Contact fields reference
Atender’s contact record has a fixed set of built-in fields plus an open extension via custom fields. This article documents every built-in field, what it’s for, and where it appears.
Identity fields
These are stored directly on the contact record.
- Name — text — Manual or auto-extracted — Display name; used as the primary label everywhere a contact is shown
- First name — text — Manual or parsed from name — Used by some integrations and templates
- Last name — text — Manual or parsed from name — Used by some integrations and templates
- Initials — text — Auto-derived from name — Two characters used in the avatar when no profile image
- Domain — text — Auto-derived from primary email — Drives auto-linking to organizations
- Type — enum — Set on creation —
individualororganization - Customer tier — reference — Manual / automation / API — Optional. See customer tiers
- Linked organization — reference — Auto by domain or manual — Optional. Only meaningful for individuals
- Custom fields — JSON — Manual / automation / API — See custom fields
Atender does not store a separate profile image field on the contact. Avatars use the initials by default.
Channel addresses (separate sub-records)
Emails, phones, and other channel identifiers are stored in a separate addresses table — not as fields on the contact itself. This means a contact can have many emails, many phones, etc. — and each address has its own metadata.
Each address has:
- Type — One of:
email,phone,whatsapp,messenger,instagram,chat_visitor,amazon - Value — The address itself (the email string, phone number, channel ID)
- Is primary — One address per type can be marked primary
- Created at — Used to break ties when picking primary on merge
A contact can have multiple emails (work, personal, alias), multiple phones (mobile, office), and channel identifiers across web chat, WhatsApp, Messenger, Instagram, and Amazon. Each is a separate row.
Address types in detail
email— An email address — Email channel; outbound replies; org domain extractionphone— A phone number, with country code — Voice channel; outbound calls; SMSwhatsapp— A WhatsApp-formatted phone — WhatsApp channel routingmessenger— A Facebook Messenger PSID — Messenger channel routinginstagram— An Instagram user identifier — Instagram channel routingchat_visitor— A web-chat visitor ID — Web chat conversationsamazon— An Amazon customer / message identifier — Amazon channel
Most tenants only use email and phone. The other types appear automatically when a customer first messages on that channel.
Primary address selection
Each address type can have one primary address. The primary is what Atender uses by default when:
- Sending an outbound email — the primary email
- Placing an outbound call — the primary phone
- Displaying contact info in the inbox — the primary of each type
When merging contacts, Atender picks the primary by oldest createdAt per type. After a merge, you can change which address is primary in the contact detail.
Custom fields
Beyond the built-in fields, custom fields let you extend the contact schema. Field types supported:
text— Single-line texttextarea— Multi-line textnumber— Numeric value (integer or decimal)date— Date pickerselect— Single value from a predefined listmultiselect— Multiple values from a predefined listcheckbox— Boolean (true / false)
Custom fields are organized into sections in the contact detail. Configure them in Settings → Custom Fields. Custom fields exist on both contacts and organizations.
Capacity
- Maximum addresses per contact — 500 (combined across all types)
- Maximum tiers per tenant — 6
- Maximum custom fields — No hard limit — practical limit set by your custom-field configuration
The 500-address limit is generous — most contacts have one or two emails and a phone. Hitting it usually indicates a data import gone wrong.
What’s NOT on the contact record
Some things you might expect aren’t stored on the contact:
- Conversation history — The conversations table; surfaced in the contact’s Conversations tab
- Notes — Not implemented as a contact-level feature today; use conversation comments or custom fields for structured notes
- Profile image — Initials are used as the default avatar