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Finding Channel IDs

A Channel ID is an Airship-specific unique identifier for a channel instance, e.g., a smartphone, web browser, email address.

Follow these methods to find the Channel IDAn Airship-specific unique identifier used to address a channel instance, e.g., a smartphone, web browser, email address. in a mobile app or web browser.

Find a mobile app Channel ID

You can find a device’s Channel ID by logging it to the console or using the Channel Capture tool. For console logging, you must first build into your app a mechanism to expose the device’s Channel ID to the console. See these sections in our Mobile platform Audience Management documentation:

You can view the console with these tools:

If you didn’t write the device identifier to the console, you can use the steps here to help retrieve it: Using Charles Proxy to profile an Airship Implementation .

 Tip

Even if you’re comfortable with using Charles Proxy, you may want to speak with your developer before you attempt to retrieve your Channel ID yourself. Your app may have been designed with a hidden feature that allows you to quickly retrieve your ID, saving you the difficulty of working with Charles Proxy.

Find a web browser Channel ID

Your web Channel ID is only available if you have already integrated the Airship SDK with your website. To access your web Channel ID, you will need to open the Developer console in your browser and paste in a small amount of code. Instructions for Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox are provided.

  1. Open the console via keyboard shortcut or the menu.

    Google Chrome

    • Keyboard Shortcuts: In macOS you can go directly to the console with Cmd+Opt+J. In Windows, the shortcut is Ctrl+Shift+J.
    • Menu: Click and go to More Tools » Developer Tools, then select the Console tab.

    Mozilla Firefox

    • Keyboard Shortcuts: In macOS you can go directly to the console with Cmd+Opt+K. In Windows, the shortcut is Ctrl+Shift+K.
    • Menu: Click the “hamburger” icon and go to More Tools » Web Developer Tools, then select the Console tab.
  2. Finding Channel IDs
    The Channel ID in a successful console response

    Paste UA.then(sdk => {console.log(sdk.channel.id)}) in the console, then hit Enter. If a browser has registered, the resulting line is the Channel ID.

Common errors:

  • Finding Channel IDs
    Response: null

    The SDK will return null if the browser is unregistered. Only registered browsers will have a Channel ID. See our documentation on how to register the current browser with Airship.

  • Finding Channel IDs
    Response: UA is not defined

    A UA is not defined response can indicate that the SDK snippet is not present within the page. Navigate to a page on your site that does have the SDK snippet and repeat step 2 above.

     Note

    Ideally, the SDK snippet will be present in every page on your site, as per the Add JavaScript Snippet section of our Web Getting Started guide. If, for testing or other reasons, you have added the snippet to just one page of your site, you will need to be on that specific page for retrieving your Web Channel ID to be successful.