Identifying users

By default astronaut is pseudonymous: every user is a device with a generated handle. When you know who someone actually is — usually after they sign in — call identify to attach their real name and email, and the dashboard shows that instead.

Call identify after sign-in

Pass whatever you have. Email and name are both optional; send the one you know. You can call it again later to correct or fill in details.

Astronaut.shared.identify(
    email: "jane@acme.com",
    name: "Jane Doe",
    traits: ["plan": "pro"]
)

Call it again on every launch for an already-signed-in user (e.g. right after you configure the SDK) so the association is re-asserted.

Where it shows up

Identified users display their name (or email, if there’s no name) with an Identified badge — in the Users and Purchases tables and at the top of the per-user journey. Everyone else keeps an anonymous handle.

How it works

Identity is keyed by device and joined into reads at query time, not stamped onto each event. So the moment you identify a user, their earlier anonymous activity is back-filled with the identity too — no reprocessing needed. The latest identify wins, so the name and email stay current.

Privacy

Name and email are personal data, and identify is opt-in: nothing is sent until you call it. Only send identity you have a lawful basis to process. You are the controller for this data; astronaut stores it on your behalf and a single user’s identity can be deleted while their event history stays pseudonymous. See the privacy policy.

The identify call lives in the iOS SDK; identified users appear throughout the dashboard.