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Audience > Subscriptions shows every Subscription in your OneSignal app and the data collected by the OneSignal SDK. There are four types of Subscriptions:
Subscription typeCan receive
EmailEmail messages
SMSSMS, MMS, and RCS messages
Web PushWeb push notifications
MobileMobile push notifications, In-app messages, and Live Activities
Subscriptions page showing Email, SMS, Web Push, and Mobile subscription types
You can search for a User or Subscription by External ID, email, phone number, or OneSignal ID. You can only search by these values if your app sends that data to OneSignal. See Finding subscriptions for more details. You can search for a User and/or Subscription by their External ID, email, phone number, or OneSignal ID. However, if you do not send OneSignal the email, phone number, or External ID, you will not be able to search by these methods. See Finding Subscriptions for more details.

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Test Subscriptions

Test Subscriptions are a group of Subscriptions you designate for testing message delivery. They appear in a dedicated filter and can be targeted directly from the message composer. The Test Subscription flag is a User-level property, so it automatically syncs across all Subscriptions belonging to that User. For example, if a User has both an Email and a SMS subscription, marking one as a test subscription will mark both as test subscriptions. To add your device as a test subscription:
  1. Find your Subscription ID using one of the methods below.
  2. Next to the Subscription ID, select Options > Add as test subscription.
  3. Name your test subscription.
Options menu on a subscription record with Add as test subscription highlighted

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Set via API

You can also mark a user as a test user through the REST API by setting the test_user_name property when creating or updating a user. 
curl -X POST https://api.onesignal.com/apps/YOUR_APP_ID/users \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "properties": {
      "test_user_name": "QA Device - Jane"
    }
  }'
To remove the test user label, set test_user_name to an empty string ("").

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Finding Subscriptions

The easiest way to find a Subscription is through the OneSignal dashboard. If you already know the user’s External ID, email, or phone number, search for it directly in Audience > Subscriptions.

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Search by last active

If you don’t know the user’s ID, you can find your device by activity:
  1. Open your app or site on the device you want to find. Make sure OneSignal is initialized (code actively running).
  2. In the OneSignal dashboard, go to Audience > Subscriptions.
  3. Sort by Last Active (arrow pointing up) to see the most recently active devices at the top.

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Verify it is your device

If multiple Subscriptions appear, use the Displayed Columns filter at the top-right to show additional columns that help identify your device:
ColumnWhat to check
External IDShould match the ID in your database for this user.
Last ActiveShould reflect the time you just opened the app or site. Refresh the page to update.
First SessionThe first time the device subscribed. Useful if you just subscribed for the first time.
IP AddressIf enabled, compare with your IP at whatismyipaddress.com. See Data collected by the SDK.
Tags, CountryHelpful if you set a known tag like user_name or email on this device.
DeviceShows browser and version for web, or device model and OS version for mobile apps.

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Find by segment tag

If you added a specific tag to the user (e.g., user_name or another identifier), you can create a segment with the User Tag filter to isolate that device.
Segment builder with a user tag filter to find a specific device

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Find Subscription ID programmatically

For developers who need the Subscription ID directly from code:
  1. Open your site in the browser profile that is subscribed to push.
  2. Open the browser console (F12 or right-click > Inspect > Console).
  3. Run: OneSignal.User.PushSubscription.id
  4. The Subscription ID is logged to the console.
For mobile web, connect your Android device via USB and use chrome://inspect/#devices to open a remote console session.
Use the OneSignal SDK User Data Methods to log the Subscription ID to the console from Xcode or Android Studio.

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FAQ

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How do I remove a test subscription?

Go to Audience > Subscriptions, search for the subscription, then select Options > Remove from Test Subscriptions. The subscription remains in your app but is no longer set as a test subscription.

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Can I set test subscriptions from the API?

Yes. Use the test_user_name property when calling Create user or Update user to mark a user as a test user. This syncs the label across all of that user’s subscriptions.

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Can I send to test subscriptions from the API?

Yes. Use the Create notification API with the include_subscription_ids parameter and pass the Subscription IDs of your test devices.

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My test subscription shows as unsubscribed. How do I re-subscribe it?

This depends on the subscription type:
  • Mobile push: The user must re-enable notifications for your app in their device settings (Settings > Notifications > [Your App]). OneSignal cannot programmatically override a user’s notification permission.
  • Web push: The user must clear the notification block for your site in their browser settings and re-subscribe. See Web push troubleshooting for steps.
  • Email / SMS: Go to Audience > Subscriptions, find the subscription, and check its status. If the subscription was removed by an unsubscribe action, you can update it via the Update Subscription API by setting "status" to the appropriate value. Only do this if the user has re-consented to receive messages.
Re-subscribing a user without their consent violates messaging compliance rules and can result in spam complaints, carrier filtering, or account suspension.

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Why does the same person appear multiple times in the Test Subscriptions list?

Each app reinstall creates a new subscription. If you set your subscription as a test device after each reinstall, each one appears in the list with the same name you assigned. This is expected behavior.

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Why can’t I find my subscription in the dashboard?

The most common causes are:
  • The OneSignal SDK is not initialized on the page or screen you are using.
  • You are searching by the wrong ID type. Try searching by email, phone number, or Subscription ID instead.
  • The subscription was created in a different OneSignal app (e.g., staging vs. production).

Subscriptions

Learn more about Subscriptions and how to manage them.

Users

Understand the OneSignal user model, aliases, and subscription records.

Segmentation

Create segments to target specific groups of users including test devices.

Data collected by the SDK

See what data the OneSignal SDK collects and stores for each subscription.

Create message API

Send notifications programmatically to specific subscription IDs.