diff --git a/bqplot_image_gl/viewlistener.py b/bqplot_image_gl/viewlistener.py
index ef28f2d..7ce731c 100644
--- a/bqplot_image_gl/viewlistener.py
+++ b/bqplot_image_gl/viewlistener.py
@@ -2,10 +2,21 @@
 from ipywidgets.widgets import widget_serialization
 from traitlets import Unicode, Dict, Instance
 from bqplot_image_gl._version import __version__
+from typing import cast, Dict as DictType
+from typing_extensions import TypedDict
 
 __all__ = ['ViewListener']
 
 
+class ViewDataEntry(TypedDict):
+    x: float
+    y: float
+    width: float
+    height: float
+    resized_at: str  # ISO 8601
+    focused_at: str  # ISO 8601
+
+
 @widgets.register
 class ViewListener(widgets.DOMWidget):
     _view_name = Unicode('ViewListener').tag(sync=True)
@@ -17,7 +28,7 @@ class ViewListener(widgets.DOMWidget):
 
     widget = Instance(widgets.Widget).tag(sync=True, **widget_serialization)
     css_selector = Unicode(None, allow_none=True).tag(sync=True)
-    view_data = Dict().tag(sync=True)
+    view_data = Dict(value_trait=cast(DictType[str, ViewDataEntry], {})).tag(sync=True)
 
     def __init__(self, **kwargs):
         super().__init__(**kwargs)
diff --git a/js/lib/ViewListener.js b/js/lib/ViewListener.js
index 0095374..6cd945c 100644
--- a/js/lib/ViewListener.js
+++ b/js/lib/ViewListener.js
@@ -34,6 +34,9 @@ class ViewListenerModel extends base.DOMWidgetModel {
         }
         bind(this.get('widget'));
         window.lastViewListenerModel = this;
+        window.addEventListener('focus', () => {
+            this._updateAllViewData();
+        });
     }
     async _getViews() {
         const widgetModel = this.get('widget');
@@ -52,12 +55,12 @@ class ViewListenerModel extends base.DOMWidgetModel {
         this.set('view_data', {}) // clear data
         const selector = this.get('css_selector');
         // initial fill
-        this._updateViewData();
+        this._updateAllViewData();
 
         // listen to element for resize events
         views.forEach((view) => {
             const resizeObserver = new ResizeObserver(entries => {
-                this._updateViewData();
+                this._updateViewData(view, true);
             });
             let el = view.el;
             el = selector ? el.querySelector(selector) : el;
@@ -70,25 +73,38 @@ class ViewListenerModel extends base.DOMWidgetModel {
             }
         })
     }
-    async _updateViewData() {
-        const views = await this._getViews();
+    async _updateViewData(view, resized=false, focused=false) {
         const selector = this.get('css_selector');
+        let el = view.el;
+        el = selector ? el.querySelector(selector) : el;
+        if(el) {
+            const {x, y, width, height} = el.getBoundingClientRect();
+            const previousData = this.get('view_data');
+            let resized_at = previousData[view.cid]?.resized_at;
+            let focused_at = previousData[view.cid]?.focused_at;
+            const currentDateTimeJSISO = (new Date()).toISOString();
+            // Javascripts toISOString and Python's datetime.fromisoformat implement different parts of
+            // the ISO 8601 standard, so we replace Z (indicating Zulu time) with +00:00 to make it compatible with python
+            const currentDateTime = currentDateTimeJSISO.replace('Z', '+00:00');
+
+            resized_at = (resized || resized_at === undefined) ? currentDateTime : resized_at;
+            focused_at = (focused || focused_at === undefined) ? currentDateTime : focused_at;
+            this.send({
+                event: 'set_view_data',
+                id: view.cid,
+                data: { x, y, width, height, resized_at, focused_at },
+            })
+        } else {
+            console.error('could not find element with css selector', selector);
+        }
+    }
+    async _updateAllViewData() {
+        const views = await this._getViews();
         const currentViews = new Set();
         views.forEach((view) => {
             currentViews.add(view.cid);
             this.knownViews.add(view.cid);
-            let el = view.el;
-            el = selector ? el.querySelector(selector) : el;
-            if(el) {
-                const {x, y, width, height} = el.getBoundingClientRect();
-                this.send({
-                    event: 'set_view_data',
-                    id: view.cid,
-                    data: { x, y, width, height},
-                })
-            } else {
-                console.error('could not find element with css selector', selector);
-            }
+            this._updateViewData(view, true, true);
         });
         const removeViews = [...this.knownViews].filter((cid) => !currentViews.has(cid));
         removeViews.forEach((cid) => {