User Data Collection
Collect custom information from visitors before conversations start.
The User Intake Form section lets you collect information from visitors before they start chatting with your companion. When enabled, a "Quick Check-in" modal appears asking users to fill in the fields you have defined.
Enabling the Intake Form
- Go to the Advanced tab
- Find the User Intake Form section
- Turn on the Enable Intake Form toggle
When enabled, you can start adding custom fields.
Managing Fields
Adding Custom Fields
- Click the + Add button in the section header
- A modal opens where you fill in:
- Label - The name of the field (e.g., "Your name", "Company", "Email") - up to 100 characters
- Type - one of three input types: Text Input, Email Address, or Number
- Required - Toggle this on if the field must be filled in before the user can proceed
- Click Save to add the field
You can add up to 5 custom fields. The counter in the header (e.g., "2/5") shows how many you have used.
Editing a Field
Click the edit button on any existing field to open the editor. Update the label, type, or required status, then save.
Removing a Field
Click the remove button on any field to delete it.
What users see
When a user starts a conversation with your companion and the intake form is enabled, they see a modal titled "Quick Check-in" with a message like:
"Help [Companion Name] personalize your experience."
Below that, all your custom fields are displayed as input boxes. Fields marked as required show a "(required)" label. The user fills in the fields and clicks Continue to proceed to the conversation.
If a user tries to continue without filling in a required field, they will see an error message asking them to complete it.
Users can also click Cancel to close the modal without filling in any fields.
Prefilling and returning visitors
The intake form is not shown from scratch every time - Aura remembers what it can:
- Signed-in users get auto-filled. If a user is signed in, any field whose type is email is prefilled from their account email, and any field whose label looks like a name (e.g. "Your name", "Full name") is prefilled from their account name. This happens automatically and takes priority over anything cached - unless the user has already started typing into that field themselves, in which case their input is never overwritten.
- Returning visitors skip the modal entirely when nothing has changed. Once a visitor fills in the form, their answers are cached. On a later visit, if your field set is unchanged, the modal does not reopen - the cached answers are reused automatically.
- Editing your fields re-opens the modal for everyone. Aura fingerprints your field set (each field's label, type, and required status). If you add, remove, rename, retype, or change the required status of any field, the fingerprint changes and the cache is invalidated - visitors who previously filled in the form will see it again the next time they chat. Simply reordering fields does not invalidate the cache.
This means you can safely tweak field order without annoying returning visitors, but any real change to what you're asking for will prompt everyone to fill in the form again - which is usually what you want, since the questions themselves have changed.
When to Use the Intake Form
The intake form is great when your companion needs context before the conversation starts:
- Customer support - collect the user's name and order number upfront
- Sales companions - ask about company size or industry
- Booking companions - collect date preferences and contact info
- Personalized experiences - gather any information that helps the companion tailor its responses
The intake form is disabled by default. Only enable it when you genuinely need the information upfront - every extra step before the conversation starts reduces the chance a visitor will follow through.
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