Device Properties

Device properties are metadata representing the default attributes and property tags of a device, such as language and time zone settings, OS and browser versions, and notification opt-in status. Device properties are used for audience segmentation. The data used for the tags and attributes is collected automatically from the Airship SDKs, and are updated daily. See also: AttributesMetadata used for audience segmentation and personalization. They extend the concept of Tags by adding comparison operators and values to determine whether or not to target a user, helping you better evaluate your audience., TagsMetadata that you can associate with channels or Named Users for audience segmentation. Generally, they are descriptive terms indicating user preferences or other categorizations, e.g., wine_enthusiast or weather_alerts_los_angeles. Tags are case-sensitive..

Default Attributes

Airship default attributes are built-in metadata that represent device attributes that are collected by the SDK and used to segment your audience, target specific devices, and personalize messages.

Device Property Tags

Airship device property tags are built-in metadata tags that represent the properties of a device, are collected by the SDK and used to segment your audience and target specific devices.

¹ Note that when pushing to these tags via the API, you use a string that represents a boolean value, not an actual boolean. In other words, the valid tags are "true" and "false" rather than true and false. For example:

{ "group": "ua_background_enabled", "tag": "true" }

² The Location Enabled tag group only contains devices with SDK 6.0+.

³Because we cannot check whether a string describing your app version is correct, the iOS App Version and Android App Version tag groups will accept any sanitized string as valid. However, a push will only reach your users if you use a valid version string for your app. For example, while the API will not flag a push to the following as invalid, presumably none of your iOS users are using the "pizzzzzza" version of your app, so no one will receive the message:

{ "tag":  "pizzzzzza", "group": "ua_ios_app_version" }

⁴ See Locale below.

UI Name

How the tag group is displayed within the Airship dashboard.

Tag Group ID

The ID used to refer to the tag group in the API.

Valid Tags

The tags contained within the tag group.

Sentinel Value

A special tag that is equivalent to “unknown”.

 Note

Example: If our system is unable to determine a device’s language settings, the device will receive an "Unknown" tag in the "ua_locale_language" tag group. You could target such devices like so:

{ "group": "ua_locale_language", "tag": "Unknown" }

This push goes to all devices with unknown language settings.

 Note

There are no sentinel values for Background Enabled, Location Enabled, or Notification Opt-in; every device will be tagged with either "true" or "false" for each of these groups.

Sentinel values will be presented as Unknown, both in the UI and API, with the exception of Timezone. Due to legacy reasons, the sentinel value for Timezone will display as Unknown in the UI but must be referred to as "NO_TIME_ZONE" via the API, e.g.:

{ "group": "timezone", "tag": "NO_TIME_ZONE" }

Collected Properties

Apps and web browsers

• Language
• Language country
• Time zone

Apps only

• Device model
• Device OS
• Application version
• Location
• SDK Version
• Push Notification opt-in
• Background enabled

Web browsers only

• Browser name
• Browser version
• Browser type

Time Zone

A time zone (timezone) tag is identical to its UI name.

{ "group": "timezone", "tag": "Africa/Addis_Ababa" }

SDK Version

SDK version tags are in the format #.#.X, e.g., 14.0.X. We do not allow targeting of specific patches, such as 14.0.1.

When setting a tag, searching for the SDK version group will resolve any queries of specific patches to the nearest possible version. For example, searching for 14.0.1 will return 14.0.X as a result. When using the API, you must use the #.#.X format or the push will not reach your audience. Example:

{ "tag": "14.0.X", "group": "ua_ios_version" }

Platform Version

Platform version tags are in format #.#.X, e.g., 14.2.X. We do not allow targeting of specific patches, such as 14.2.6.

Device Model

A device model tag’s UI name appears in the dashboard when using Target Specific Users or Target Specific Users: In-App Experiences.

Example:

Locale

A device’s locale is determined by its language and country settings. Target a specific locale via tag groups ua_locale_language and ua_locale_country.

Device Settings

On iOS, the locale is a combination of the iPhone Language and Region settings. Using ISO standards, an iPhone with language English and region United States has a locale of en_US.

With Android devices, you choose the language/country combination together, e.g., English (United States).

Example

The ua_locale_language tag group is used to specify the language-half of the locale. To target the two example devices in Device Settings above, use the tag en:

{ "group": "ua_locale_language", "tag": "en" }