How does Whatfix identify users across browsers or devices?

User Identification and User Unification are used to track and consolidate end-user engagement on the application. For more information, see How does Whatfix identify users on the application?

Note:

Contact support@whatfix.com to configure User Identification and enable User Unification.

This article explains how Whatfix identifies users accessing the application across devices.

A user, John, logs in to the application for the first time. The following workflow shows how Whatfix identifies and unifies the events performed by John across devices.

Info:

The labels used in the flowchart are as follows:

•         Events performed by users are represented as E1, E2, E3.      

•         The Anonymized Whatfix IDs are represented as xxxxxx or yyyyyy.      

The following section explains all the steps displayed in the flowchart in detail.

Note:

The tables in the article serve representational purposes only.

The following are the descriptions of the columns in the tables and the values added to them based on the scenario:

• Event (E1, E2, E3): Events that users perform on the application are labeled as E1, E2, E3, and more.

• Anonymized Whatfix IDs: A unique identifier, represented as xxxxxxx or yyyyyy, are generated by Whatfix when a user accesses the application for the first time.

• User ID: A configured identifier that uniquely represents a user within the application. John is the sample User ID used in the tables.

• Mapped Whatfix ID: The ID that Whatfix maps to users’ engagement. If a user is identified with a User ID, Whatfix maps them to that User ID; otherwise, it maps them to the Anonymized Whatfix ID (xxxxxx or yyyyyy).

• Unified Whatfix ID: The ID that Whatfix uses to unify user information.

1. A user, John, accesses the application on a browser for the first time and Whatfix captures events

John is not initially identified using a User ID and Whatfix captures all events using an Anonymized Whatfix ID, xxxxxx.

The following table represents how the data is structured:

As John is not identified with a User ID, he remains unidentified, and Whatfix maps him to the Anonymized Whatfix ID, xxxxxx.

2. Whatfix captures an event, E4, performed by John with a User ID

Since this event is sent with a User ID, Whatfix uses this User ID to unify the user information with the previous events mapped with the same Anonymized Whatfix ID, xxxxxx.

This is how the data looks after Unification.

Whatfix unifies all subsequent events captured with the Anonymized ID xxxxxx on this device with John’s User ID.

3. Whatfix captures new events E5 and E6 with a new Anonymized Whatfix ID yyyyyy without any User ID

Note:

Whatfix generates a new Anonymized Whatfix ID due to one of the following reasons:

• The user accesses the application using a different browser or device that was not previously used, generating a new Anonymized Whatfix ID for this browser or device.

• The browser’s local storage is cleared, removing the existing Anonymized Whatfix ID.

4. Whatfix captures a new event E7 with User ID as John

Whatfix unifies all events from the Anonymized Whatfix ID yyyyyy with John. Since both xxxxxx and yyyyyy are linked to John, they represent the same unique user.

All subsequent events that Whatfix captures with the Anonymized Whatfix ID xxxxxx or yyyyyy, are unified with John.

Note:

What happens if Whatfix does not receive the event E4, and the browser’s local storage is cleared?

Whatfix creates a new Anonymized Whatfix ID, yyyyyy, because xxxxxx is lost. Whatfix captures the remaining events: E5, E6, and E7. Since E7 identifies with the User ID, John, Whatfix unifies E5, E6, and E7 with John. Since Whatfix does not receive any more events with the Anonymized Whatfix ID xxxxxx, this ID remains unidentified.

Event	Anonymized Whatfix ID	User ID	Mapped Whatfix ID	Unified Whatfix ID
E1	xxxxxx	-	xxxxxx	xxxxxx
E2	xxxxxx	-	xxxxxx	xxxxxx
E3	xxxxxx	-	xxxxxx	xxxxxx
E5	yyyyyy	-	yyyyyy	John
E6	yyyyyy	-	yyyyyy	John
E7	yyyyyy	John	John	John

If the Anonymized Whatfix ID changes in a browser before identification occurs, Whatfix cannot identify a user for the specific Anonymized Whatfix ID, and it remains unidentified.