In Userorbit, understanding the distinction between anonymous and identified users is fundamental to leveraging the platform's full potential for user engagement and analytics. This distinction dictates how user data is tracked, how engagement features are delivered, and the level of personalization you can achieve within your application.
How It Works
An anonymous user is someone who loads your application but has not yet been explicitly identified by Userorbit. Typically, this occurs when a new visitor lands on your site or app before logging in or signing up. Userorbit assigns a temporary, anonymous ID (often stored in a cookie) to these users, allowing for basic session tracking and engagement based on page views or URL targets.
An identified user, on the other hand, is a user for whom the userorbit.identify() method has been called. This method associates the current session with a unique user ID (e.g., a database ID, email address, or username). Once identified, Userorbit merges any previously anonymous activity with the now-identified user's profile. This creates a persistent and rich profile for the user, enabling comprehensive tracking and personalized interactions across sessions and devices.
Why It Matters
The ability to identify users is crucial because it unlocks a deeper level of personalization and data analysis. While anonymous users can still interact with certain Userorbit features like product tours targeted by URL (e.g., "show this tour on /onboarding"), many advanced capabilities require user identification.
Features that rely on identified users include:
- Property-based targeting: Delivering tours, checklists, surveys, or announcements to users based on their specific attributes (e.g., "show to users with plan: 'premium'").
- Comprehensive analytics: Tracking individual user journeys, understanding user behavior over time, and segmenting users for detailed analysis.
- Checklists and Surveys: Assigning and tracking progress on checklists or delivering targeted surveys to specific user segments.
- Personalized Announcements: Showing relevant in-app messages or changelogs to users based on their role, activity, or other profile properties.
The best practice is to always identify users as early as possible after authentication. By calling userorbit.identify() immediately after a user logs in or signs up, you ensure that their entire session, including any prior anonymous activity, is correctly attributed to their profile, providing a complete picture of their engagement.
Related Concepts
- Product Tours — These can be targeted to anonymous users based on URL, but become much more powerful and personalized when targeted to identified users based on their properties.
- Checklists & Surveys — These engagement tools typically require identified users to assign tasks, track completion, and collect personalized feedback effectively.
- User Analytics — Identification is the backbone of robust user analytics, allowing for tracking of individual user journeys, cohort analysis, and understanding long-term behavior.
userorbit.identify()— This critical JavaScript method is the gateway to transforming an anonymous session into an identified one, merging historical data and enabling personalized features.- User Segmentation — Identified users can be segmented based on various properties, allowing for highly targeted and effective engagement campaigns with Userorbit features.