what is the $identify event?

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The $identify event in Mixpanel is a special event used in the Original ID Merge system to link an anonymous user (represented by an anonymous ID, typically a $device_id) with a known user (represented by your chosen user ID). When the $identify event is triggered—usually by calling .identify(<user_id> ) in the SDK—it sends an event containing both the anonymous ID ($anon_id) and the identified user ID ($identified_id). This creates a mapping between the two, merging them into a single identity cluster so that all events from both IDs are attributed to the same user in Mixpanel.

Here’s an example of the $identify event payload:

```

{ "event": "$identify", "properties": { "$identified_id": "<user_id> ", "$anon_id": "<device_id> ", "token": "YOUR_PROJECT_TOKEN" } }

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