User Search and UserID types

On the admin panel, you can find any user who has ever visited a chat on your platform. Open the Chat Users section in the menu — you will see the list of all users who opened a chat at least once, with a short How to use this feature hint at the top and a search field below it.

The search field has a parameter dropdown on the right. Pick the attribute you want to look the user up by:

External ID — the identifier you send to Watchers from your side. Default option, unique per user on your side.
User ID — the internal identifier Watchers assigns to every user. Always unique, never changes. (Some older parts of the interface and the API still call it the Internal user ID.)
Name — the user's display name. Names are not unique: if several users share the same name, the search returns all of them.
Decrypted External ID — available when the ID encryption integration is configured for your project. Lets you search by the human-readable form of the External ID.
Additional External ID — available when the additional external ID setting is enabled. Lets you look the user up by their secondary identifier (e.g. a CRM ID alongside the platform ID).

Click a row to open the user page. It is organised into six tabs:

General — the user's avatar and display name, all available identifiers (External ID, User ID, plus Decrypted External ID and Additional External ID when the corresponding integrations are enabled) each with a copy button, and the last activity timestamp.
Recent messages — the user's most recent chat messages across all rooms, so you can review context before acting.
Recent reports — the last 10 reports filed against this user, with reason and outcome.
Recent bans — the last 10 bans applied to this user, including who issued each ban and when.
Recent tips — tips sent or received by the user, when the tipping feature is enabled for your project.
Nickname history — every display name this user has used, with timestamps. Useful for investigating impersonation or evasion.

The action bar at the bottom of the General tab lets you:

Block everywhere — ban the user across all rooms (turns into Unblock if the user is already banned).
Reset username — clear the user's current display name, a default one is applied instead.
Reset avatar — remove the user's custom avatar (disabled when the avatar is one of the default presets).

From the Recent messages tab you can also hide individual messages — handy when you need to remove a single problematic post without banning the user outright.

User IDs across the admin panel

The admin panel surfaces four different user identifiers. Knowing which one you are looking at tells you exactly what to copy into a support ticket, a webhook payload, or a search query.

The four identifiers

External user ID — the identifier you send to Watchers from your side (your application's user ID). Always present. This is the value most webhooks and API requests echo back.
User ID (also referred to as the Internal user ID) — the identifier Watchers generates and stores internally. Unique, never changes.
Decrypted External ID — shown only when the ID encryption integration is configured for your project. In that case the External ID you send is opaque (encrypted), and the decrypted form is what your back-office systems actually recognise.
Additional External ID — shown only when the optional additional external ID setting is enabled. Lets you attach a second identifier (e.g. a CRM ID alongside the platform ID) and look users up by either one.

📘
Decrypted External ID and Additional External ID are only rendered when the corresponding integration is enabled for your project. In any chat feed (the main feed as well as the per-room feed), External and Decrypted IDs can be toggled via the Show external ID and Show decrypted ID switches in the chat participants modal — the setting is remembered per browser.

Section-by-section

Chat Users

The most complete view. In the list, each row shows the External ID with decrypted: … and additional: … lines underneath when those integrations are enabled. Clicking a row opens the user page, which adds the User ID and gives a copy button next to each value.

Chat feed

Every message header in a chat feed can render ext:<external> and decrypted:<decrypted> as copy chips. These are visible in the main chat feed without having to open a specific room — they are controlled by the Show external ID / Show decrypted ID toggles inside Chat participants → Feed settings. The User ID chip (id<user-id>) is the only one that requires entering a particular room: it is added to the header when a room is selected. Clicking a user's nickname anywhere in the feed opens a submenu that also exposes the External ID and Decrypted External ID as one-click copy actions.

Reports & Reports Archive

The target column shows the user's display name and, when ID encryption is configured, a muted decrypted: … line beneath it. The moderator who solved the report is identified by their External ID on the solver side. To get the User ID or Additional External ID for the reported user, open the user via Chat Users.

Banned, Banned History, Shadow Ban

The banned user is shown by User ID (id…). The moderator who issued the ban is shown by External ID (ext: …). To look up the External ID of the banned user, click through to Chat Users; the unban modal also surfaces the External ID.

Technical Support Requests

The section collects chat messages in which users mention technical issues. Both the message author and the moderator who resolved the request are shown by External ID (ext: …). Decrypted and additional IDs are not shown here — use Chat Users to resolve them.

Avatars Moderation

Each row shows the user's External ID; a muted decrypted: … line appears next to the user's avatar when ID encryption is configured.

Badges

The badge assignment views list users by External ID. Internal and additional IDs are not surfaced here.

Practical tips

If a section shows one identifier but you need a different one, copy the visible value, open Chat Users, paste it into the search field, and pick the matching parameter from the dropdown. The user page exposes all four.
Display names are not unique — searching by Name can return several users. When you need a precise lookup, prefer any ID-based parameter. But some IDs can match either, especially if you have both short number IDs and long number IDs.
The Decrypted External ID and Additional External ID options only appear when the corresponding integration is enabled for your project. If you expect to see them they are not available, contact your Watchers manager.