attributes (service, device, OS, session, network carrier, etc.). See Global Attributes for complete list.