User Profile

The unique identifier of a profile is not a mobile phone number, login, or email, but the HUID (Human Unique Identifier) of the personal account. The HUID consists of 32 alphanumeric characters separated by hyphens. A personal account is created on RTS or on ETS (a personal account cannot be used on ETS) when a user registers in the app. After a user logs in to the corporate server, their personal account on RTS/ETS and the corporate account on CTS/ECTS are linked, and the HUID of the corporate account is replaced with the HUID of the personal account. The status of an account on the corporate server is indicated by its type in the Admin Panel.

The HUID of a personal account cannot be changed to another. It is the HUID of the personal account that identifies all user data stored on the servers. The HUID is also associated with personal encryption keys. When you change the linked phone number in your profile, the HUID remains unchanged.

A personal account user can log in to an account on the corporate server (in any app) or log out of the corporate account and remain on RTS in their personal account (only in the eXpress app). Unoccupied corporate accounts, which have no one logged in, use a random “dummy HUID” in the Admin Panel.

A user receives a new HUID only when creating a new personal account in the following cases:

• registering a new account;
• the old account was deleted, and the user registers with the same phone number for a new account.

Your HUID can be viewed by your organization's system administrator or eXpress Support, and it is also present in the profile link and in the app's engineering menu.

Personal Account (also referred to as an external or public profile) is created on RTS or ETS (a personal account cannot be used on ETS) when a user registers in the app. eXpress users registered with a personal account are highlighted in green.


In custom branded apps for ETS, a personal account cannot be used; it exists on ETS solely for internal purposes. Additionally, if ETS is not isolated, a personal account is also created on RTS during registration.

Since there are several public regional servers (RTS) in the federation, a personal account is created on one of them according to the following rules:

• If a user registers using a mobile phone number, their personal account will be created on the RTS corresponding to the country code (for example, for +7, it will be the Russian RTS).
• If a user registers without a phone number, the personal account will be created on the RTS associated with their CTS or non-isolated ETS.

eXpress Personal Account Features

A personal account in the eXpress app, unlike a corporate account, has certain limitations:

• You can send files no larger than 25 MB (corporate users have a limit of 1 GB).
• A personal account user cannot call another personal account user. Calls can only be made to corporate users.
• Creating conferences is not available, but you can join conferences hosted by corporate users by invitation.
• Corporate features such as Tags, Reminders, SmartApps, and Confidential Mode are not available (if a group chat or channel includes a personal account user, this mode cannot be enabled).

Encryption Keys

When a personal account is created, encryption keys are generated to protect user data. The private part of the encryption keys is secured by the personal password for additional data security.

Creating an eXpress Personal Account

You can create a personal account in eXpress on your own. Instructions for registering a personal account are available in the section Registering or Logging In to eXpress. If your organization uses a dedicated custom app for ETS with a different name, a personal account is also created on ETS during registration. However, it cannot be used because logging in to the corporate server is mandatory. The user can only delete it later.

A Corporate Account is created by the organization either at a user's request, automatically during synchronization with the internal system, or when a user enters their email address (if self-registration is enabled). The organization manages corporate accounts. In the app, a corporate user is highlighted in blue.

Corporate Account Features

Users with a corporate account have access to all corporate features within the app.

However, your organization may enforce certain restrictions (for example, limiting access to the corporate server to specific IP addresses). For more details, contact your organization's support team. Additionally, file access may be restricted for different user groups through the Role Model.

Creating a Corporate Account

A corporate account is created by the organization's administrator either through synchronization with the corporate directory or manually. Automatic creation of corporate accounts through self-registration can also be configured, though this is not recommended.

To learn how to obtain a corporate account and log in, refer to the Registering or Logging In to eXpress section.

Corporate user accounts are created in the following ways:

• Automatically when synchronizing with the corporate directory Active Directory or OpenID (KeyCloak). For the first login, users authenticate through these systems.
• Manually, when the administrator creates a corporate account in the Users section (the first and second methods of creating users can be combined if the Email authentication method is selected). Such users log in to the app using a confirmation code sent to the associated email address.
• Automatically when a new user registers and enters their email address (self-registration). Later, via the Contacts Bot (if installed on the corporate server), the administrator of this bot can complete the user's personal data. Other users can access this data only through the bot, as it is not managed on the server or in AD. Such users log in to the app using a confirmation code sent to the associated email address.

Connecting a Personal Account to a Corporate Account

A personal account can be linked to a corporate account to become a corporate user. The process differs between the eXpress app and custom-branded ETS client apps:

• In the eXpress app, a personal account user can transition to a corporate user by logging into the corporate account via Settings (avatar button) > Profile > Corporate Information > Connect. The correspondence from the personal account will remain accessible.
  
