# Identify visitors

## Visits and visitors

The tag gives each browser an anonymous device id and each visit a session id, stored in first-party cookies.
A visit ends after 30 minutes without activity.

A visitor is one browser or device.
The same person on two devices counts as two visitors, and Safari limits the cookie to seven days, so a Safari visitor who returns after a week counts again.

## Identify a signed-in user

When someone signs in, tell the tag who they are:

```js
window.pageTracker.identify({ user: 'user-42', org: 'acme' });
```

Before the tag has loaded, queue it instead:

```js
window.pageTrackerQueue = window.pageTrackerQueue || [];
window.pageTrackerQueue.push(['identify', { user: 'user-42', org: 'acme' }]);
```

- `user` and `org` can each be up to 254 letters, digits and `_ . @ + -`.
An email address is allowed.
- Call `window.pageTracker.identify({})` when they sign out.
- The ids are never written to a cookie.

## Other ways a user is recognised

- When a visitor signs in through a login form, the email address or username they typed is recorded as the user.
- When your site tells another analytics tool who the user is, and Kontala reads that tool, the user is recorded as well.

## Where to see it

The Visits explore shows each visit's sign-in state: Signed in, Signed out, Signs in later or Anonymous.
The Audience dashboard's Identified and Organisations tabs show identified visitors and their company domains.