Your audience

Contacts

A contact is any user in your project. They can be in one of two states:

• Anonymous — Airship creates an anonymous contact when a channel is first registered. An anonymous contact has at least one channel.
• Named — After you associate a channel with an external identifier, such as a customer ID from your CRM, the anonymous contact becomes a named user. Associating channels with a named user maps multiple devices and addresses to the same person.

A contact in either state can have communication preferences and targeting data such as tagsMetadata that you can associate with a channel or named user for audience segmentation. Generally, a tag is a descriptive term indicating a user preference or other categorization, such as wine_enthusiast or weather_alerts_los_angeles. and attributesMetadata used for audience segmentation and personalization. Attributes extend the concept of tags by adding comparison operators and values to determine whether or not to target a user, helping you better evaluate your audience.. Data set on a named user applies when you message any of their channels.

Within the Airship documentation, we use “user” and “contact” interchangeably.

Channels and contact association

A channel is a device or address that belongs to a contact, such as an iOS or Android device, email address, phone number, or web browser registered for web push. Each channel has a unique ID that Airship uses to send messages.

When a channel is registered, Airship automatically associates it with a contact. You can also associate channels yourself by assigning a named user ID.

In another context, “channel” can refer to the communication media Airship supports: app, web, email, SMS, and open channels.

How contacts are created

Airship creates a contact when a channel is registered, even if the person has not logged in or provided a name yet. How registration happens depends on the channel:

• Mobile apps — When someone installs your iOS or Android app and opens it for the first time, the Airship SDK creates a contact and registers their device as a channel.
• Web push — When a visitor allows push notifications on your website, Airship creates a contact and registers their browser as a channel.
• Email — Airship creates a contact when someone submits an email address through an opt-in form or a SceneA mobile app or web experience of one or more screens displayed with fully native UI components in real time, providing immediate, contextual responses to user behaviors. Scenes can be presented in full-screen, modal, or embedded format using the default swipe/click mode or as a story. Scene content can also be displayed in a Message Center message and contain survey questions., when you register them manually, or through other methods. See Register users in Getting Started for email.
• SMS — Airship creates a contact when someone texts a keyword to your SMS number, submits a phone number through an opt-in form or a SceneA mobile app or web experience of one or more screens displayed with fully native UI components in real time, providing immediate, contextual responses to user behaviors. Scenes can be presented in full-screen, modal, or embedded format using the default swipe/click mode or as a story. Scene content can also be displayed in a Message Center message and contain survey questions., when you register them manually, or through other methods. See Register users in Getting Started for SMS.
• Open channels — Airship creates a contact when you register a channel for a custom platform, such as Slack, a chatbot, or an IoT device. See Register channels in Getting Started for open channels.

How opt-in works

Opt-in status controls whether a channel is eligible to receive messages. A user can match your audience criteria and still be unreachable if they are not opted in.

Opt-in differs by channel:

• App and web push notifications — The user must allow notifications on the device or browser before the channel is eligible to receive push.
• Scenes, In-App Automation, and Message Center — These are delivered by the Airship SDK when the user is in your app or website, not as push notifications, so they do not require notification permission. The channel only needs to be registered.
• Email — Commercial and transactional opt-in are tracked separately. Commercial email can use double opt-inA process where users who sign up for messaging must confirm opting in before they can receive messages.. See Register users in Getting Started for email.
• SMS — The user must complete an opt-in path, such as a keyword or double opt-in. See Opt-In and Opt-Out Handling for SMS.

Subscription listsAn audience list users opt in to for a specific messaging topic. Users can manage their opt-in status using a Preference Center. are separate from channel messaging opt-in. They record topic-level preferences on app, web, email, or SMS. Even when a user is opted in to messaging on a channel, they must still opt in to a list to receive that topic. If they opt in to a subscription list but are not opted in to messaging on that channel, they cannot receive messages sent to the list.

You can update opt-in and opt-out status through the API, and provide self-service methods for users, such as links in emails, SMS keywords, and Preference CentersA page where users can manage their opt-in statuses for the subscription lists in your project. Preference Centers are presented within your app or website or as an Airship-hosted web page..

User data

Your project can store several kinds of data about users. Use the table to compare types:

Airship automatically sets some of this data, which is explained in the About pages linked from the table. For example, Airship reports device propertiesInformation about a channel, such as language and time zone settings, OS and browser versions, and notification opt-in status. Device properties apply to a channel only, not a named user. Values come from the user’s device when an SDK is present, or are set via the API for channels without one. Each property is automatically made available as an attribute, a tag, or both for audience segmentation. from user devices, such as locale, time zone, and app version, and makes them available as both attributes and tags.

Audience lists

An audience list is a reusable group of message recipients you can use for message and experiment targeting, or include in a segment. Airship supports three types of audience lists:

• Lifecycle lists — Airship creates these and populates them based on activity, such as new, active, or dormant users.
• Uploaded lists — You export user lists from your systems as a CSV, and add them to your project in the dashboard or over SFTP.
• Subscription lists — You create these to record topic-level opt-ins. Users manage their own membership.

See Audience lists for details.

Data sources

Data reaches your project through several paths:

You can also capture data from user input in the product, such as opt-in forms, survey answers in ScenesA mobile app or web experience of one or more screens displayed with fully native UI components in real time, providing immediate, contextual responses to user behaviors. Scenes can be presented in full-screen, modal, or embedded format using the default swipe/click mode or as a story. Scene content can also be displayed in a Message Center message and contain survey questions., and Preference Center updates.

To review or change data for an individual user, use Contact Management. You can remove data by clearing attribute values, removing tags, using the API to delete specific points, or resetting a contact to clear anonymous data when a user logs out.

