Recognize the same customer across channels

A customer may write through WhatsApp, Telegram, Instagram and your website. Each channel can initially have its own customer profile and conversation history. Identity linking connects profiles that belong to one person.

How it works

This is different from a customer group. Family members or colleagues may share a number or store account while remaining different people. A group keeps their profiles separate; its sharing rules decide what information may pass between them.

A matching name, a number typed in chat, or an order is not by itself proof that two profiles are one person. Linking affects access to customer information, not just how the customer list looks.

What the different kinds of evidence mean

What omotto has	What it means
A phone number or email the person typed in chat	A claim. It does not prove they can receive messages there.
A message from a phone number confirmed by the messaging channel	Evidence that the sender currently uses that number. It does not prove that every older profile using it belongs to them.
A successfully entered verification code	Evidence that the person can receive a code at that phone number or email. See User identification and verification.
A match from store orders	Recognition, not confirmation. It can help your team compare profiles, but does not by itself join them or grant access to another person’s store account.
A website checkout associated with a chat	A connection between that chat and the purchase. Automatic identity linking also needs independent confirmation of the matching phone number or email. A payment alone is not enough.

Order contact details and customer-account details are not always the same. Shopify, for example, lets merchants change contact details on an order without changing the customer profile. A shipping phone may belong to a gift recipient. A payment link may have been forwarded to someone else.

Automatic links make the joined customer histories available together immediately. Conversations, customer memories and relevant ticket history can become shared context. Do not treat the link as a cosmetic duplicate label. See tickets and the customer profile for the information shown across linked profiles.

The matching page is titled Customer settings. Without customer groups in your plan, matching settings still appear without the Same customer and Related customers tabs. Identity matches offers Open matches and AI reviews views.

In the customer profile, Who this is shows identity context. How we know shows evidence. All details shows contact details, codes, confirmations and link history. There is no separate Identity tab.

Linking profiles does not move or erase their store-credit adjustment history. Undoing an adopted store-account association removes that association’s access; it does not reverse credit already moved. See store-credit moves.

Signing in to a store is not identity linking

When store sign-in is enabled for website chat, a successful sign-in saves the store-account association on that customer profile. It does not verify a phone number or email. If two people use the same store account, their profiles, conversations and memories stay separate; signing in does not join them or create a customer group.

The saved association survives signing out, turning off store sign-in and reconnecting the same store. It is not lasting permission to act on the account: actions still need current verification. Switching accounts starts a separate website conversation instead of bringing the previous account’s history into it.

Switching to a different store or moving confirmed contact details to another profile clears the saved association. A store privacy request removes the association and information belonging to that account, not a different account independently verified on the same profile. Forgetting a customer profile also removes its saved association and the locally cached store value for it.

Where to find it

Bot → Handbook → Our policies → Linking people opens the matching controls. The existing Customers → Settings → Same customer page remains available. Use Customers → Identity matches for decisions and Customers → open the customer profile → Who this is for evidence and link history.

In the Handbook, AI identity review and phone-confirmation validity appear under Show advanced options. Clearing the phone-validity field restores the 120-day default; 0 means unlimited, not off. The existing Customers settings page keeps its own advanced-display behavior.

Set it up

Open the matching settings listed above.
Review Customer matching, including Confirmed matches and Suspected matches.
Set Join profiles automatically to suit how you want eligible new matches handled.
Choose Who reviews a suspected match?
Review Review identity links with AI and any availability message.
Choose Show advanced options if you need to change phone validity.
Check the save status in the top bar. Changes save automatically.

For group-sharing rules, see related customers and sharing.

Settings

Setting	What it does	Default
Join profiles automatically	Allows eligible matches to join now. Off keeps these matches separate for review instead of automatically pooling their histories. It does not undo existing links or prevent a later human confirmation from joining profiles.	On.
Who reviews a suspected match?	Our team leaves the decision to staff. Ask the existing customer attempts to ask the previous profile’s customer through another eligible contact route, never through the disputed number or email. The consequences of their answer are explained below.	Our team.
Review identity links with AI	Allows an AI review when available. It can propose or create a group of different people; it is not another automatic same-person proof.	Preference on; actual review also requires availability and a plan that includes customer groups.
Phone confirmation validity (days)	How long phone-possession evidence counts without newer confirmation. This is not a limit on receiving or sending messages.	120 days. Whole numbers from 0 to 3650; 0 means unlimited, not disabled. Clearing the field removes your custom value and restores the 120-day default.