  To retain your previous correspondence, connect to the corporate server in eXpress using this method.
• In custom-branded ETS client apps, personal accounts cannot be used directly. Instead, you must log in with a corporate account. However, you can log in using your personal account phone number, which associates it with your corporate account. Note that correspondence from the personal account will be unavailable until you log out of the corporate server.

Guest Profile is created automatically when a user joins as a guest via a group chat or channel link or via a group call or conference link. Guest profiles have limited functionality: mentions, personal messages, access to other chats or calls, personal settings, and access to chats or calls after ending a session are not available.

The corporate server administrator can configure whether the guest user profile will be created on a public server (RTS) or on the corporate server (CTS).

Profile Avatar Picture

To change your profile avatar, in the app open Settings (avatar button) > Profile > three-dot button > select Edit profile. Changing avatars for corporate profiles must be enabled in the server settings. If preliminary moderation of changes is enabled on the corporate server, administrator confirmation will be required. For more details, contact your organization's support team.

Name and Other Personal Details

If you have a personal account, to change your profile name, in the app open Settings (avatar button) > Profile > three-dot button > select Edit profile.

Personal data for corporate accounts is managed by the organization. To change the name or other personal details in a corporate account, contact your organization's support team.

Mobile Phone Number Associated with the Profile

Only one phone number can be associated with a profile.


To change the phone number in your profile, in the app open Settings (avatar button) > Profile > three-dot button > select Edit profile. Changing phone numbers for corporate profiles must be enabled in the server settings. For more details, contact your organization's support team.

If the ability to manage the phone number is disabled, follow these steps to change it:

1. Unlink the corporate account from the personal account with the old phone number by logging out. There are two ways to log out:
   • If you have access to your old phone number, sign in to your corporate account with the old number, go to Settings (avatar button) > Profile > Corporate Information > click the Logout button. A logout request will be sent to the corporate server. The corporate server administrator must confirm the request.
   • If you no longer have access to your old phone number, ask the administrator to log you out manually.
   To contact an administrator regarding a logout from the corporate server, reach out to your organization's support team or eXpress Support.
2. After that, register with a new phone number. Then, enter your corporate account credentials to sign in and link it to your new personal account with the new phone number.

If you registered in the app using a phone number or added a phone number, it will be visible to another user who has your number saved in their phone book. Other users will not see your phone number.

You cannot grant another user access to your phone number through the app. However, you can send contact cards from your phone book, which may include this information.

Visibility of Corporate Account Personal Data

The organization’s administrator can configure which corporate account data is visible to other users. For more details, contact your organization's support team. The name and address of the corporate server can also be hidden from others (for public users, they are always hidden).

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❓Related Topics:
• Low Quality of eXpress Avatar Uploaded via OWA Portal
• Change Requests List (CTS/eCTS)
• Admin Panel's “Server” Section
• Updated Data of One User Is Not Visible to Another
• “Phone Number Is Already Used. Unlink It from Another Account” Error
• “An Error Has Occurred. Try Again Later” When Changing to a Number from Another Country

Logout is the process of disconnecting from a corporate server, where a personal account on a public server (RTS or ETS) loses its association with a corporate account on a corporate server (CTS or ECTS). After this, the user profile ceases to be corporate and loses access to all corporate properties and data. After logout, you can switch to another corporate server.

Types of Logout

There are several types of logout procedures:

• At the user's request. After logging into the corporate server account, go to Settings (avatar button) > Profile > Corporate Information and click the Logout button. A logout request will be sent to the corporate server. The corporate server administrator must approve your request to complete the logout. Until then, you will lose access to the app's corporate features on the current device. If you log in to the app again without using a QR code, the logout request will be canceled and removed from the Admin Panel.
• Manually by an administrator. Contact your administrator and request a manual logout. The corporate server administrator must approve your request to complete the logout. Until then, you will remain logged into the app.
• Through the corporate directory. A logout request is generated when a specific event occurs in the corporate directory. The corporate server administrator must approve your request to complete the logout. For example, if your account is locked in Active Directory, you will immediately lose access to the app's corporate features and will not be able to return to the corporate account (unless the NTLM registration method is enabled). Automatic logout requests are not supported through OpenID (KeyCloak).
• When deleting an account. When a personal account is deleted, a logout request is sent for the associated corporate account. The server administrator must approve the request to complete the logout and disconnect the corporate account from the deleted personal account. The corporate server administrator can configure the system to automatically perform logout when user accounts are deleted, without requiring confirmation. For more details, contact eXpress Support.

Who Performs the Logout

Since corporate information is the property of the organization, when an employee leaves, their logout must be performed by the system administrator of their previous employer. If your account remains associated with the corporate server of your previous employer after moving to another organization, contact eXpress Support — we will reach out to your previous employer to facilitate the logout.

