People

People is the identity layer: who your users are, how they group, and where they are in their lifecycle. Analyze counts behaviour in aggregate; People lets you look at one person, or build the set you want to act on.

Three halves#

Identity — profiles, devices, the identity graph and user properties. The identity graph is the interesting one: it is how several devices and an anonymous history resolve to one person.

Audiences — audiences, segments, cohorts, suppression lists and imported lists.

Lifecycle — user journeys, lifecycle stages and user health.

Identity resolution#

Before identify() is called, activity belongs to a device. After, it belongs to a user, and the prior device history is linked to them. The identity graph is where you can see that linkage — and where a wrong one becomes visible.

The most common cause of a broken graph is a missing clearUser() on sign-out: on a shared device, the next person's activity is attributed to the previous user. That corrupts retention and funnels in a way that is very hard to spot after the fact.

Suppression lists exist to be respected#

A suppression list is a hard exclusion — someone who must not be contacted, whatever a campaign's targeting says. Treat it as a compliance control rather than a filter: it takes precedence over every audience.

Related#

• Identity SDK guide — identify, setUser, clearUser, and advertising identifiers.

Identity#

Audiences#

Lifecycle#