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Setting custom attributes for iOS

Braze provides methods for assigning attributes to users. You’ll be able to filter and segment your users according to these attributes on the dashboard.

Before implementation, be sure to review examples of the segmentation options afforded by custom events, custom attributes, and purchase events in our best practices, as well as our notes on event naming conventions.

Assigning default user attributes

To assign user attributes, you need to set the appropriate field on the shared ABKUser object.

The following is an example of setting the first name attribute:

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[Appboy sharedInstance].user.firstName = @"first_name";

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Appboy.sharedInstance()?.user.firstName = "first_name"

The following attributes should be set on the ABKUser object:

  • firstName
  • lastName
  • email
  • dateOfBirth
  • country
  • language
  • homeCity
  • phone
  • userID
  • gender

Assigning custom user attributes

Beyond the default user attributes, Braze also allows you to define custom attributes using several different data types. See our user data collection for more information on the segmentation options each of these attributes will afford you.

Custom attribute with a string value

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[[Appboy sharedInstance].user setCustomAttributeWithKey:@"your_attribute_key" andStringValue:"your_attribute_value"];

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Appboy.sharedInstance()?.user.setCustomAttributeWithKey("your_attribute_key", andStringValue: "your_attribute_value")

Custom attribute with an integer value

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[[Appboy sharedInstance].user setCustomAttributeWithKey:@"your_attribute_key" andIntegerValue:yourIntegerValue];

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Appboy.sharedInstance()?.user.setCustomAttributeWithKey("your_attribute_key", andIntegerValue: yourIntegerValue)

Custom attribute with a double value

Braze treats float and double values the same within our database.

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[[Appboy sharedInstance].user setCustomAttributeWithKey:@"your_attribute_key" andDoubleValue:yourDoubleValue];

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Appboy.sharedInstance()?.user.setCustomAttributeWithKey("your_attribute_key", andDoubleValue: yourDoubleValue)

Custom attribute with a boolean value

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[[Appboy sharedInstance].user setCustomAttributeWithKey:@"your_attribute_key" andBOOLValue:yourBOOLValue];

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Appboy.sharedInstance()?.user.setCustomAttributeWithKey("your_attribute_key", andBOOLValue: yourBoolValue)

Custom attribute with a date value

Dates passed to Braze with this method must either be in the ISO 8601 format (e.g 2013-07-16T19:20:30+01:00) or in the yyyy-MM-dd'T'HH:mm:ss:SSSZ format (2016-12-14T13:32:31.601-0800).

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[[Appboy sharedInstance].user setCustomAttributeWithKey:@"your_attribute_key" andDateValue:yourDateValue];

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Appboy.sharedInstance()?.user.setCustomAttributeWithKey("your_attribute_key", andDateValue:yourDateValue)

Custom attribute with an array value

The maximum number of elements in custom attribute arrays defaults to 25. Arrays exceeding the maximum number of elements will be truncated to contain the maximum number of elements. The maximum for individual arrays can be increased to up to 100. If you would like this maximum increased, reach out to your customer service manager.

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// Setting a custom attribute with an array value
[[Appboy sharedInstance].user setCustomAttributeArrayWithKey:@"array_name" array:@[@"value1",  @"value2"]];
// Adding to a custom attribute with an array value
[[Appboy sharedInstance].user addToCustomAttributeArrayWithKey:@"array_name" value:@"value3"];
// Removing a value from an array type custom attribute
[[Appboy sharedInstance].user removeFromCustomAttributeArrayWithKey:@"array_name" value:@"value2"];
// Removing an entire array and key
[[Appboy sharedInstance].user setCustomAttributeArrayWithKey:@"array_name" array:nil];

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// Setting a custom attribute with an array value
Appboy.sharedInstance()?.user.setCustomAttributeArrayWithKey("array_name", array: ["value1",  "value2"])
// Adding to a custom attribute with an array value
Appboy.sharedInstance()?.user.addToCustomAttributeArrayWithKey("array_name", value: "value3")
// Removing a value from an array type custom attribute
Appboy.sharedInstance()?.user.removeFromCustomAttributeArrayWithKey("array_name", value: "value2")

Unsetting a custom attribute

Custom attributes can also be unset using the following method:

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[[Appboy sharedInstance].user unsetCustomAttributeWithKey:@"your_attribute_key"];

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Appboy.sharedInstance()?.user.unsetCustomAttributeWithKey("your_attribute_key")

Incrementing/decrementing custom attributes

This code is an example of an incrementing custom attribute. You may increment the value of a custom attribute by any positive or negative integer or long value:

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[[Appboy sharedInstance].user incrementCustomUserAttribute:@"your_attribute_key" by:incrementIntegerValue];

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Appboy.sharedInstance()?.user.incrementCustomUserAttribute("your_attribute_key", by: incrementIntegerValue)

Setting a custom attribute via the REST API

You can also use our REST API to set user attributes. Refer to the User API documentation for details.

Custom attribute value limits

Custom attribute values have a maximum length of 255 characters; longer values will be truncated.

Additional information

Setting up user subscriptions

To set up a subscription for your users (either email or push), call the functions setEmailNotificationSubscriptionType or setPushNotificationSubscriptionType, respectively. Both of these functions take the enum type ABKNotificationSubscriptionType as arguments. This type has three different states:

Subscription Status Definition
ABKOptedin Subscribed, and explicitly opted in
ABKSubscribed Subscribed, but not explicitly opted in
ABKUnsubscribed Unsubscribed and/or explicitly opted out

Users who grant permission for an app to send them push notifications default to the status of ABKOptedin as iOS requires an explicit opt-in.

Users will be set to ABKSubscribed automatically upon receipt of a valid email address; however, we suggest that you establish an explicit opt-in process and set this value to OptedIn upon receipt of explicit consent from your user. Refer to Managing user subscriptions for more details.

Setting email subscriptions

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[[Appboy sharedInstance].user setEmailNotificationSubscriptionType: ABKNotificationSubscriptionType]

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Appboy.sharedInstance()?.user.setEmailNotificationSubscriptionType(ABKNotificationSubscriptionType)

Setting push notification subscriptions

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[[Appboy sharedInstance].user setPushNotificationSubscriptionType: ABKNotificationSubscriptionType]

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Appboy.sharedInstance()?.user.setPushNotificationSubscriptionType(ABKNotificationSubscriptionType)

Refer to Managing user subscriptions for more details.

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