Custom attributes

Custom attributes are a collection of your users’ unique traits. Custom attributes are best for storing attributes about your users, or information about low-value actions within your application.

When stored in Braze, these characteristics can be used to build out audience segments and personalize messaging using Liquid. You should keep in mind that we don’t store time-series information for custom attributes, so you won’t be able to get any graphs based upon them like you can for custom events.

Managing custom attributes

To create and manage custom attributes in the dashboard, go to Data Settings > Custom Attributes.

From this page, you can view, manage, or blocklist existing custom attributes, or create a new one. If you block a custom attribute, no data will be collected regarding that attribute, existing data will be unavailable unless reactivated, and blocklisted attributes will not show up in filters.

To remove custom attributes from user profiles, set the value to “null” in your API request to the /users/track endpoint.

Setting custom attributes

The following lists methods across various platforms that are used to set custom attributes.

Expand for documentation by platform

• Android and FireOS
• iOS
• Web
• React Native
• Unity
• Xamarin
• Roku

Custom attribute storage

All data stored on the User Profile, including custom attribute data, is retained indefinitely as long as each profile is active.

Custom attribute data types

Custom attributes are extraordinarily flexible tools that allow for great targeting.

The following data types may be stored as custom attributes:

• Booleans
• Numbers
• Strings
• Arrays
• Time
• Objects
• Arrays of objects

Booleans (true/false)

Boolean attributes are useful for storing simple binary data about your users, like subscription statuses. You can find users that explicitly have a variable set to a true or false value, in addition to those that don’t have any record of that attribute recorded yet.

Segmentation Options	Dropdown Filter	Input Options
Check if the boolean value is either true, false, true or not set, or false or not set	IS	TRUE, FALSE, TRUE OR NOT SET, or FALSE OR NOT SET
Check if the boolean value exists on a user’s profile	IS NOT BLANK	N/A
Check if the boolean value does not exist on a user’s profile	IS BLANK	N/A

Numbers

Numeric attributes include integers and floats, and have a wide variety of use-cases. Incrementing number custom attributes are useful for storing the number of times a given action or event has occurred without counting against your data cap. Standard numbers have all sorts of usages, such as recording:

• Shoe size
• Waist size
• Number of times a user has viewed a certain product feature, or category

Segmentation Options	Dropdown Filter	Input Options
Check if the numeric attribute is more than a number	MORE THAN	NUMBER
Check if the numeric attribute is less than a number	LESS THAN	NUMBER
Check if the numeric attribute is exactly a number	EXACTLY	NUMBER
Check if the numeric attribute does not equal a number	DOES NOT EQUAL	NUMBER
Check if the numeric attribute exists on a user’s profile	EXISTS	N/A
Check if the numeric attribute does not exist on a user’s profile	DOES NOT EXIST	N/A

Number attribute details

• “Exactly 0” and “Less Than” filters include users with NULL fields
  • To exclude users without a value for custom attributes, you need to include the is not blank filter.

Strings (alphanumeric characters)

String attributes are useful for storing user input, such as a favorite brand, a phone number, or a last search string within your application. String attributes can be up to 255 characters long.

Note that if you input any values with spaces in between, before, or after words, then Braze will also check for the same spaces.

Segmentation Options	Dropdown Filter	Input Options
Check if the string attribute exactly matches an inputted string	EQUALS	STRING Case sensitive
Check if the string attribute partially matches an inputted string OR Regular Expression	MATCHES REGEX	STRING OR REGULAR EXPRESSION Not case sensitive.
Check if the string attribute does not partially match an inputted string OR Regular Expression	DOES NOT MATCH REGEX *	STRING OR REGULAR EXPRESSION Not case sensitive.
Check if the string attribute does not match an inputted string	DOES NOT EQUAL	STRING Not case sensitive.
Check if the string attribute exists on a user’s profile	IS NOT BLANK	N/A
Check if the string attribute does not exist on a user’s profile	BLANK	N/A
Check if the string exactly matches any of the inputted strings	IS ANY OF	STRING Case sensitive; multiple strings allowed
Check if the string attribute does not exactly match any of the inputted strings	IS NONE OF	STRING Case sensitive; multiple strings allowed
Check if the string attribute partially matches any of the inputted strings	CONTAINS ANY OF	STRING Case sensitive; multiple strings allowed
Check if the string attribute does not partially match any of the inputted strings	DOESN’T CONTAIN ANY OF	STRING Case sensitive; multiple strings allowed

Arrays

Array attributes are good for storing related lists of information about your users. For example, storing the last 100 pieces of content a user watched within an array would allow specific interest segmentation.

By default, the maximum length of an array for an attribute is set to 25, and can be increased to 100 for an individual array. For example, if you’re sending over an attribute such as “Movies Watched” and it is set to 100, when a user watches a 101th movie, the first movie will be removed from the array and the most recent movie will be added.

If you’d like this maximum increased, reach out to your customer success manager. Your dashboard administrator can then increase the maximum length for individual arrays to over 100 from the Custom Attributes tab of the Manage Settings page.

