Purchasely’s servers have several ways to become aware of a new purchase:

• via the Purchasely SDK
• via a manual import
• via store notifications

In the first two cases, since the information is provided by the SDK or your own servers, Purchasely’s servers know the user’s identity. These users may be connected to your app (connected users) or not (anonymous users).

However, when the information comes from a store notification, Purchasely’s servers have no way of knowing the subscriber’s identity. These are referred to as unknown users.

Let's dig into these 3 different types of users.

Connected Users

Subscribers who log in to your app and are declared as such to Purchasely.

Every webhook or data displayed in the Purchasely console for this type of user will be associated with the user’s identifier.

Anonymous Users

Subscribers who do not log in to your app.

An anonymous ID is generated by the Purchasely SDK and will be associated with the purchases.

Every webhook or data displayed in the Purchasely console for this type of user will be associated with the user’s anonymous ID.

Unknown Users

The purchase is known to Purchasely’s servers following the reception of a S2S notification. Purchasely has no way to know the identity of the buyer.

For this type of user:

• No Purchasely webhook will be sent to you.
• No data will be transmitted to the various integrations you may have configured.
• The S2S transfer will remain functional.

When are Unknown Users created?

• The purchase is made on a version of your app not using the Purchasely SDK.
• The subscription was obtained through family sharing.
• An error occurred during the purchase (app closed during the purchase, network issue).
• You are in observer mode and do not call Purchasely.synchronize().

Do they appear in the Purchasely Console?

They will appear in the subscriptions/one-time purchases listings.

Except for “family shared” subscriptions (whether unknown or known), they will appear in the various dashboards where it makes sense (typically, they will not appear in paywall dashboards if the purchases were made on an app not yet using Purchasely).

Can I reassign an identifier to these Purchasely users?

• In the "family sharing" case: when the person opens their app, the subscription will automatically be associated with them. Therefore, there is nothing you need to do.
• In the case of an error: a simple click on the “restore” link at the bottom of our paywalls will resolve the issue.
• In other cases: please contact Purchasely.

How should I manage these subscriptions?

There is nothing special to do:

• If you are subscribed to our webhooks, we do not send them in this case.
• If you have connected integrations, likewise, nothing will be sent.

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I want to receive webhooks for unknown users

No problem! Contact us and we can activate them for you