Client-side versus server-side data

Where data originates affects how you can use it, especially for in-app experiences:

• Client-side — Data set or recorded from apps and websites that use the Airship SDK, such as many device properties, SDK-set tags and attributes, and SDK-tracked events and screen views. This is a common source of data used for targeting and for Scene and In-App Automation conditions evaluated on the device.
• Server-side — Data you send from your systems, partners, or APIs, such as CRM attributes, POS events, and tags set outside the SDK. CRM and POS systems are common sources.

For segmentation in messages and reusable segmentsA reusable audience group you create by selecting unique or shared user data., you can use both client-side and server-side data. For some Scene and In-App Automation channel conditions, server-side tags cannot be targeted directly. Create a segment that includes that data, then target the segment. See Audience data reference and Segments.

Data storage

Where Airship stores each kind of data determines whether it is tied to one device or address, or to the user across their channels. Data is stored at the following levels:

• Contact — AttributesMetadata used for audience segmentation and personalization. Attributes extend the concept of tags by adding comparison operators and values to determine whether or not to target a user, helping you better evaluate your audience. and custom tagsMetadata that you can associate with a channel or named user for audience segmentation. Generally, a tag is a descriptive term indicating a user preference or other categorization, such as wine_enthusiast or weather_alerts_los_angeles. set on the contact or named user are stored on the contact, so you can use them when messaging any of that user’s associated channels. Lifecycle listAn audience list Airship automatically populates based on user activity in your app, such as app opens, uninstalls, notifications received, and dormancy. membership is also tracked on the contact.
• Channel — Device propertiesInformation about a channel, such as language and time zone settings, OS and browser versions, and notification opt-in status. Device properties apply to a channel only, not a named user. Values come from the user’s device when an SDK is present, or are set via the API for channels without one. Each property is automatically made available as an attribute, a tag, or both for audience segmentation., primary device tagsAny tag that is set without specifying a custom tag group. Primary device tags belong to the device tag group and apply to a channel only, not a named user., and default eventsA record of an action in your app, on your website, in the Airship system, or in an external system. Examples are a message send, an app open, or a purchase transaction. are stored on the channel. They are tied to a specific device or communication method, such as an iPhone or email address.
• Either contact or channel — Predefined and custom events can be set at either level. Subscription listAn audience list users opt in to for a specific messaging topic. Users can manage their opt-in status using a Preference Center. membership can be tracked at either level. Uploaded listsAn audience list you populate by uploading a CSV of channel or named user IDs. In the API, uploaded lists are called static lists. can include channel or named user IDs.

Named users do not inherit attributes from channels. Channels do inherit attributes from an associated named user. In most cases, set attributes on the named user. See Channels versus named users in Setting and removing attributes.

For projects using channel-level evaluation, custom attributes and tags can be set at either the channel or contact level.

Targeting and segmentation

When defining message and experiment audiences, you can target a subset of your audience based on user data. For example, target users whose loyalty attribute equals gold and who have a movies tag in an interests tag group, or trigger an abandoned cart message when a user records an add_to_cart event but does not purchase. Where supported, set conditions to further filter audience members, such as by app version or locale.

To save an audience definition for reuse across messages and experiments, create a Segment. See Audience data reference for which audience data is available when configuring messages, experiments, and segments.

Personalization

You can personalize message content with attributes and event properties, such as inserting a user’s first name or a purchased item from a custom event. See the Personalization guide for the full list of sources and where personalization applies.

Audience evaluation

Airship evaluates audience criteria at send time or when an automation runs. How the evaluation applies differs depending on when your project’s account was created.

For projects in accounts created on or after February 27, 2026, evaluation is at the contact level. Channel-stored data is included when evaluating the contact, and events from any channel roll up to the contact. Contact-level evaluation enables messaging a user on one channel based on data from another:

• Send an SMS to users who haven’t opened the app in 60 days.
• Send a follow-up push to users who haven’t opened an email.
• Limit the frequency of a campaign across all of a user’s channels.

For projects in accounts created on or before February 26, 2026, evaluation uses the channel-level system unless migrated. Audiences are evaluated at both the channel and contact levels.

For example, an audience with a gold custom tag and a device language of English is evaluated as follows:

• The channel-level evaluation targets all channels with a custom tag of gold and where the device language is set to English.
• The contact-level evaluation targets all channels of contacts with a custom tag of gold and any device where the language is set as English.

Migration and status

All customers will be migrated to contact-level evaluation:

• Airship will contact you to coordinate migration.
• Until migration is complete, you will not experience any changes to the Airship service or see changes in the dashboard.
• After completing migration, mobile apps will require the minimum SDKs Android 19.9 and iOS 19.6. You will not be able to create legacy A/B tests.

You can identify your project’s current evaluation system. Next to your project name, select the dropdown menu , then Project Details. If your project is using the contact-level system, you will see “Contact-level segmentation: Enabled.” If you are on the channel-level system, no segmentation status is listed.

Lookalike audiences using Ad IDs

An Ad ID is a device-level advertising identifier that is shared across all apps on a device: the IDFA on iOS and the AAID on Android and Fire OS. Ad platforms such as Facebook capture the same identifier, so you can use Ad IDs to reach your app users in campaigns outside of Airship and grow from cohorts that already perform well in your Airship audience.

The Airship mobile SDK collects the device’s Ad ID and whether limit ad tracking is enabled. That data is available in Performance AnalyticsA customizable marketing intelligence tool that provides access to reports and graphs based on engagement data.. Export the IDs and upload them to an ad platform to target similar audiences, like Facebook’s lookalike audiences .

For example, you can export Ad IDs for your most engaged users to build a lookalike audience for acquisition, or for churned users and abandoned-cart cohorts to run win-back and re-marketing campaigns.

See Ad IDs in Export Lists for requirements and export steps.