Note that If you input any values with spaces in between, before, or after words, then Braze will also check for the same spaces.

Segmentation Options	Dropdown Filter	Input Options
Check if the array attribute includes a value which exactly matches an inputted value	INCLUDES VALUE	STRING
Check if the array attribute does not include a value which exactly matches an inputted value	DOESN’T INCLUDE VALUE	STRING
Check if the array attribute contains a value which partially matches an inputted value OR Regular Expression	MATCHES REGEX	STRING OR REGULAR EXPRESSION
Check if the array attribute has any value	HAS A VALUE	N/A
Check if the array attribute is empty	IS EMPTY	N/A
Check if the array attribute includes a value which exactly matches any of the inputted values	INCLUDES ANY OF	STRING Case sensitive; multiple values allowed
Check if the array attribute does not include a value which exactly match any of the inputted values	INCLUDES NONE OF	STRING Case sensitive; multiple values allowed
Check if the array attribute contains a value which partially matches any of the inputted values	VALUES CONTAIN ANY OF	STRING Case sensitive; multiple values allowed
Check if the array attribute does not include a value which partially match any of the inputted values	VALUES DON’T CONTAIN ANY OF	STRING Case sensitive; multiple values allowed
Check if the array attribute includes all of the inputted values	IS ALL OF	STRING Case sensitive; multiple values allowed
Check if the array attribute does not include all of the inputted values	ISN’T ALL OF	STRING Case sensitive; multiple values allowed

Time

Time attributes are useful for storing the last time a specific action was taken, so you can offer content specific re-engagement messaging to your users.

Time filters using relative dates (e.g., more than 1 day ago, less than 2 days ago) measure 1 day as 24 hours. Any campaign that you run using these filters will include all users in 24-hour increments. For example, last used app more than 1 day ago will capture all users who “last used the app more than 24 hours” from the exact time the campaign runs. The same will be true for campaigns set with longer date ranges—so five days from activation will mean the prior 120 hours.

For example, to build a segment that targets users with a time attribute between 24 and 48 hours in the future, apply the filters in more than 1 day in the future and in less than 2 days in the future.

Segmentation Options	Dropdown Filter	Input Options
Check if the time attribute is before a selected date	BEFORE	CALENDAR DATE SELECTOR
Check if the time attribute is after a selected date	AFTER	CALENDAR DATE SELECTOR
Check if the time attribute is more than X number of days ago	MORE THAN	NUMBER OF DAYS AGO
Check if the time attribute is less than X number of days ago	LESS THAN	NUMBER OF DAYS AGO
Check if the time attribute is in more than X number of days in the future	IN MORE THAN	NUMBER OF DAYS IN FUTURE
Check if the time attribute is less than X number of days in the future	IN LESS THAN	NUMBER OF DAYS IN FUTURE
Check if the time attribute exists on a user’s profile	IS NOT BLANK	N/A
Check if the time attribute does not exist on a user’s profile	IS BLANK	N/A

Time attribute details

• Day of Recurring Event
  • When using the “Day of Recurring Event” filter, and are then prompted to select the “Calendar Day of Recurring Event”, if you select IS LESS THAN or IS MORE THAN, the current date will be counted for that segmentation filter.
  • For example, if on March 10, 2020, you selected the date of the attribute to be LESS THAN ... March 10, 2020, attributes will be considered for the days up to, and including March 10, 2020.
• Less than X Days Ago: The “Less than X Days Ago” filter includes dates between X days ago and the current date/time.
• Less than X Days in the Future: Includes dates between the current date/time and X days in the future.

Objects

You can use nested custom attributes to send objects as a data type for custom attributes. For more information, refer to Nested custom attributes.

Arrays of objects

Use an array of objects to group related attributes. For more details, refer to our article on Array of objects.

Purchase and revenue tracking

Using our purchase methods to record in-app purchases establishes the Lifetime Value (LTV) for each individual user profile. This data is viewable within our revenue page in time-series.

Segmentation Options	Dropdown Filter	Input Options
Check if the total number of dollars spent is greater than a number	GREATER THAN	NUMBER
Check if the total number of dollars spent is less than a number	LESS THAN	NUMBER
Check if total number of dollars spent is exactly a number	EXACTLY	NUMBER
Check if the purchase last occurred after X date	AFTER	TIME
Check if the purchase last occurred before X date	BEFORE	TIME
Check if the purchase last occurred more than X days ago	MORE THAN	TIME
Check if the purchase last occurred less than X days ago	LESS THAN	TIME
Check if the purchase occurred more than X (Max = 50) number of times	MORE THAN	in the past Y Days (Y = 1,3,7,14,21,30)
Check if the purchase occurred less than X (Max = 50) number of times	LESS THAN	in the past Y Days (Y = 1,3,7,14,21,30)
Check if the purchase occurred exactly X (Max = 50) number of times	EXACTLY	in the past Y Days (Y = 1,3,7,14,21,30)

You can change the data type of your custom attribute, but you should be aware of the impacts of changing data types.