If you're new to Appcues there may be some terms that we use that aren't familiar.
This glossary is a quick reference to some common and useful terms that you may see when you're reading the Appcues docs or when you're building experiences in Appcues.

A

A/B Testing - Running two or more versions of an experience at the same time to compare which one performs better: experience variation A/B testing

Anonymous Users - End-users who are not identified with a unique User ID. Targeting and tracking them requires extra setup.

App ID - The unique ID Appcues generates for an application you register (used with mobile apps).

App Name - The name designated for an application by the developers.

App Version - The version generated by the developers when releasing an update to an application.

Appcues - A product adoption platform that lets non-technical teams build, target, and measure in-app experiences across web and mobile.

Audience Targeting (Audience, Audience Rules) - The conditions that a user must satisfy in order to qualify for the experience.

B

Banner - A persistent, full-width message pinned to the top of the screen. Non-blocking; used for announcements, alerts, and calls to action. Can display inline (pushes content down), as an overlay, or as a slide-in.

Build URL - The specific URL that a flow or a step in a flow is built on.

Builder - The Appcues visual editor for building and styling experiences on top of your live product. Originally a Chrome extension; experiences can now also be built in the in-app Builder.

C

Checklist - A persistent widget that guides users through a list of onboarding tasks, marking each item complete as it's done.

Click to Track (CTT) - A no-code way to turn user clicks into trackable events, set up with the Track Events option in the Builder.

Conditional Actions - Mobile logic that shows, hides, or changes what happens in a step based on user data or actions during a Flow.

Content Blocks - The building blocks used to compose experience content. On mobile these are managed as content blocks; on web, content is built from blocks like text, images, and GIFs, video, and custom HTML.

Control Experiment (Control Group, Holdout) - A test that withholds an experience from a random subset of your audience so you can compare their behavior against users who saw it, measuring the experience's true impact.

CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) - Language used to style HTML elements. Can be used to further customize Modals & Slideouts as well as Tooltips & Hotspots.

CSV Export - File that can be exported in Studio containing analytics for your users' experiences.

Custom Components - A mobile feature that lets developers register native UI components so they can be inserted into Appcues mobile experiences.

D

Debugger - A tool that shows context about the installation of Appcues in an application as well as current flow information. Mobile apps have a separate Mobile Debugger.

Deep Link (Deep Links) - A link that opens a specific screen in a mobile app. Used to route users from a push notification or experience to the right place.

Device Model - The type of device, typically a phone or tablet that an application is installed in.

Diagnostics tool - A tool that provides context on the qualification status of flows or checklists for a particular user.

E

Email - An out-of-product message sent as a step in a Workflow. A Workflow can wait for the email to be sent, delivered, or opened before continuing.

Embed (Embeds) - Appcues content rendered inline inside your product's UI instead of overlaid on top of it. On web an Embed targets a page element with a CSS selector; on mobile it uses a Frame ID. Content can be appended, prepended, or replace the target element.

Environment (Domain) - The domain and subdomain an experience is targeted to. Combined with Path, it makes up Page Targeting.

Event Analytics - The reporting in Studio that shows how often events fire and which users trigger them.

Event Targeting - The event conditions that are used as part of Audience Targeting for an Experience. This can be used with Event Triggering or Page Triggering. Related article: Pro Tip: Event Triggering vs Event Targeting

Event Triggering - Triggering an experience based on an Event occurring. Related article: Pro Tip: Event Triggering vs Event Targeting

Events (Event) - An action that has occurred (or will occur). These can be Application Events, Track Events (from CTT), Flow Events, Checklist Events, or Pin Events.

Events Explorer (Event Analytics) - The analytics and tracking section of Studio for Events.

Experience - A general term for content that can show to users. Experience types include Flows, Checklists, Pins, Banners, Launchpads, Embeds, and NPS.

F

Flow - multi-step, in-app experiences that guide users through your product.

Flow Priority - A feature to prioritize one flow over another. By giving flows a weight, this feature will dictate the order in which the flows will be shown to a user.

Frequency Limit - A setting that caps how many experiences a user is shown within a given time period.

Funnel - An analytics report that measures how many users complete a sequence of steps or events, and shows where they drop off.

G

GDPR Deletion API - An API endpoint for permanently deleting a user's data from Appcues to satisfy privacy requests.

Goals (Goal) - A desired user action — an event, page visit, or property change — tracked after a user sees a Flow, used to measure the Flow's impact.

Group - A collection of steps in a flow.

Group Properties (Companies, Account-level properties) - Attributes about a company or account rather than an individual user, sent with Appcues.group(). Used for account-level targeting and segmentation. Distinct from Group above, which refers to a collection of steps in a Flow.

H

Hotspot - A beacon Step pattern that targets an element and expands the content when the user interacts with the beacon.

I

iFrames - A web page embedded inside another web page. Appcues cannot target elements inside a cross-origin iFrame. Related article: Using Appcues with IFrames

Integration - An integration is a connection between Appcues and another product. Integrations can send data from Appcues to another product or from another product into Appcues. With some products, there will be an integration that sends data into Appcues as well as an integration that sends data from Appcues to the same product, these are typically called two-way integrations.

Issues Reporting - A section on your flow's analytics page with the most recent issues encountered by your users. Issues occur when Appcues cannot display a step due to a missing or incorrect selector.

