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The User object lets you query information about the contact interacting with your flow, such as their name, phone number, and channel metadata.

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Available data

The available data depends on the channel, but a typical example is:

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Using user variables

You can access any user property with the syntax {{$user.property}}:
  • {{$user.id}} shows the user’s unique identifier for the channel.
  • {{$user.names}} shows the user’s name.
  • {{$user.phone}} shows the contact’s phone number. This is the field to use whenever you need the phone.
In channels like WhatsApp, the phone number comes without symbols or spaces. For example, +1-555-111-2222 is represented as 15551112222.

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The phone number lives in phone, not in id

WhatsApp no longer guarantees the phone number as a stable identifier and is moving to its own identifier, the BSUID. That means {{$user.id}} can carry a BSUID instead of a number, so don’t use it as a phone number.
  • For the phone number, use {{$user.phone}}. It returns the contact’s real number, even when the conversation arrives identified by BSUID.
  • {{$user.phoneNumber}} is an alias of {{$user.phone}} and returns the same value. It stays available for flows that already use it, but we recommend migrating to phone.
  • Both can come back empty when no phone number can be resolved for that contact. Handle that case in your flows before using the value.
  • {{$user.id}} is still the contact’s identifier on the channel, and it is what you should use to reference them. It simply stopped always being a phone number.

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User in code nodes

Inside code nodes, you have the User object available through $user:
The User object is read-only. If you want to persist new contact information, save that data in Memory or Context.