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Forced variation is not available yet. The Forced Variation tab exists in the preview modal, but it currently shows a “Shipping next” placeholder rather than a working control. It needs a snippet update to read the force cookie, and that update has not shipped.Nothing on this page describes behaviour you can use today. For QA that works right now, use preview links, which already persist across pages for an hour.
Forced Variation tab showing a Shipping next placeholder

The Forced Variation tab as it ships today: a placeholder, not a control.

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What it will do

Preview links force one variant on the pages you open with the link. Forced variation is planned to go further: pin you into a variant for a whole browsing session, across every page you visit, by writing a cookie on your domain that the snippet reads on each page load. The intended uses are the ones a preview link serves less well:
  • Walking a stakeholder through the site, so they can click around inside the variant rather than looking at one page.
  • QA on flows that span several pages, where you want to enter the funnel in Variant B and reach the end without re managing the link.
  • Reproducing an issue reported against a specific variant.

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What to use instead today

A preview link already covers most of this. Once you open one, preview mode persists across pages in the same browser tab for up to one hour, even on URLs that do not carry the parameter, so you can click through a multi step flow and keep seeing your variant. See Staying in preview as you click around. The differences that remain, and that forced variation is meant to close, are that preview mode is scoped to the tab you opened the link in and expires after an hour.

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Where this page will change

When forced variation ships, this page will document the real control, the cookie’s actual lifetime, and how it interacts with the visitor opt out. Until then, treat any description of session length or clearing behaviour as unspecified rather than assuming it matches preview mode. Last verified against the shipped dashboard and snippet on 2026-09-01.
Last modified on August 31, 2026