How to identify logged-in users in the website chat
If your site has login, pass the user's name, email, and ID to the chat and protect their identity with a signature.
2 min readBasicUpdated on November 12, 2026
Where to find it in Cognizy
Video lesson coming soon. For now, follow the steps below.
On sites with a logged-in area, the chat can already know who's talking: the conversation enters Cognizy with the user's name and email, and it's linked to their account. To prevent anyone from impersonating another user, your server signs the ID with a secret generated in Cognizy. This tutorial is meant to be done together with whoever develops your website or system.
Where to find it in Cognizy
Before you start
- The chat must already be installed on the site (see How to install the chat on your site).
- You need a developer with access to your system's server.
- Only the owner and admins can generate the secret.
- It takes 30 minutes to 1 hour of developer work.
Step by step
- Step 1:
At the bottom of the menu, click Settings.
- Step 2:
Under Channels, click Website Chat.
- Step 3:
Click the Installation tab and scroll to Advanced Integration.
- Step 4:
Click Authenticated Users to see the code that passes the user's name, email, and ID to the chat. Copy it and send it to the developer.
- Step 5:
If your product serves multiple companies, use Multi-client SaaS (B2B2C): the code also provides the user's company, and Cognizy groups conversations by end client.
- Step 6:
Under Identity Verification, click Generate Secret and deliver the secret to the developer through a secure channel. It's shown only once. The How to Sign on Your Server block provides ready-to-use code.
- Step 7:
In your system, the developer stores the secret on the server, generates the signature for each user's ID, and passes the data when starting the chat.
- Step 8:
Once the signature is live on the site, come back here and turn on Require Signature. From then on, the chat rejects any ID without a valid signature.
How to know it worked
Log in to your site with a test user and send a message through the chat: the conversation arrives in Serve › Conversations with their name and email, linked to the customer's account.
If something goes wrong
The conversation arrives as an anonymous visitor.
The page code isn't passing the user data, or the chat starts before login. Ask the developer to start the chat after the user is identified.
I turned on Require Signature and the chat stopped identifying users.
The signature isn't arriving, or it was generated with a different secret. Turn off the toggle, check with the developer that the signature is created on the server with the current secret, and turn it on again.
I lost the secret.
Generate a new one. The old secret becomes invalid: the developer needs to update it on the server before you turn the requirement on again.
The secret appeared in the page code.
It should only ever be kept on the server. Generate a new secret and redo the signature on the server side.
Next step
Pass data from your system for the AI to use during service, in the Enterprise Pro tab.
Sign in with your Cognizy account to save your progress.
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