Feature Request: Mechanism to Avoid Duplicate User Identification in PostHog

[Davidmycodeguy]

Summary:

In applications, particularly those using backend authentication like with Supabase, there’s a lack of a clear event on the front-end to trigger user identification for analytics. This scenario can lead to challenges in properly identifying users without causing duplicate identification events in PostHog. Currently, PostHog does not offer a built-in method to check if a user has already been identified, which can lead to redundant data collection and inaccuracies in user tracking.

Problem Statement:

Our application utilizes Supabase for authentication, where the authentication process is managed through backend routes, and no distinct front-end event is triggered for user logins. This setup necessitates a workaround for identifying users on the front-end, which we’ve attempted with local storage and React’s useState effect. However, this approach has proven to be less than ideal, sometimes causing the ‘identify’ event to trigger multiple times for a single user session. This issue could potentially lead to skewed analytics and user data.

Current Workaround:

We have attempted to mitigate this issue by using a combination of local storage and a ‘useState’ effect in our front-end code to check for user identification. This solution, however, is not foolproof and has led to instances of duplicate identifications.

Proposed Solution:

I propose that PostHog introduces a feature or mechanism that allows developers to check if a user has already been identified in the current session or through a persistent session marker. Such functionality could resemble a method similar to posthog.__loaded but specifically for checking user identification status, e.g., posthog.__identified.

This feature would greatly enhance the developer’s ability to manage user identification efficiently, especially in applications where authentication is handled outside of traditional front-end events.

Impact:

Implementing this feature would significantly improve data accuracy for developers leveraging PostHog for user analytics, especially in complex authentication setups. It would reduce redundancy in data collection and ensure a more accurate representation of user sessions and interactions with the application.