Understanding user behavior is one thing; acting on it at the right moment is another. Product teams have always worked to bridge this gap—spotting friction points, fixing onboarding issues, identifying blockers, and learning what users really want. But doing this efficiently, and with context, has historically required several different tools: analytics platforms, survey tools, in-app messaging tools, A/B testing tools, and sometimes even home-built UI elements.
Amplitude sought to simplify this ecosystem. With Amplitude Guides and Surveys, teams can observe, ask, and act—all within the same environment. This integrated approach has steadily become a practical solution for product managers, UX researchers, and growth teams looking to improve user engagement while reducing operational overhead.
Below is a clear, practical, and research-backed look at how Amplitude Guides and Surveys work, why product teams rely on them, and how they can support better decision-making.
Quick Bio Table
| Category | Details |
|---|---|
| Name | Amplitude Guides and Surveys |
| Type | In-product guidance & feedback system |
| Platform | Part of the Amplitude Product Analytics Ecosystem |
| Purpose | Help teams guide users, collect feedback, and improve product experiences |
| Key Components | Guides (walkthroughs, tooltips, checklists) & Surveys (NPS, microfeedback, ratings) |
| Primary Users | Product Managers, UX Designers, Growth Teams, Researchers |
| Core Strength | Combines behavioral analytics with real-time user interaction |
| Benefits | Better onboarding, feature adoption, targeted messages, immediate insights |
| Targeting Capabilities | Cohorts, user properties, event triggers, rollout controls |
| Best Use Cases | Onboarding, feature discovery, sentiment capture, problem diagnosis |
| Why It Matters | Creates a direct connection between what users do and what they say |
Introduction to Amplitude Guides and Surveys
Amplitude Guides and Surveys is an extension of the Amplitude analytics platform—one of today’s leading product analytics tools used by companies worldwide. Instead of simply tracking and measuring events, this feature lets teams communicate with users inside the product interface. It brings together in-app guidance, interactive walkthroughs, feature announcements, and real-time surveys that gather user sentiment at the moment it matters most.
Amplitude’s core strength has always been behavioral analytics. By building Guides and Surveys on top of that foundation, teams gain a deeper understanding of not only what users are doing, but also why they behave the way they do. This combination makes it possible to diagnose friction, test solutions, and deliver personalized experiences without relying on external messaging or feedback tools.
Amplitude officially introduced this capability to help reduce tool fragmentation and give product teams a seamless workflow: see the data, talk to the user, guide the next step, and measure the outcome—all in one place.
How Guides Work
Guides are in-app elements designed to support users during their journey. These can include small tooltips, spotlight callouts, checklists, welcome tours, announcement banners, and multi-step walkthroughs.
What makes these guides particularly valuable is how they can be precisely targeted. Instead of showing the same onboarding tour to every user, teams can define specific conditions based on user behavior or properties. For example, you can show a setup checklist only to new users who haven’t completed core activation steps. Or a team can display a feature spotlight exclusively to users who previously ignored or did not discover that feature.
Amplitude provides options such as:
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Trigger-based delivery (when an element loads, when a user stays on a page, when they click something, or when a certain event fires).
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Cohort-based targeting using existing Amplitude segments.
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Audience filters such as country, device, account type, login method, or product plan.
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Rollout controls to send guides to only a portion of users for testing.
This means the guidance isn’t generic—it’s thoughtful and timed. Guides offer contextual nudges that help users complete actions they may otherwise miss or misunderstand. With personalization in place, users get a smoother, more intuitive experience that feels helpful rather than disruptive.
How Surveys Work
Surveys inside Amplitude serve a different but equally important purpose. They allow teams to capture sentiment and qualitative input directly in the product. Rather than waiting for email surveys or external feedback tools, product teams can ask questions in the moment—right when the user is experiencing a feature or workflow.
Amplitude Surveys support several formats, including:
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Single-question micro-surveys
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Multiple-choice questions
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Rating scales
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NPS (Net Promoter Score)
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Short or long-form text responses
What product teams appreciate most is how these surveys connect directly to behavioral data. You can tie user responses to actions: for instance, identifying whether users who gave low satisfaction scores struggled at a specific point in the onboarding flow. This allows teams to uncover root causes with more clarity.
Amplitude also provides analytics tools that segment responses by cohorts, actions, or events. This allows teams to examine patterns such as:
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Which version of a feature received the highest rating
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Which user types expressed frustration or delight
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How survey responses correlate with retention, churn, or conversions
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Whether poor UX moments (like rage clicks) influenced feedback
Surveys are more than a way to collect opinions—they bring user voice into product decisions with accuracy and timing.
Why Product Teams Use This Approach
Modern product teams are constantly balancing guidance, research, and measurement. Traditional workflows often look like this:
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Identify a problem in analytics.
