Custom contact fields

Custom contact fields let you store extra information about your contacts beyond the standard name, phone, email and company. Once a field exists, you can fill it in on each contact and use it as a merge field to personalise messages automatically. A workspace administrator creates and manages custom fields; anyone can then fill them in and use them.

Create a custom field

Custom fields are created in workspace settings, so you need to be a workspace administrator to add, edit, delete or reorder them.

1. Go to Settings, then open Custom Fields.

2. Select Create new field (or Create your first field if you have none yet).

3. Enter a Name for the field, for example "Birthday" or "Membership tier".

4. Choose a Type. The available types are Text, Number, Boolean, Date, Select, Multi-select and Currency.

5. Set any options for that type. For example, a Select or Multi-select field needs the list of options people can choose from, and a Currency field has a symbol that defaults to $.

6. Optionally mark the field as required (Must be filled when editing contacts) or control whether it appears on contact forms (Show this field on contact forms).

7. Select Create Field.

Only active fields (those set to show on contact forms) appear when you add or edit a contact, and during imports.

Note: You cannot change a field's type after it has been created. Pick the right type up front. If you need a different type, delete the field and create a new one.

Edit, reorder and delete fields

From the Custom Fields list, an administrator can:

• Select a field to edit its name and options. The type stays fixed.

• Drag a field by its handle to reorder how fields appear on contact forms.

• Delete a field you no longer need.

Fill in a custom field on a contact

Once a field is active, it appears under Custom Fields when you open a contact. Enter a value the same way you would the standard details. Changes auto-save. For more on the contact panel, see Creating and managing contacts.

Use a custom field as a merge field

Merge fields pull a contact's details into a message so each recipient sees their own information. Standard fields use a simple placeholder:

• {{first_name}}, {{last_name}}, {{phone}}, {{email}} and {{company}}.

Custom fields use the field's slug with a custom. prefix:

• {{custom.FIELD_SLUG}}, for example {{custom.birthday}} for a field named "Birthday".

The slug is generated from the field name when you create it (for example "Membership tier" becomes membership_tier). You don't have to type placeholders by hand: when you compose a message or edit a template with a contact selected, open the merge-field button to insert standard and custom fields from a list. Merge fields are unavailable until a contact is linked.

emu.chat formats each value to suit its type when the message is rendered. A date shows in long form (for example "March 5, 2026"), a boolean shows as Yes or No, a select shows the chosen option's label, and a multi-select shows the labels joined with commas and "and" before the last one.

Note: If a contact has no value for a merge field, the placeholder is replaced with nothing, so the field comes out blank in the message. Check the contact's details before sending so a message does not go out with a gap where a name or value should be.

For how to save and reuse messages with merge fields, see Create and use message templates.