Yes, Power BI comes with some built-in features and alternative methods of capturing and showing user activity within reports.
Native Options Within Power BI:
Usage Metrics Reports, found in the Power BI Service, provide activity insights for the user, including report views, unique viewers, and time spent. To find this information, navigate to the Usage Metrics option in the Power BI Service report menu. You can also customize these reports to include other insights by saving them for further editing in the form of Power BI files (.pbix).
Limits of Native Features:
While the Usage Metrics Reports provide quite useful data, they lack many granularities of information, such as page views, slicer selection, or filter application. For these attributes, one would have to rely on additional tools or techniques.
Other Alternatives:
Power BI Audit Logs: Either the Microsoft 365 Admin Center or Power BI Admin Portal can help access audit logs. These logs have very detailed information on user activity regarding report access, data exports, and filter applications. This data can be extracted using the Office 365 Management Activity API and visualized on Power BI.
Custom Tracking with Parameters: URL parameters could also be used when embedding Power BI reports to track user interaction with other external tools such as Google Analytics or custom logging mechanisms. This requires the necessary development to log user interaction.
Third-Party Tools:
PowerBI Sentinel or custom telemetry solutions, for instance, can provide more sophisticated analytics and tracking compared to Microsoft's offerings, such as tracking user interaction at a fine-grained level.
Each of these choices assists you by monitoring and visualizing users' usage of Power BI reports for a better experience and effective resource management.
