> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.fapost.in/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Contacts

> The people an assistant talks to, and where their details come from.

Everyone who has written to this assistant. Contacts are not created by hand in
the usual case — they appear the moment someone first sends a message.

## The list

| Column              |                                                    |
| ------------------- | -------------------------------------------------- |
| **ID**              | The contact's identifier inside FaPost             |
| **Channel**         | Which channel they arrived on                      |
| **Channel user ID** | Who they are *on that platform*                    |
| **Name**            | What the assistant knows to call them, if anything |
| **Language**        | Which language they are answered in                |
| **Created**         | When they first wrote                              |

Filters narrow the list, with **Apply filters** and **Reset**.

## Where the details come from

A contact starts as almost nothing: a platform identifier and a channel. That is
all a first message carries.

Everything else is learned. A name appears once a flow asks for one and stores
it. A language is set when the platform reports one or a flow establishes it.
Attributes accumulate as conversations collect them.

<Note>
  A list full of numbers and blank names is not a fault. It means those people
  have written but no flow has yet asked them anything that would fill the
  columns in. If names matter to you, that is a flow to write rather than a
  setting to change.
</Note>

## One person, several contacts

A contact belongs to a channel. The same human writing on two platforms produces
two contacts, and FaPost does not merge them — it has no reliable way to know
they are the same person, and guessing wrong would join two strangers' histories.

## Language

The contact's language decides which translation they receive, both in flow
content and in [broadcasts](/using/broadcasts). When it is unknown, the
assistant's default is used, and failing that the tenant's fallback — see
[Settings](/using/tenant-settings).

## Grouping and selecting

Two different tools, easy to confuse:

* **[Groups](/using/contact-groups)** — a list you maintain by hand
* **[Segments](/using/segments)** — a condition, evaluated against everyone

Reach for a group when membership is a decision, and a segment when it is a
property.