App sign-ups in the CRM: the trigger, app accounts and import
Everything the CRM does with the people who sign up in your app: the Signed up in app automation trigger, step-by-step onboarding recipes, their app accounts on the contact page, the Automation Log, and the import of everyone who already has an account.
This is the CRM half of App Users. The bridge itself is connected in Genesis: see App Users: your app's sign-ups in the CRM. Once it is, everything below works in your project's CRM at crm.estage.com, with nothing to set up there.
In this guide
- Where your app's users show up
- The Signed up in app trigger
- Build an onboarding automation, step by step
- More recipes
- App accounts on the contact page
- The Automation Log
- Importing your app's users from the CRM
- Finding and segmenting app users
- Questions people ask
Where your app's users show up
| Where | What you see |
|---|---|
| Contacts | Every person from your app, with the tags the bridge gives them (App users by default) |
| A contact's page | App accounts: the sign-in, when they signed up and how, when they last signed in |
| A contact's Automation Log | Signed up in app, App account linked, App account deleted |
| Automations | The Signed up in app trigger |
| Settings → Import | Your app's users: each connected sign-in and an import of its accounts |
The Signed up in app trigger
Signed up in app starts an automation when someone creates an account in your app.
How it differs from Contact created:
| Contact created | Signed up in app | |
|---|---|---|
| Someone new signs up in your app | Fires | Fires |
| A lead from your site's form, already a contact, makes an account later | Doesn't fire (the contact already existed) | Fires |
| Someone fills in a form on your site | Fires | Doesn't fire |
| Existing accounts brought in by an import | Doesn't fire (unless the import is set to run automations) | Doesn't fire (unless the import is set to run automations) |
So it is the trigger for anything that should happen because someone made an account: onboarding, a welcome, a trial sequence.
Which sign-ins count. Under the trigger, pick sign-ins from the list, or leave it empty. Empty reads Any of your app's sign-ins, which is what you want with one app. With two apps (say a web app on Firebase and a mobile app on Supabase), pick one to give each its own welcome.
Tokens and old accounts. When the app hands over sign-in tokens (Firebase, OpenID, some Supabase setups), only an account less than 48 hours old counts as a sign-up. The first token of an older account links the person without firing the trigger, so connecting the bridge doesn't "welcome" all your long-standing users the next time they open the app.
If no sign-in is connected yet, the trigger's panel says so: "No sign-in is connected to this CRM yet — connect your app's sign-in in Genesis → Settings → App Users."
Build an onboarding automation, step by step
- Open Automations in the CRM and create a new automation. Name it, for example App onboarding.
- Click the trigger node and choose Signed up in app. Leave the sign-ins empty (any of your app's sign-ins) unless you have several apps.
- Add Send email. Pick the sender and the message: a welcome, and the one thing a new user should do first.
- Add a delay of 2 days.
- Add a condition, for example Opened broadcast or Has tag (if your app tags people who've started, or you tag them with a form).
- On the no branch, add Send email with a nudge: "Need a hand getting started?"
- On the yes branch, add Add tag, for example Onboarded.
- Activate. The builder lists anything still missing (a sender, a message) before it lets you.
From now on, every new sign-up in your app goes through it. People already in the app don't, because they were imported.
More recipes
Welcome and notify the team
- Trigger Signed up in app.
- Send email to the new user: welcome.
- Notify admin by email, with the new contact's name and email in the message. It goes to the project owner and up to five more addresses, never to the user.
Trial sequence
- Trigger Signed up in app.
- Day 0: welcome. Delay 3 days.
- Day 3: a tip about the main feature. Delay 4 days.
- Day 7: "Your trial ends soon" with a link to your pricing.
Separate welcomes for two apps
- Automation A: Signed up in app, sign-in Web app (Firebase), a welcome for the web.
- Automation B: Signed up in app, sign-in Mobile app (Supabase), a welcome for the app.
Newsletter only with consent
Lists are given by the bridge itself, not by an automation, and only with consent when you say where it's stored. Ask the AI in Genesis: "Add new sign-ups to the Newsletter list, only when they ticked marketing emails (user_metadata.marketing_opt_in)." People who unsubscribed are never added back.
App accounts on the contact page
A contact who has an account in your app shows App accounts in their details:
- Which sign-in, for example Genesis Dedicated Cloud, Firebase Authentication, Clerk.
- Signed up: the date, and how (with Google, with email, with a magic link…).
- Last sign-in: date and time. Updated at most once an hour.
- Removed in app: when they deleted the account. The contact itself stays.
Someone with accounts in two of your apps shows both. The section appears only for contacts who have an app account.
The Automation Log
A contact's Automation Log records the app moments next to the rest of their history:
| Entry | When | Next to it |
|---|---|---|
| Signed up in app | They created an account in your app | Which sign-in and how they signed up |
| App account linked | An account was matched to someone already in the CRM, or came in with an import | Which sign-in |
| App account deleted | They deleted the account in your app | Which sign-in |
Importing your app's users from the CRM
The import that Genesis offers when you connect is also in the CRM: Settings → Import → Your app's users.
- The section lists each connected sign-in with its health (Live, Waiting for the first sign-up, Needs attention, Paused) and what it has brought in. If the last delivery failed, it says so with the reason.
- Press Import on a sign-in.
- Choose where the accounts come from (Import from):
- The sign-in itself (its name, for example Genesis Dedicated Cloud). For a Dedicated Cloud there's nothing to fill in. A Supabase project of your own asks for its Project URL and Secret (service_role) key, Firebase for its Service account key (JSON), Clerk for its Secret key: "Used for this import only, and erased when it ends."
- Export file:
firebase auth:export(JSON), a Supabase or Clerk CSV, or any CSV with an email column. Up to 50 MB.
- Two options:
- Add the tags and lists this sign-in gives new people: on by default.
- Run automations for them: off by default, since they signed up long ago.
- Start. "Import started — this can take a few minutes." You can leave the page: the import keeps going.
- At the end: how many new contacts, how many linked to people already in the CRM, how many skipped and why (no email address, a role address such as postmaster@, an invalid address).
Running it again is safe: nobody is added twice.
If no sign-in is connected yet, the section says "Connect it in Genesis → Settings → App Users".
Finding and segmenting app users
- Everyone from the app: filter contacts by the bridge's tag (App users by default).
- One app among several: give each bridge its own tag when you connect it (Web app users, Mobile users), or ask the AI to add one.
- A broadcast to app users: send it to the tag, or to a list the bridge fills.
- People who deleted their account: their contacts carry App account deleted in the Automation Log, and with the bridge set to stop emailing them they're unsubscribed.
Questions people ask
I connected the bridge. Do I need to change anything in the CRM? No. Contacts start arriving on their own. Add an automation on Signed up in app if you want something to happen when they do.
Will my existing app users get my welcome automation? No. Imported people don't fire it unless you tell the import to run automations.
A contact from my form signed up in my app. Will they get the onboarding? Yes. That's the difference from Contact created.
Can I see which app someone uses? Yes, under App accounts on their page, and by the tag you gave each bridge.
Someone deleted their account in the app. Is the contact gone? No, it stays, marked Removed in app. Whether they keep getting emails is the bridge's setting in Genesis (Keep the contact, stop emailing them).
Does the same person in two of my projects share one contact? No. Each project has its own contact, tags, lists and automations.