Contact identification overview

AI-generated summary

Genesys Cloud employs identity resolution functionality to automatically link contacts to existing records when interactions begin, enabling a single customer view across multiple contact types and channels. The system uses channel-specific identifiers for contact matching, including email addresses and phone numbers for email and voice interactions, email, phone number, or name for web chat, messaging IDs for messaging interactions, and social channel-specific identifiers such as Facebook ID, Instagram ID, and WhatsApp phone number for social media interactions. For authenticated web messaging, Genesys Cloud merges contacts based on messenger configuration settings and external source fields when authentication is enabled, or uses cookie IDs when authentication is disabled. For open messaging interactions, the system prioritizes opaque IDs, followed by phone numbers or email addresses if the opaque ID is unavailable. Contact linking occurs automatically when a single match is found through these identifiers; if multiple matches exist or identifiers are unavailable, agents can manually link contact profiles. Users must possess specific permissions including External Contacts, Conversation, Associate External Contacts, Contact, View External Contacts, and External Organization View permissions to build complete interaction history for contacts and organizations. Identity resolution configuration varies by channel and can be customized through the Identity Resolution page or via API integration. Genesys Cloud manages contact records through multiple classification types to support comprehensive customer identification and interaction tracking. Identified contacts represent successfully matched records and expire 60 days after last interaction. Ephemeral contacts are temporary records created when no matches are found or multiple matches exist, also expiring after 60 days unless promoted to curated status. Canonical contacts result from merging multiple contact records representing the same individual and do not expire. Curated contacts are linked records saved by agents or API clients and remain searchable without expiration. The system supports automatic deduplication through auto-merge functionality, which consolidates curated and identified external contacts sharing identical identifiers into single canonical contacts. Ephemeral contacts are excluded from auto-merge evaluation due to lacking deterministic identifiers. Auto-merge operates as a background process disabled by default and requires administrator activation. Genesys Cloud captures and retains message channel identifiers for messaging interactions; unlinking a contact does not remove these identifiers. When existing external contacts modify social channel information and initiate new message interactions, the system prompts agents to update contact records accordingly. Identity resolution configuration is available through the Developer Center with comprehensive examples demonstrating single customer view implementation provided in supplementary documentation.

Series: Find, view, and link external contacts

Previous suggested step: Contact identification overview

PrerequisitesClick to expand

Important: To build the interaction history for a contact and organization, remember to always link the contact that is associated with an interaction.

Identity resolution

With the single customer view, when an interaction begins, Genesys Cloud automatically uses to attempt to link the contact to an existing contact record.

With the single customer view, when an interaction begins, Genesys Cloud automatically uses identity resolution to try to link the contact to an existing contact record. The identity resolution mapping for various channels such as voice, email, and SMS with divisions are configured in the Identity Resolution mapping table. When resolving the identity of a contact in an interaction, Genesys Cloud automatically assigns a division for the external contact or leave it as unassigned based on the settings configured in the mapping table.

Identity resolution makes the single customer view happen with four types of contacts:

Contact type	Description
Identified	If Genesys Cloud finds a single match, it auto-links the contact: For email interactions, Genesys Cloud uses the email address. For voice interactions, Genesys Cloud uses the phone number. Note: For outbound voice calls outside a queue in Associate, the interaction gets automatically linked to a contact only when the agent selects the contact’s phone number directly from the type-ahead search results. For web chat interactions, Genesys Cloud uses the email address, if supplied. If the email address is not available, Genesys Cloud uses the phone number. If either the email address or the phone number search results in a single match, Genesys Cloud auto-links the contact. If an email address or a phone number is unavailable, Genesys Cloud searches for the name entered. If that search results in a single match, Genesys Cloud shows the profile, and the agent can link it. For more information about configuring web chat fields, see the Developer Center. For authenticated web messaging interactions, Genesys Cloud merges the contacts based on the messenger configuration and identity resolution configuration settings. For configuring identity resolution for authenticated web messenger via Genesys Cloud, refer to Identity resolution for authenticated web messaging quick start guide. For configuring identity resolution via API, refer Developer Center. If the Authentication toggle in Messenger configuration is turned on and the External source field is also configured, Genesys Cloud merges contacts based on the supplied external ID from the external source. If the Authentication toggle in Messenger configuration is turned on and the External source field is not configured, Genesys Cloud merges contacts based on other identifiers such as email address or phone number, if present. If the Authentication toggle in Messenger configuration is turned off, the External source field is disabled and you cannot select an external source from the list. In this case, Genesys Cloud merges contacts based on the cookie ID. For messaging interactions, Genesys Cloud uses the messaging ID. If Genesys Cloud cannot auto-link with the messaging ID, Genesys Cloud tries to search for the contact name. If the search results in a single match, Genesys Cloud shows the profile, and the agent can link it. To configure identity resolution, see Configure identity resolution for different channels. For social channels, Genesys Cloud stitches the identity of a contact based on the user identifier shared by the respective social channel. Apple Messages for Business - AMB Opaque ID Facebook - Facebook ID Instagram - Instagram ID Line - Line ID Twitter - Twitter ID WhatsApp - Phone number or Business-Scoped User ID For open messaging interactions, Genesys Cloud uses the opaque ID provided through the open messaging integration. If the opaque ID is not available, Genesys Cloud uses the phone number or email address, if supplied. The opaque ID is stored as an external ID. If either the opaque ID, the email address, or the phone number search results in a single match, Genesys Cloud automatically links the contact. To configure identity resolution from the Identity Resolution page, see Configure identity resolution for different channels. To configure identity resolution through APIs, see the Developer Center. Genesys Cloud does not stitch identities for the following channels: Campaigns including callbacks Co-browse Knowledge – Support center Identified contacts expire 60 days after their last interaction with your organization.
Ephemeral	For interactions with no personally identifiable information (PII), if Genesys Cloud finds no likely match, it uses a cookie identifier to create an ephemeral or temporary contact. An agent can create a new contact from the temporary contact or link a temporary contact to an existing external contact. Ephemeral contacts expire 60 days after their last interaction with your organization.
Canonical	Sometimes, multiple contact records represent a single contact. For example, a contact connects with your organization by email on one occasion, and then the same person uses web messaging to contact your organization. Genesys Cloud allows an agent to merge the contact records. In this case, the previous contacts become aliases to the canonical contact. The resulting merged canonical contact is a curated contact, which does not expire.
Curated	After an agent links a contact, Genesys Cloud saves it as a curated contact. Curated contacts do not expire and are searchable.

Note: Ephemeral and identified contacts become curated contacts after an agent or API client/integration the contact.

Genesys Cloud can automatically merge duplication of curated and identified external contacts that share the same identifier, such as phone number, WhatsApp number, or email address, into a single canonical contact. Ephemeral contacts, which have no deterministic identifier, are not evaluated for auto-merge. By default, the background auto-merge is disabled; administrators must turn it on for your organization. To configure auto-merge, see Configure auto-merge in identity resolution. For more information, see auto-merge of External Contacts.

For more information and examples that show how single customer view impacts External Contacts, see Single customer view examples.

Contact identification and message channel identifiers

Genesys Cloud captures message channel identifiers for messaging interactions.

If you unlink a contact, Genesys Cloud doesn’t remove the message channel identifier.
If an existing external contact modifies part of their social channel information and starts a new message interaction, Genesys Cloud prompts the agent to update the external contact record with the new information.

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