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Guides / Personalization / Advanced Personalization / Configure personalization / Setup

Enable real-time personalization

Real-time personalization is a beta feature according to Algolia’s Terms of Service (“Beta Services”).

Real-time personalization dynamically optimizes search results based on users’ real-time interactions within their current session. This personalization approach:

  • Provides coverage for all users, including first-time visitors
  • Happens in real-time as users interact with your website
  • Adapts continuously to the user’s changing intent
  • Complements historical personalization for a comprehensive strategy

Real-time personalization will activate only for new users, while historical personalization will apply for returning users.

By leveraging immediate behavioral signals, real-time personalization delivers a responsive search experience that evolves with the user’s journey, enhancing desirability without requiring previous visit history.

For a detailed comparison, read about the differences between real-time and historical personalization.

Enable real-time personalization

Prerequisite: You must configure Advanced Personalization before enabling real-time personalization.

Go to the Algolia dashboard to enable real-time personalization.

Dashboard interface for enabling real-time personalization

Dashboard interface enabling real-time personalization

Real-time profiles are automatically computed by Algolia when user events are received.

Troubleshooting

You can use the Advanced Personalization user inspector to review the user affinities. A badge indicates if real-time affinities are being used.

Dashboard interface for inspecting user affinities

Dashboard interface inspecting user affinities

Further reading