User identity & data sharing
Observant asks for the minimum it needs to hold a continuous one-on-one line with each of your users — and never for raw PII it doesn't need. You stay in control: you send the invite, your users opt in, and they can opt out at any time.
The identifier arrives with the opt-in
Observant follows up with each person continuously, so everyone needs a stable identifier. On the fast-start channels, the opt-in itself provides it — you share your magic link, each person who taps it picks where the conversation lives, and that choice tells us who they are. You hand over nothing.
| Channel | What you do | What identifies each person |
|---|---|---|
| Send the invitation with your magic link from your own address — no list upload | The email they opt in with | |
| Telegram | Nothing — the magic link opens a private chat with the Observant bot | Their Telegram handle — every conversation is a private 1:1 |
| In-product | Pass a stable identifier when our snippet loads (data-sharing tier, guided setup) | The hashed Observant ID (below) |
That's why email and Telegram are the fastest way to launch — live this week, no SDK, no data handover. In-product is the only channel that needs an identity mechanism, because inside your product Observant can't see who it's talking to. It's a one-time, guided setup. (Running a customer Slack community and want the 1:1s there? That needs a workspace install on your side — talk to us.)
The Observant ID — in-product identity
When Observant lives inside your product, it can't ask each user "who are you?" again — and it shouldn't hold your real user IDs. So you pass a stable, unique, non-reversible identifier when the agent loads. We call it the Observant ID.
Three properties make it work:
- Unique — two users never share an ID.
- Static — once assigned, it doesn't change, so each person's conversation memory persists across sessions.
- Mappable on your side, never reversible on ours — run your internal user ID through a hash or anonymizing function. You keep the mapping; we never see the real ID.
What we deliberately never ask for
No names, no segments, no PII beyond what the opt-in itself carries — unless a user chooses to share something in their own 1:1. The identifier plus the conversation is enough to learn from, and your real user data stays where it belongs: with you.
Want to go further?
Sharing more is optional — and it's where Observant gets more powerful. Merge conversations with names, segments, and behavior data for richer analysis; add behavior triggers to control exactly when a conversation starts; or have us recruit the right people into your panel in the background. Book a call with us and we'll design it together.
Starting light
Most teams start on email or Slack/Discord — live in days, zero identity work — and add in-product once the program is delivering. When you're ready, the snippet plus the one line above is the whole setup. Questions about your specific stack? Get in touch — we'll walk it with you.