Until the administrator confirms the logout, your account will remain linked to the previous corporate server, and you will not be able to log in to another server using your phone number (if applicable).

Consequences of Logout

Access to corporate correspondence will be lost, as logout is equivalent to termination, and corporate correspondence is the property of the organization. Only correspondence from when you were a public user will remain, if any.

How other users will see your profile after logout:

1. If you had a phone number and were using eXpress or a non-isolated ETS client app, after logout you will become a public "green" user. Other users will be able to continue communicating with you in personal chats or in new group chats and channels.
   
   If you then log in to the corporate server without a phone number, you will have two accounts: a public one with a phone number and your old correspondence, and a corporate one without a phone number and without old correspondence.


2. If you did not have a phone number in eXpress or used a dedicated ETS app in isolation, after logout you will not become a public "green" user. Other users will not be able to communicate with you in the app. What other users will see when trying to interact with you after logout in this case:
   • the old chat with you will remain in the chat list but will not appear in contact search results;
   • when attempting to send you a message, they will see the error "User no longer has access to the application. Message will not be delivered";
   • when attempting to call you, they will see a warning that the call cannot be completed;
   • the Reply privately button will be unavailable in the message context menu;
   • your profile details will not change to those of your personal account on RTS.
   If you then log in to the corporate server, other users will see two chats with you but will only be able to use one of them. The other will remain for historical purposes.

You will also be removed from all corporate group chats and channels, even those where you were an administrator. A new administrator will be automatically assigned by the system.

Returning to the Previous Server After Logout

If after logging out your corporate account with a phone number associated with it, you log in to the app on the same corporate server with the same phone number, then:

• your personal chats will have their corporate history restored;
• in group chats and channels, the history will be restored after you rejoin them;
• call history will be restored (group call names will reappear after accessing the corresponding chats; until then, a list of participants will be displayed);
• to restore conferences, you will need to rejoin them.

This is possible because the server identifies you by your HUID, which remains unchanged. If you use a phone number, even if you log in to another account on the old corporate server with the same phone number (and thus the same HUID), your previous corporate correspondence will be restored. If the logout occurred due to the deletion of a personal account, or you log in again without a phone number, the correspondence will not be restored, as a new HUID is created during registration.

❓Related Topics:
• Another User's Profile Appears Twice in the App

If your email address or login has changed in the corporate system (e.g., due to a surname change), contact your organization’s support team to update your current account details or create a new account.

⚠️ To retain your chat history, add a phone number to your account before changing your login. This ensures the HUID associated with your chat history remains unchanged.

For Administrators: Changing a User’s Email (Login)

The steps depend on how user accounts are managed:

• If the account is synchronized from the AD and changing the user’s email in the directory creates a new login: Perform and confirm a logout of the old account with the previous login, then synchronize CTS with the directory. Verify that a new account with the updated login and email is created. Instruct the user to log in to the new account.
• If the account is synchronized from the AD and email changes do not affect the login: Synchronize the directory and confirm the email is updated in the account.
• If the account was manually created via the admin panel: For such accounts, the email serves as the login and cannot be edited directly. To update the email, create a new account with the new email in the admin panel, log out the old account, and ask the user to log in to the new account (using the same phone number, if applicable).
• If the account is synchronized from the OpenID — contact eXpress Support to get help.

When transitioning from manual accounts to synchronized ones, ensure that any legacy manually created accounts with duplicate emails (matching new synchronized accounts) are deleted.

After the administrator completes these steps, you can log in to the app with your new login or email. ⚠️ After changing your login, sign in using your phone number and avoid resetting your personal data protection password (if any).

Once logged in with the new credentials, rejoin corporate group chats and channels to restore their history. Before the administrator confirms the logout of your old account, prepare a list of essential chats to rejoin afterward.

⚠️ If you registered without a phone number, changed your phone number post-logout, or reset your personal data protection password, your previous chat history will be permanently lost.

You can permanently delete your personal account, even if it is linked to a corporate account on CTS. ⚠️ This action cannot be undone: after deletion, you will lose access to all chats, contacts, and message history, as they are tied to your HUID.

How to delete your personal account

1. In eXpress, open Settings (click your avatar above the chat list).
2. Go to the Profile section.
3. Click the three dots button > select Delete Account > confirm the action.

Deleting a personal account under a corporate account

When deleting a personal account:

• A logout request is automatically sent to the corporate server.
• The administrator must approve the logout — otherwise, the phone number (if linked) will remain blocked for reuse.