The suspected-match choice is independent of automatic joining. Choosing Our team does not turn automatic joining off. Choosing Ask the existing customer does not turn it on. Neither choice switches off the undo notice for eligible automatic joins.

A customized phone-validity value can remain visible after you hide advanced options. The AI-review switch is visible in the matching section even when advanced options are collapsed.

What phone confirmation validity changes

New evidence can refresh phone confirmation: a genuine incoming message from the number, a successful code confirmation, or a human identity-match decision about that number.

After the chosen period without confirmation, the older profile’s number no longer proves on its own that a new arrival is the same customer. Normally, a current sender can take over the number’s confirmed association. If their profile already holds another confirmed number, the message is too old, or it is a repeat delivery of an earlier message, the number stays where it is and the match goes to review.

The setting does not expire email matching or stop message delivery. For an automatic phone-based checkout link, both the checkout and the current possession confirmation must be within this period. An old checkout with current phone confirmation can still open an identity review, but does not automatically join the profiles. Setting 0 removes this phone-age limit.

What happens when…

Profiles can join automatically

With Join profiles automatically on, eligible matches include:

Verification code: someone confirms a phone number or email already held by another profile. Eligible retained profiles can be linked immediately, with a review record.
A current message and imported history: someone writes from a number held by an older profile containing only imported history. The history can join if that older profile has no additional customer information or activity that requires staff review. Imported profiles with real customer data stay for review rather than using this shortcut.
History imported after a live profile exists: imported history matching an older phone confirmation can attach to the live profile. This exception can join profiles without anyone entering a fresh code or verifying the import live. The shared history can also expose information from the live profile through the joined context.
Checkout and verified contact: a website purchase associated with its website conversation carries the same phone or email that a customer independently confirms. The profiles can join without the visitor returning to the website. For phone matches, the checkout and confirmation must both meet the validity period above.

Existing Different people decisions block automatic relinking. Shared details, old details and similar names are not a general permission to join profiles. The imported-history exception is important: not every automatic join has fresh code proof, even though the settings screen has a Code verified badge under Confirmed matches.

A suspected match is sent to the existing customer

With Ask the existing customer selected, a suspected match can be sent to the previous profile’s customer before the profiles are joined. It uses another eligible contact route, never the disputed number or email.

If the customer confirms that it is the same person, the decision can join the profiles even when Join profiles automatically is off.
If the customer rejects the match, omotto records a Different people decision that future automatic matches must respect.
If there is no answer or no eligible route, the ask-first match does not itself join the profiles. It remains for review.

This is different from an undo notice sent after an automatic join: in that case, the link is already active.

An automatic join sends an undo notice

For an eligible automatic join, omotto attempts an undo notice to the existing profile’s customer, not to the person who just supplied the evidence. It uses an independent eligible route: never the number or email whose ownership is being disputed.

The notice described under The undo notice stays on cannot be disabled. The customer can confirm or decline through the offered buttons or confirmation page. A decline separates the profiles and records that they are different people.

An attempt is not a delivery guarantee. With no independent route, the previous customer may be unreachable. In particular, an anonymous website profile may have no way to receive the checkout-link notice. The automatic link can remain active without a reply or a second confirmation. Some notices can wait for an existing channel to become available again.

The two imported-history directions differ:

An import joins an existing live profile: this automatic join does not send a customer identity notice. Review it yourself rather than assuming a customer was asked.
A current live message joins an older import-only profile: this follows the automatic-join undo-notice path, regardless of the suspected-match review choice. An eligible route is still needed; delivery is not guaranteed.

Public confirmation-page links expire 14 days after they are issued. They can become invalid sooner if the match has already been handled or a newer notice has replaced the old link. This 14-day limit is for public links, not a general expiry rule for every chat button. Expiry does not itself separate profiles. See troubleshooting below if a link no longer works.

You review a match yourself

Select Open matches in the match-decision screen listed above.
Open a row to see Is this the same person?
Read why the match appeared: a live message, code, imported history or checkout.
Compare the two profiles’ channel information, activity dates, message counts, order counts and message excerpts, where available.
Use Open conversation to inspect the original conversation when offered.
Select an answer.
Choose the corresponding confirmation button.

Linked for now. means the profiles are already being treated as one customer. The dialog shows when and why. An open review does not necessarily mean access is still waiting for approval.

