---
title: "Identify a user"
section: "frontend/push-notifications/customer-profiles"
platforms: ["react-native"]
gen: 2
last-updated: "2026-07-30T16:47:07.000Z"
url: "https://docs.amplify.aws/react/frontend/push-notifications/customer-profiles/identify-user/"
---

Use `identifyUser` to send profile information for the current user to Amazon Connect Customer Profiles. The values you send populate the Customer Profile that your Amazon Connect journeys target and personalize messages with.

```ts
import { identifyUser } from 'aws-amplify/push-notifications/customer-profiles';

await identifyUser({
  userProfile: {
    email: 'jane@example.com',
    name: 'Jane Doe',
    phone: '+15551234567',
    location: {
      city: 'Seattle',
      country: 'US',
      postalCode: '98101',
      region: 'WA'
    },
    customAttributes: {
      plan: 'premium',
      favoriteCategory: 'outdoors'
    }
  }
});
```

Every field is optional, so send only the values your application has. Each call replaces the fields you provide on the profile.

## User profile fields

| Field | Type | Description |
| --- | --- | --- |
| `email` | `string` | The user's email address. |
| `name` | `string` | The user's name. |
| `phone` | `string` | The user's phone number. |
| `location` | `object` | The user's location. Accepts `city`, `country`, `postalCode`, and `region`, each a `string`. |
| `customAttributes` | `Record<string, string>` | Additional key-value pairs to store on the profile. |

Values are validated before the request is sent. Every string, along with each `customAttributes` key and value, must be 255 characters or fewer, and `customAttributes` values must be strings. A profile that violates these bounds throws a validation error.

> **Info:** `principalId` is a reserved `customAttributes` key and is rejected. Your backend uses it to store the profile identity.

## How the profile identity is resolved

Your application does not send a user identifier. Requests are signed with Signature Version 4 using Amazon Cognito identity pool credentials, and your backend derives the `principalId` for the profile from the signer identity of the request. A caller therefore cannot write to another user's profile, and there is no identifier for your application to manage.

Because the identity comes from the credentials, `identifyUser` works for both signed-in and guest users. See [Guest and authenticated users](/[platform]/frontend/push-notifications/customer-profiles/guest-and-authenticated-users/).

## When to call identifyUser

Call `identifyUser` when the profile information you hold changes, for example:

- After a user signs in, to associate their profile details with their authenticated identity.
- After a user updates their contact details or preferences.

`identifyUser` sends profile information only and performs no device work. To manage push devices, use [`registerDevice`](/[platform]/frontend/push-notifications/customer-profiles/register-device/) and [`removeDevice`](/[platform]/frontend/push-notifications/customer-profiles/remove-device/).

> **Info:** `identifyUser` does not require `initializePushNotifications`. Its only prerequisites are a configured endpoint and identity pool credentials, so you can call it before push notifications are initialized.

## Personalize messages with profile values

Message templates reference profile values with the `Attributes` namespace, so a `customAttributes` entry named `favoriteCategory` is available to a template as `{{Attributes.favoriteCategory}}`. See [Author message templates](/[platform]/build-a-backend/add-aws-services/notifications/author-message-templates/).

## Handle errors

`identifyUser` returns a promise that rejects when validation fails or the endpoint returns an error, so handle failures where a rejected promise would otherwise go unobserved:

```ts
import { identifyUser } from 'aws-amplify/push-notifications/customer-profiles';

try {
  await identifyUser({ userProfile: { email: 'jane@example.com' } });
} catch (error) {
  console.error('Failed to identify user', error);
}
```