“Phone number is already used. Unlink it from another account to use it in this one” Error

If you, as a corporate server user, are trying to add or change a phone number in eXpress and see the error “Phone number is already used. Unlink it from another account to use it in this one” this means the number is linked to another account. In most cases, this is your personal account, created during phone number registration. A phone number in eXpress can only be associated with one account.

To resolve this issue, you must delete one of the accounts — choose the one with less critical data.

• Option 1: Delete a personal account on the public server RTS (will delete the personal account’s chat history):
  1. Log in as a public user via phone number (skip email input).
  2. Delete the account: Settings (avatar above the chat list) > Profile > three dots > Delete Account.
  3. Log in to your corporate account without a phone number: use corporate email or server address.
  4. Link the freed-up number to your corporate profile: Settings > Profile > three dots > Edit Profile.
• Option 2: Log out of the corporate account on CTS (will delete the corporate account’s chat history):
  1. Log in to the corporate account without a phone number: via corporate email or server address.
  2. Request a logout:
     • Via the app: Settings > Profile > Corporate Info > Log Out;
     • Via an administrator: contact your organization’s support team to perform the logout.
  3. After the administrator confirms the logout, log in to the corporate account via phone number.

“An error has occurred. Try again later” When Changing or Adding Phone Number

If you receive this error when changing or adding a mobile phone number, please contact the eXpress Support.

Low Quality Avatar when Uploaded via OWA

If you change your avatar via the Microsoft Exchange web portal (Outlook Web Access, OWA), it may appear in low quality in the app.

The reason lies in the synchronization specifics:

• Microsoft Exchange (OWA) stores the original image in high resolution.
• During synchronization with Active Directory, the photo is converted into the thumbnailPhoto attribute (JPG format, max. size 10 KB) with quality loss due to dual compression (resolution and detail reduction).
• The app retrieves the already compressed image from Active Directory, resulting in reduced avatar clarity.

To ensure proper avatar display in the app:

• Do not use OWA to update corporate avatars.
• Upload new avatar via profile settings in the app.
• Upload the image directly to Active Directory using administrative tools — this preserves the original quality. Contact your organization’s administrator or support team to perform this operation.

Another User's Profile is Displayed Twice in the App

If you see another user (your colleague) twice in the application, this may be due to one of two reasons:

1. The user has two profiles: a public account with a phone number and a corporate account without a phone number or with a different number.
   
   This situation occurs if the user, already having a personal account on the public server with a phone number, logs into CTS without a phone number or with a different number, thereby creating an additional profile.
   
   You can send messages or make calls to both the personal and corporate profiles. Both profiles will appear in chat and contact searches. The personal profile will be marked with a green (in chats — green and blue) icon, while the corporate profile will have a blue icon.
   
   
   If the user needs to use the phone number from their personal account, share this guide with them.


2. The user’s account without a phone number was logged out, after which they logged into the same CTS again.
   
   Accounts without a phone number do not become public after logout, as they lack a phone number, making interaction impossible.
   
   You can send messages or make calls only to the new corporate profile. The old profile will not appear in contact searches, but the old personal chat with them will remain accessible. Both profiles (old and new) will be marked with blue icons. Learn more.

Updated information for another user is not visible

If outdated information (job title, internal phone number, etc.) is displayed in another user’s profile, follow these steps:

• If the user is on your server:
  • Open the user’s profile card;
  • Receive a new message from them;
  • Restart the application.
  These actions will synchronize the updated data.
• If the user is on a trusted server:
  • Wait for automatic updates (from 12 hours to 7 days);
  • Or request the server administrator to force-update the cache (contact your organization's support team).
• Либо попросите пользователя перезайти в сессию. Это поможет, если профили пользователей синхронизаруются из Keycloak.

For Administrators: Updating the Trusted Profile Cache

1. Access the phonebook console of the CTS where changes are not visible: docker exec -i cts_phonebook_1 ./bin/ad_phonebook remote_console 2. Clear the profile cache: CcsCache.AdPhonebook.V1.ProfileCache.delete

For Administrators: User Changed Avatar, but the Old Avatar Remains in the Admin Panel

The avatar uploaded by the user via the client app is only visible in client apps and in the Profile change request list section of the admin panel. The user's profile in the admin panel displays the old photo from AD or one previously uploaded via the admin panel.

For Administrators: User Avatar did not Update (KeyCloak is Used)

For eXpress, the avatar from Keycloak is just one of the attributes stored as a Base64 dataset.

If the built-in Keycloak database — H2 — is used, avatars cannot be stored in it. To support avatars, the Keycloak database must be built on PostgreSQL, Oracle, or another supported DBMS.

The avatar updates during user authorization. If the eXpress integration with Keycloak has the SPI extension from eXpress developers installed, user attribute changes (including avatars) will be applied automatically.

If the Keycloak extension is not installed, the user needs to log in to the application again to update the data.