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Export user lists.
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Create a survey in another tool.
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Send it out or segment users manually.
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Import results back into the analytics platform.
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Try to make sense of it in context.
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Build new onboarding or messaging tools in yet another software.
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Deploy and measure results in multiple dashboards.
Amplitude removes this messy multi-tool process.
With everything in the same system, teams reduce operational steps and get clearer, faster insights. It also prevents data inconsistencies that come from juggling several third-party tools. Teams can spend more time improving the user experience and less time stitching together tools and spreadsheets.
Benefits for Product Teams
A Single Source of Truth
Because Guides and Surveys operate inside the existing analytics ecosystem, teams avoid the usual challenges of syncing user data across platforms. Every user event, guide impression, and survey response is already tied to the same user identity. This alignment gives product teams more accurate and reliable insights.
Better Context
Traditional surveys lack context because they are often sent via email or external links. Amplitude captures feedback while the user interacts with the product. This makes the responses more relevant, more honest, and more actionable.
Faster Discovery and Resolution
When teams observe something unusual in user behavior—like drop-offs at a specific step—they can create a survey or a tooltip directly in the same dashboard. No extra tools. No exporting. Just immediate action.
Controlled and Personalized Experiences
Guides can be shown to specific cohorts, user types, product tiers, or users performing certain actions. This ensures guides feel natural, helpful, and aligned with each user’s journey. The experience feels personalized without requiring heavy development resources.
Aligned Insights Across Teams
Amplitude’s unified environment means product managers, researchers, marketers, and analysts all interpret the same data from the same lens. This alignment reduces disagreements and improves team efficiency.
Measurable Impact
Every guide or survey can be measured for engagement. You can track whether users completed an onboarding checklist, clicked an announcement, or improved their conversion rate after being guided. This feedback loop allows teams to iterate quickly.
Practical Use Cases
Amplitude Guides and Surveys show their value most clearly through practical scenarios used by real product teams:
Onboarding New Users
A new user landing in a complex platform may struggle without direction. Guides can introduce key features, highlight first steps, or walk users through setup tasks. Surveys can follow key activation steps to see whether the user feels confident or confused.
Introducing New Features
Instead of relying on emails or release notes, teams use in-app announcements or tooltips targeted to users who would benefit most from the new feature. Surveys can gather instant feedback about whether the feature meets expectations.
Reducing Drop-Offs
If analytics show a sudden drop-off in a checkout flow, teams can deploy surveys to ask users what went wrong or use guide elements to simplify the next step.
Collecting Sentiment at Key Moments
After completing a major task—like publishing a project, exporting a report, or reaching a milestone—teams can show a simple rating scale or NPS prompt.
Improving Feature Adoption
Guides can target users who haven’t tried an important capability yet, nudging them toward adoption with clear instructions or incentives.
Why This Matters for Modern Product Teams
Amplitude Guides and Surveys reflect a broader shift in product development. Teams are moving away from guesswork and toward real-time, user-driven decision-making. Instead of waiting weeks for feedback or surveys, product professionals can now see reactions instantly, test improvements quickly, and adjust experiences based on what users genuinely need.
This real-time capability helps teams build more intuitive products, reduce user confusion, and align efforts with business outcomes.
Amplitude did not simply build another survey tool—it built a deeper, more integrated feedback loop that connects user actions, sentiment, and product guidance into a single workflow.
People Read Also: hyveesurvey: A Simple Guide to Sharing Feedback and Earning Rewards
Conclusion
Amplitude Guides and Surveys give product teams a way to truly understand their users—both by observing how they behave and by asking how they feel in the moment. Its integration with Amplitude’s analytics framework makes it a practical, efficient, and highly effective way to support onboarding, guide product exploration, collect feedback, and drive measurable improvements.
For teams looking to make confident product decisions, this unified approach has become an essential part of building better user experiences. By offering context-aware guidance and in-product surveys powered by real behavioral data, Amplitude helps teams act on insights faster and more intelligently.
FAQs
What are Amplitude Guides and Surveys used for?
Amplitude Guides and Surveys help product teams deliver in-app guidance and collect real-time user feedback directly within the product experience.
Do I need separate tools for surveys and onboarding if I use Amplitude?
No. Amplitude combines analytics, guides, and surveys in one place, eliminating the need for multiple external tools.
Can I target guides and surveys to specific user segments?
Yes. You can target based on cohorts, behaviors, device types, properties, and any event data tracked inside Amplitude.
How do surveys help improve product decisions?
Surveys capture user sentiment at important moments, allowing teams to pair qualitative feedback with behavioral data for deeper insights.
Are guides customizable to match a product’s visual style?
Yes. Amplitude allows customization of themes, colors, fonts, and layouts so guides feel native to your product.
