Identify users

Use this endpoint to identify an unidentified (alias-only) user.

Calling /users/identify combines the alias-only profile with the identified profile and removes the alias-only profile.

Identifying a user requires an external_id to be included in the aliases_to_identify object. If there is no user with that external_id, the external_id will simply be added to the aliased user’s record, and the user will be considered identified. You can add up to 50 user aliases per request.

Subsequently, you can associate multiple additional user aliases with a single external_id.

• When these subsequent associations are made with the merge_behavior field set to none, only the push tokens and message history associated with the user alias are retained; any attributes, events, or purchases will be “orphaned” and not available on the identified user. One workaround is to export the aliased user’s data before identification using the /users/export/ids endpoint, then re-associate the attributes, events, and purchases with the identified user.
• When associations are made with the merge_behavior field set to merge, this endpoint will merge specific fields found on the anonymous user to the identified user.

Rate limit

A rate limit is applied to requests made to this endpoint for customers who onboarded with Braze on or after September 16, 2021. For more information, see API limits.

Request body

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Content-Type: application/json
Authorization: Bearer YOUR-REST-API-KEY

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{
   "aliases_to_identify" : (required, array of alias to identify objects), 
   "merge_behavior": (optional, string) one of 'none' or 'merge' is expected
}

Request parameters

Merge_behavior field

Setting the merge_behavior field to merge sets the endpoint to merge any of the following fields found exclusively on the anonymous user to the identified user.

• First name
• Last name
• Email
• Gender
• Date of birth
• Phone number
• Time zone
• Home city
• Country
• Language
• Session count (the sum of sessions from both profiles)
• Date of first session (Braze will pick the earlier date of the two dates)
• Date of last session (Braze will pick the later date of the two dates)
• Custom attributes
• Custom event and purchase event data (excluding event properties)
• Custom event and purchase event properties for “X times in Y days” segmentation (where X<=50 and Y<=30)
• Segmentable custom events summary
  • Event count (the sum from both profiles)
  • Event first occurred (Braze will pick the earlier date of the two dates)
  • Event last occurred (Braze will pick the later date of the two dates)
• In-app purchase total in cents (the sum from both profiles)
• Total number of purchases (the sum from both profiles)
• Date of first purchase (Braze will pick the earlier date of the two dates)
• Date of last purchase (Braze will pick the later date of the two dates)
• App summaries
• Last_X_at fields (Braze will update the fields if the orphaned profile fields are more recent)
• Campaign summaries (Braze will pick the most recent date fields)
• Workflow summaries (Braze will pick the most recent date fields)
• Message and message engagement history

Any of the following fields found on the anonymous user to the identified user:

• Custom event and purchase event count and first date and last date timestamps
  • These merged fields will update “for X events in Y days” filters. For purchase events, these filters include “number of purchases in Y days” and “money spent in last Y days”.

Session data will only be merged if the app exists on both user profiles. For example, if our target user doesn’t have an app summary for “ABCApp” but our original user does, the target user will have the “ABCApp” app summary on their profile after the merge.

Setting the field to none will not merge any user data to the identified user profile.

Request example

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curl --location --request POST 'https://rest.iad-01.braze.com/users/identify' \
--header 'Content-Type: application/json' \
--header 'Authorization: Bearer YOUR-API-KEY-HERE' \
--data-raw '{
  "aliases_to_identify" : 
  [
    {
      "external_id": "external_identifier",
      "user_alias" : {
          "alias_name" : "example_alias",
          "alias_label" : "example_label"
      }
    }
  ],
  "merge_behavior": "merge"
}'

For more information on alias_name and alias_label, check out our user aliases documentation.

Response

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Content-Type: application/json
Authorization: Bearer YOUR-API-KEY-HERE
{
    "aliases_processed": 1,
    "message": "success"
}