Creating Custom Contact Fields
Recall that each contact is assigned attributes, called contact fields, that hold values such as their names, phone numbers, and any other individual information you want to include. Contact fields are divided into two types, default fields and custom fields, and they can hold three types of values: text, numeric, or date & time.
Note that only date & time values can be used for custom contact fields within campaigns. See how to manually edit the field type of a custom contact field below.
You can easily create a customized contact field by navigating to the "Contacts" tab in your account and click Fields.
You'll be brought to the Manage Contact Fields page:
Note that the manage field dialog is also another way to know how to refer to a field value in a message or flow, i.e. the field value for "Address" is @contact.address.
You can create a new field by clicking the menu icon in the top-right corner.
You can also make a contact field appear at the top of your contact's contact page by making it "featured". Do this by clicking on the contact field and checking the "Featured field" box. You can also choose the field type, such as text, number, date & time, state, district, or ward.
Custom fields, while created via the Manage Fields button on the contacts tab, can be edited via the Custom Fields dialogue also located within each contact's profile page. To access the custom dialogue, navigate to a contact's profile page, Fields icon, and you can see all the custom fields you've added to your account.
The custom fields you've added to your account will be listed in the dialogue, where each contact's individual values will appear. To edit these values, simply fill in the new changes for the custom field you'd like to change, that is it. We've chosen to edit the custom field "Address" above.
You can create new custom contact fields or update existing ones in a flow using the Update the Contact action. In the flow above, we've asked new contacts for their name. Once we collect that information in the Wait for Response action, we'll update the contact:
We'll enter a value for this new field using @results.[field_name] , which we can use later in our flow to reference this field.
You can choose an already existing field to update or create a totally new field by simply typing the name of the field you'd like to make:
Note: A single contact field will store only up to 640 character.
For a more detailed guide to using this action in a flow, check out our article on how to add and update contact fields here.
Note that only date & time values can be used for custom contact fields within campaigns. See how to manually edit the field type of a custom contact field below.
Creating Custom Contact Fields Manually
You can easily create a customized contact field by navigating to the "Contacts" tab in your account and click Fields.
You'll be brought to the Manage Contact Fields page:
Note that the manage field dialog is also another way to know how to refer to a field value in a message or flow, i.e. the field value for "Address" is @contact.address.
You can create a new field by clicking the menu icon in the top-right corner.
You can also make a contact field appear at the top of your contact's contact page by making it "featured". Do this by clicking on the contact field and checking the "Featured field" box. You can also choose the field type, such as text, number, date & time, state, district, or ward.
Editing a Contact's Custom Fields
Custom fields, while created via the Manage Fields button on the contacts tab, can be edited via the Custom Fields dialogue also located within each contact's profile page. To access the custom dialogue, navigate to a contact's profile page, Fields icon, and you can see all the custom fields you've added to your account.
The custom fields you've added to your account will be listed in the dialogue, where each contact's individual values will appear. To edit these values, simply fill in the new changes for the custom field you'd like to change, that is it. We've chosen to edit the custom field "Address" above.
Creating a Custom Contact Field in a Flow
You can create new custom contact fields or update existing ones in a flow using the Update the Contact action. In the flow above, we've asked new contacts for their name. Once we collect that information in the Wait for Response action, we'll update the contact:
We'll enter a value for this new field using @results.[field_name] , which we can use later in our flow to reference this field.
You can choose an already existing field to update or create a totally new field by simply typing the name of the field you'd like to make:
Note: A single contact field will store only up to 640 character.
For a more detailed guide to using this action in a flow, check out our article on how to add and update contact fields here.
Updated on: 28/08/2023
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