Answer	Consequence
Same person	Treats the profiles as one customer for shared histories and customer context. Choose this only when they really are the same person.
Different people	Stops the same-person connection and records a separation that future automatic matches must respect. Each keeps their own history.
Different people, one phone	Keeps two customers and groups them together, rather than treating them as one person. Sharing follows your group-sharing settings, which may allow sharing through the group link or require each member’s approval. Available only with customer groups in the plan.

For an email or account match, the third answer says Different people, one email or Different people, one account instead.

Decide later closes the dialog without deciding. It does not undo a link that is already active. If you know that two people were wrongly joined, choose Different people rather than leaving the match open.

Stopping future sharing cannot take back information already shown or sent.

Your business system matches several profiles to one account

A user source can report that several profiles match the same account. In the customer profile, inspect Accounts in your systems, the source, match status and Other profiles matched to this account. Sharing an account does not necessarily mean sharing an identity: it may be a family account or a contact detail used for someone else.

With identity-decision permission, choose Yes, same person, review the listed profiles in the dialog, and confirm only when they are one person. This links the profiles and their existing linked histories. It does not verify any phone or email. If the account match changed, or profiles were linked or separated during review, the old confirmation is refused; reload and review again. A source match alone never creates this staff-confirmed link.

An AI identity review is available

The saved Review identity links with AI preference does not guarantee that reviews run. If the page says the feature is unavailable or customer groups are not in your plan, your preference stays saved but does not activate it.

When reviews are available:

A high-confidence shared-group result can remove an unconfirmed automatic same-person link and create a customer group under your current sharing rules.
A medium-confidence shared-group result waits for staff confirmation. It can also remove an unconfirmed automatic link while awaiting review.
A high-confidence different-people result can stop an unconfirmed automatic link but leaves the final separation decision to a person.
A same-person suggestion, low-confidence result, uncertain result or unavailable review does not itself create a new same-person link. The ordinary matching rules still apply.

To inspect a recorded review:

Select AI reviews in the match-decision screen listed above.
Open a review.
Read Supports and Points the other way.
Choose Show all reasons for the remaining reasons.
Check the review date and any missing-source warning.

An Earlier AI review is historical evidence, not a new decision. Detailed evidence may no longer be retained.

Where offered, Confirm group approves a proposed group. Undo reverses an AI-created group’s future sharing; it cannot retract information already shared. The available actions depend on the current result and your permissions. Review the group itself before assuming its sharing is suitable.

You check or separate profiles

In the customer evidence area listed above, Matched · not confirmed means a store match has not been confirmed as one person. Seeing a matched profile or store detail is not the same as approving a link.

Yes, same person confirms the displayed match for the linked customer context too. Read every warning before confirming. The other actions have different meanings:

Action	When to use it
Not the same person	Dismiss this store recognition. It hides the matched profiles, timeline entries and store details supplied by that match. It does not create a permanent separation between the people.
Separate these profiles	Remove this profile’s current same-person links. Original profiles and their conversations, tickets and order history remain saved. Other profiles may stay linked to each other. The old checkout match will not simply replay this link, but this is not a lasting different-people decision.
Different people in an open identity review	Record that these people must remain separate, including for future automatic linking.
Allow these to be matched again beside a different-people decision	Remove that separation decision. This action does not itself reconnect the profiles.

To remove a profile’s current links:

Choose Separate these profiles.
Read the warning.
Choose Confirm unlink.

To reverse a lasting separation:

Expand All details.
Find the relevant Marked as different people entry.
Choose Allow these to be matched again.
Choose Confirm removal.

Only authorized staff see the reversal action.

Troubleshooting

Two people share a phone: do not confirm Same person just because the number matches. If they are related customers, consider Different people, one phone, then check group sharing. If no sharing is appropriate, choose Different people.
An order contains someone else’s details: inspect whether the evidence comes from the store account, order contact, shipping address or payment link. Do not confirm the buyer and gift recipient as one person from that evidence alone.
A customer sees “This link is no longer valid”: the public confirmation link may be older than 14 days, the match may already have been handled, or a newer notice may have replaced it. Review the current decision in Identity matches and correct it if needed. Do not assume an expired link has separated the profiles.
A match changed while you were reviewing it: reload and inspect the latest profiles and warnings before deciding again.
The page, evidence or button is missing: ask the workspace owner to check your identity-view, identity-decision, reversal and settings permissions. These are separate permissions; AI group actions also require group-edit access.
You cannot establish who owns the older profile: do not guess. Leave an unlinked match for review. If it is already joined and you know the people differ, separate it. Contact omotto support if you cannot safely correct the link with the available actions.