Confirm subscribers with double opt-in

Understand double opt-in

Double opt-in is a subscription confirmation method that requires people to verify their email address after submitting a form. Use double opt-in to reduce invalid or mistyped signups, keep your contact list cleaner, and maintain a clearer record of subscriber consent.

Note

Double opt-in is optional in Pushwoosh and applies to all subscription forms in the project and to the web forms in its web campaigns.

Once double opt-in is on, subscribers receive a confirmation email and must click a link to finish signing up. The link expires after 24 hours. If the link expires, the subscriber sees a notification and must return to the form and resubscribe.

Note

Pushwoosh sends the confirmation message automatically for each subscriber who must confirm. You do not send it manually per subscriber.

What happens when you turn double opt-in on or off

Turning double opt-in on

• Subscribers who signed up before you enabled double opt-in keep their existing status (for example Confirmed) and do not receive new confirmation emails.
• All new signups after you enable double opt-in receive a confirmation email and stay in Pending until they confirm.

Turning double opt-in off

• Subscribers who signed up while double opt-in was enabled and are still in Pending are not automatically promoted to Confirmed. They must either confirm via the email they received (if the link is still valid) or submit the form again.
• All new signups after you disable double opt-in are recorded as Confirmed immediately and do not receive confirmation emails.

How to configure double opt-in

Before you start: verify a sending domain

Double opt-in requires at least one verified domain in your Pushwoosh account. Confirmation emails are sent from your own domain, not from a Pushwoosh address. To get one, add a domain, add its DNS records, and wait until the domain status is Verified.

While double opt-in is on and the account has no verified domain:

• You cannot create a subscription form or save changes to a form’s configuration.
• Visitors who submit a form get an error, and Pushwoosh does not add them as subscribers. The error text is double opt-in requires at least one verified email sending domain. To fix it, verify a domain. You do not need to change the form.

Enable double opt-in

The Double Opt-In card is on two pages, and both control the same setting:

• Audience → Subscription forms.
• The email platform settings. Go to Settings → Configure Platforms and click Connect or Platform settings in the Emails row. The card appears there once a sending domain is added to your account. Until then, this page shows the email setup steps instead of the card. While double opt-in is on and the account has no verified domain, the card shows a warning.

To turn on double opt-in, click Enable on the card.

When you click Enable, a confirmation dialog opens with information you should review before turning on double opt-in. Click Enable in the dialog to continue.

Customize the confirmation email content

When you enable double opt-in on the Audience → Subscription forms page, the confirmation email editor opens so you can customize the message for your brand and campaign. On the email platform settings page, the editor doesn’t open by itself. Click Edit email content on the Double Opt-In card instead.

The template already includes the confirmation button and the unsubscribe notice. Complete this template once before your forms start sending confirmation emails. Add company name, physical address, and links to your Privacy Policy and Contact Us pages.

Note

The confirmation email template is shared across all subscription forms and web forms in the project. You cannot use different templates for different forms.

In the editor:

• Set Subject for the confirmation message.
• Add your company name and address.
• Include links to your Privacy Policy, Contact Us, and Unsubscribe pages.

Pushwoosh does not use the From name and From email set in this editor. The confirmation email is sent with the project’s default sender details. If the project has none, the sender is a no-reply address on the earliest verified domain in your account.

Important

The confirmation button is ready to use. It already includes the merge field for the confirmation URL. Pushwoosh replaces it with the real link when the email is sent.

Tip

For multiple languages, use the same editor steps as for other email content. Learn more.

Consent logging in User Explorer for double opt-in

When double opt-in is enabled for subscription forms, Pushwoosh logs consent-related details in the subscriber profile in User Explorer. You can use this information for internal reviews, to answer consent questions in support, or when your own legal and privacy teams need a record of what the product captured.

Pushwoosh records the following details in the subscriber profile:

• Form submission timestamp
• Confirmation timestamp (when the subscriber clicks the confirmation link)
• IP address
• Method of consent (subscription form with double opt-in)

For export and form metrics, see View form performance and export subscribers.