Why is setting an alias important?
Web Push notifications and other messaging systems rely on unique identifiers (aliases) to recognize users across different devices. Since users may interact with your website from multiple browsers, mobile apps, or desktop devices, assigning a persistent alias ensures they are identified as the same person across all sessions.
By setting an alias, you can:
Maintain a consistent user identity across multiple devices.
Ensure messages (such as Web Push notifications) are correctly delivered to the intended user.
Enable cross-channel tracking by linking user activity across different platforms.
Without an alias, users might appear as separate individuals on different devices, leading to inconsistent messaging and incomplete user profiles.
Passing User Information
The following code snippet sends a unique identifier (e.g., email, mobile number, or external identifier) to Engage. This allows for accurate user recognition and ensures that messaging features, such as push notifications, work correctly.
window.mappWebpushMessage = window.mappWebpushMessage || [];
window.mappWebpushMessage.push({
action: 'alias',
value: '<<external user identifier (e.g., email, mobile number, or external ID)>>'
});Default Alias Settings
By default, Engage uses EMAIL as the alias key to match users. However, other identifiers can also be used, depending on your setup. The system supports four possible alias keys:
EMAIL – The default option, which uses the user’s email address.
MOBILE_NUMBER – Matches users based on their mobile phone number (must include the national prefix).
ALIAS – A unique string identifier (e.g., an app-specific username).
EXTERNAL – A flexible identifier that can accept any string but does not enforce uniqueness.
If your system is configured to use EMAIL, it will not recognize other identifiers unless the alias key is changed.
Customizing the Alias Key
To match users based on a different identifier (e.g., external ID or mobile number), the alias key must be adjusted. This change is not available via the UI and requires assistance from our customer support team. Contact your CSM to request a change.
Note on Mapp Intelligence Web Push
Our Mapp Intelligence Web Push setup uses the Customer ID parameter as the matching source. If the Intelligence Customer ID does not contain an email address, users cannot be linked between Engage and Intelligence