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Overview
Identity Resolution enables Product Analytics to automatically connect anonymous user activity to authenticated users. When a user browses your application anonymously and later logs in, their pre-login behavior becomes associated with their authenticated identity. This gives you a complete view of the user journey without any additional instrumentation.
Prerequisites
Datadog RUM SDK instrumented in your application. Identity Resolution is supported on the Browser, iOS, and Android SDKs.
setUser() called when users authenticate, with the id field set:
DD_RUM.setUser({ id: 'user-123' })
Product Analytics enabled for your organization.
No additional SDK configuration is required. Identity Resolution uses the anonymous ID the RUM SDK already generates and the user ID set through setUser().
Feature behavior
The following Product Analytics features automatically reflect resolved identity:
| Feature | Behavior |
|---|
| Funnels | Steps performed before login are attributed to the identified user |
| Unique user counts | Users who browsed anonymously are counted once, not twice |
| Retention | First visit, even if anonymous, is used as the cohort entry point |
| Pathways | Full path from anonymous first visit through post-login activity |
Considerations
Conflict handling: If multiple users log in from the same device, the anonymous ID is mapped to the first user identified on that device. Subsequent users’ pre-login activity on that device is not retroactively linked.
Cross-device: Identity Resolution operates at the device level. A user who browses anonymously on one device and logs in on another does not have their sessions linked across devices.
Data retention: Identity mappings are retained for 15 months, aligned with standard Product Analytics retention.
Historical data: After enablement, historical queries resolve identity for any mappings in the 15-month window, including activity before you enabled the feature.
Privacy
Identity Resolution only links identifiers your application has already associated through setUser(). It does not perform probabilistic fingerprinting or cross-site tracking. The anonymous ID is a first-party, SDK-generated identifier scoped to your application. Standard Datadog data retention and deletion controls apply.
Filter by authentication status
Identity Resolution expands the scope of user-based metrics to include anonymous activity not previously attributed to known users. As a result, you may see an increase in user counts, funnel volumes, and retention cohorts.
To reproduce previous metrics, filter for authenticated users by setting the User Id filter to is All.
Further reading
Additional helpful documentation, links, and articles:
