How do I read email subscription status or email-scoped tags using the mobile SDK?

Pushwoosh treats an email address as a separate virtual device (device type 14). The email address itself is the Hardware ID (HWID). When you call getTags() from the mobile SDK, it queries the server using the physical device's native HWID. Because of this, email-scoped tags, like the default "Unsubscribed Emails" tag, are not visible to the mobile SDK.

You can use one of two methods to get this data.

Sync status using user-centric tags

If you want to read the subscription status on the mobile app using getTags(), you can use a user-level custom tag. These tags are shared across all channels (mobile, web, and email) mapped to the same userId.

1. Create a custom tag: Go to Audience > Tags in your Pushwoosh Control Panel. Create a new tag, such as Email_Unsubscribed (Boolean), with the User-specific option enabled.
2. Bind profiles to a single userId:

   • In your mobile app, set the user ID when the user logs in:

     Pushwoosh.sharedInstance().setUserId("YOUR_UNIQUE_USER_ID")
     

   • On your backend, associate the email with the same user ID using /registerEmailUser. Include "device_type": 14 to prevent overriding other tags:

     {
       "request": {
         "application": "YOUR_APP_CODE",
         "userId": "YOUR_UNIQUE_USER_ID",
         "email": "user@example.com",
         "device_type": 14
       }
     }
     

3. Sync both tags: When you update the subscription status via /setEmailTags, write to both the system-level "Unsubscribed Emails" tag (for delivery suppression) and your custom user-centric Email_Unsubscribed tag:

   {
     "request": {
       "application": "YOUR_APP_CODE",
       "email": "user@example.com",
       "tags": {
         "Unsubscribed Emails": true,
         "Email_Unsubscribed": true
       }
     }
   }
   

4. Read the tag on the device: When the device and the email share the same userId, calling getTags() on the mobile SDK retrieves your user-level Email_Unsubscribed value.

Query via server-to-server API

If your mobile app gets this status through your own backend, you can query the Pushwoosh API from your server. Send a request to /getTags using the email address as the hwid and specify the email device type (14):

{
  "request": {
    "application": "YOUR_APPLICATION_CODE",
    "hwid": "user-email@example.com",
    "device_type": 14
  }
}

This bypasses the mobile device session and returns all tags stored on the email profile, including "Unsubscribed Emails".