Nov 4

Separate session lifetimes for native apps

Category: Dashboard
Published: Nov 4

Native sessions can now have their own maximum lifetime, separate from web browser sessions.

Native sessions are sessions created by:

iOS and Android apps, including Expo apps
Electron apps
Chrome extensions, on production instances only, except extensions that sync authentication with a web app

By default, native sessions follow the web browser settings, as they did before. You can set a custom maximum lifetime between 5 minutes and 10 years. Native sessions then use it instead of the web maximum lifetime and inactivity timeout. Session tokens stay short-lived, and SDKs keep refreshing them.

Note

A custom native lifetime is free in development instances. In production, your application needs the Pro or Business plan. See the pricing page for details.

Changes only apply to sessions created after you save. Existing sessions keep the lifetime they were created with. To end them sooner, revoke them.

Get started

You don't need to update your SDK.

In the Clerk Dashboard, navigate to the Sessions page.
Under Native sessions, select Custom maximum lifetime and set a duration.
Select Save.

To make native sessions follow the web browser settings again, select Same as web, then select Save. See native session lifetime settings for details.