L

Launchpad - A persistent resource-center widget that opens from an icon to show a collection of Flows, links, and content on demand.

Localization - A feature that shows custom content based on a user's language.

M

MAUs (Monthly Active Users) - Total number of users who sign in to a platform in any given month. This includes anonymous users if implemented.

Mobile - Appcues experiences delivered inside native iOS, Android, React Native, and Flutter apps via the mobile SDK. Includes mobile Flows, Embeds, and Push.

Mobile Push (Push Notification) - A notification sent to a user's device, added as a step in a Workflow. Requires the mobile SDK and push credentials configured for your app.

Mobile Web - Web views in a mobile device.

Modal - A Step pattern that shows content and is typically larger and centered on-screen.

N

NPS - Net Promoter Score — a survey experience that measures loyalty by asking how likely users are to recommend your product on a 0–10 scale.

O

OS Version - The version of the operating system, for example iOS or Android, that a device is running.

P

Page (URL) - The Environment and Path for a page in an application or site.

Page Targeting - The page conditions that are set for where an Experience should be qualified to show. Page targeting is made up of Path and Environment.

Page Triggering - Triggering an Experience based on a Page Change.

Path (URL Path) - The portion of the URL after the Domain.

Permalink - A shareable link that takes a user to a specific page and triggers a chosen experience, bypassing normal targeting.

Pins (Pin) - A persistent experience anchored to the page — such as a beacon, badge, or icon — that stays visible and can reveal content when clicked.

Properties - Attributes about a user, each a name/value pair, sent to Appcues and used for targeting, segmentation, and personalization.

Property Targeting - The user property conditions that are used as part of Audience Targeting for an Experience.

Public API (REST API) - Appcues' REST API for programmatically managing users, groups, segments, and data outside the Studio UI.

R

Redirect - A step that sends users to a different page or screen as part of a Flow, letting a single Flow span multiple pages (web) or screens (mobile).

S

Saved Charts - Custom analytics charts you build and save in Studio to track events, experiences, and user behavior over time.

Screen Title - The name set for a screen in a mobile application. This is similar to a page title.

Screen View - Mobile event that occurs when a user's application loads a screen.

SDK - Appcues code that's loaded in an application to communicate with Appcues servers. Related article: Installation Overview

SDK Version - The version of the Appcues SDK that is used in the customer's application.

Segment (Twilio CDP) - The customer data platform by Twilio, a common Appcues integration. Not to be confused with Appcues Segments (groups of users) below. Segment can send user and event data into Appcues and receive Appcues events out.

Segments - Reusable groups of users defined by properties, events, or experience history, used to target experiences.

Selector - A CSS pattern that identifies an element on the page. Appcues uses selectors to anchor Tooltips, Hotspots, Pins, and Embeds, and to apply custom styling. Related article: CSS Selectors

Session ID - Generated by Appcues this is a string that indicates the current mobile session for a given user.

Session Resumed - Mobile event that occurs when an application is resumed after being backgrounded for more than 30 minutes.

Session Started - Mobile event that occurs when an application is started.

Settings (Conditions) - The rules that control when and to whom an experience shows — including Trigger, Page Targeting, Frequency, and Audience Targeting.

Single Sign-On (SSO) (SAML) - Lets your team log in to Appcues through your company's identity provider instead of a separate password.

Slideout - A Step pattern that shows content that loads in from offscreen.

Step - A piece of content that is part of a flow. Steps can be Modals, Slideouts, Hotspots, or Tooltips.

Step-group - A grouping that contains multiple single steps. Step-groups can only contain one type of step at a time.

Studio - The Appcues web app. The central management platform for experiences created in Appcues.

Surveys & Forms - Steps that collect structured feedback and input from users — ratings, multiple choice, text, and more. Responses are captured as Appcues events. Available on web and mobile. NPS is a specialized survey type.

T

Targeting - The conditions that are used to set user qualification for an Experience.

Team - The members of a company that have access to an Appcues account.

Theme (Themes) - A reusable set of styles (fonts, colors, backdrop, button and beacon styling) applied across experiences for a consistent, on-brand look. Appcues has legacy Themes and new Themes for Flows 2.0 and Embeds, plus Mobile Themes.

Tooltip - A Step pattern that anchors a small pop-up to a specific element on the page to deliver contextual guidance.

Track Event (track()) - A custom event sent from your app's code to record a user action. Used for targeting, triggering, Goals, and Checklist completion. Events built without code use Click to Track (CTT).

Trigger - The criteria for a flow to start. Triggers include Page Triggering and Event Triggering.

U

User ID (Identify, identify()) - The unique, stable identifier you assign to each user, sent with Appcues.identify() along with their properties. Appcues uses it to target, personalize, and track experiences per user. Should not be an email address.

User Profiles - The Users area in Studio where you look up an individual user, view their properties and events, and check their experience eligibility.

W

Webhook (Webhooks) - An outbound HTTP request Appcues sends to a URL you specify when an event fires, letting you push Appcues data to external systems in real time.

Workflow (Workflows) - A multi-step, multi-channel automation. Chains together in-product experiences, emails, mobile push, branches, delays, and goals to reach users across channels over time.

Z

z-Index - A technical property that specifies the stack order of an element. Related article: How Appcues is Overlaid