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Contact properties

Contact properties can be used to store additional information about your Contacts and then personalize your Broadcasts with dynamic content.

Included properties

Each Contact includes the following attributes:
  • email: The email address of the Contact. (required)
  • first_name: The first name of the Contact.
  • last_name: The last name of the Contact.
  • segments: A list of Segments the Contact belongs to.
  • topics: A list of Topics the Contact subscribes to.
  • unsubscribed: Whether the Contact is unsubscribed from all Broadcasts.
  • properties: An object of custom-defined properties, where each value includes the property’s value and type.

Manage Contact properties

You can view, add, and manage your Contact properties in the Properties Dashboard view or programmatically with the Contact properties API, Resend CLI commands, and MCP. You can also create Automations to update Contact properties.

Add Custom Contact properties

You can create additional custom Contact properties for your Contacts to store additional information. These properties can be used to personalize your Broadcasts across all Segments. Each Contact Property has a key, a value, and optional fallback value.
  • key: The key of the property (must be alphanumeric and underscore only, max 50 characters). This is case sensitive.
  • value: The value of the property (may be a string or number).
  • fallback_value: The fallback value of the property (must match the type of the property).
You can also create Contact properties via the API or SDKs.

Add properties to a Contact

When you create a Contact property with a fallback value, that default is used for Contacts that do not have a custom value for the property. If no fallback is provided, the Contact will not have a value for that property. To update this value for a Contact in the Dashboard:
1

Go to the Contacts Dashboard view.

2

Click the More options button and then Edit Contact.

3

Add the property key and value.

4

Click the Save button.

Add or update property values programmatically

You can add custom property values to a Contact when you create a Contact with the API or from the terminal with a CLI command.
You can also update a Contact to add or change a property value using the update Contact endpoint or CLI command.
When you create or update a Contact with properties, the properties are added to the Contact only if the property key already exists and the value type is valid. If the properties don’t exist, or the values are of the wrong type, they are not added to the Contact and the call fails. An error is returned. You can list all Contact properties with the API to see and verify all available properties.

Use Contact properties in Broadcasts

You can use Contact properties in your Broadcasts to personalize your emails. You can also use Contact properties in your Broadcast HTML and Text content when you create a Broadcast using the API or SDKs.

API Reference

For complete API documentation, see the Contact properties API reference.