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Overview

By default, Dittofeed sends emails to the user’s email property and SMS messages to their phone property. You can configure templates to send to a different user property instead. This is useful for two scenarios:
  1. Alternative contact methods: A user has multiple emails (personal, work) and you want to choose which one to use
  2. Third-party notifications: Send messages to someone other than the user (e.g., their manager)

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Configuration

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1. Create a User Property for the Recipient

Create a user property to store the recipient’s contact information (e.g., managerEmail or workPhone).

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2. Submit the Recipient’s Contact Information

Include the recipient property in your identify events: 
{
  "type": "identify",
  "userId": "user-123",
  "traits": {
    "email": "[email protected]",
    "managerEmail": "[email protected]"
  }
}

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3. Configure the Template

  1. Open your email or SMS template in the dashboard
  2. Click the “Options” button
  3. Select the desired user property from the “Recipient User Property” dropdown
  4. Save the template

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Use Case 1: Alternative Contact Methods

Users may have multiple contact methods. For example:
  • email (personal) and workEmail (work)
  • phone (personal) and workPhone (work)
You can create templates that send to the alternative property. Unsubscribe links work normally - the user controls their own subscription.

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Use Case 2: Third-Party Notifications

You can send messages to someone other than the user who triggered the journey:
  • Manager Notifications: Notify a user’s manager when they complete onboarding
  • Support Agent Alerts: Alert an agent when a user submits a ticket
  • Parent/Guardian Updates: Send updates to a parent about their child’s activity
Important: Unsubscribe links in third-party templatesUnsubscribe links are tied to the original user’s subscription. If a third party (e.g., manager) clicks an unsubscribe link, the original user would be unsubscribed - not the third party.For third-party notifications, consider omitting the unsubscribe link or clearly explaining its behavior in the message.

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Subscription Groups

Subscription group membership is always based on the original user, not the recipient. The message is only sent if the original user is subscribed to the relevant subscription group.

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Delivery Tracking

Delivery events (sent, delivered, bounced, opened, clicked) are tracked against the original user, regardless of who received the message.

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Validation

When saving a template with a custom recipient property, Dittofeed validates that the specified user property exists in your workspace. If the property doesn’t exist, you’ll receive an error prompting you to create it first.