---
title: "Smart Audience"
slug: "smart-audiences"
tags: ["Dynamic Membership", "Smart Audiences", "User Groups"]
updated: 2026-11-04T14:57:33Z
published: 2026-11-04T14:57:33Z
canonical: "docs.thrivelearning.com/smart-audiences"
---

> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.thrivelearning.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Smart Audience

A Smart Audience is an Audience whose membership updates automatically, based on rules you define – rather than adding members individually, Thrive adds and removes users dynamically as they meet or no longer meet your criteria. This is in contrast to a [Manual Audience](/v1/docs/manual-audiences), which requires you to select members yourself.

This makes Smart Audiences ideal for membership that should stay current on its own, such as everyone in a particular department, everyone who has completed a mandatory course, or everyone whose job title contains a certain word.

## Create a Smart Audience

To create a Smart Audience, follow the steps in [Create Audience](/v1/docs/create-an-audience#setup), selecting **Smart Audience** under **Audience Type**. A **Membership rules** section then appears, where you build the conditions that control membership.

![Audience type settings show Smart Audience selected for membership rules based on defined conditions.](https://cdn.document360.io/3a0609fb-d96c-4ce1-aabe-d9338fb1e858/Images/Documentation/image(978).png?sv=2026-02-06&spr=https&st=2026-11-05T16%3A52%3A50Z&se=2026-11-05T17%3A52%3A50Z&sr=c&sp=r&sig=YIytnu8WqNu8lTg0VO570DaBSfPPehZah2yYCoimFeg%3D)

### Add Conditions to a Smart Audience

1. In the **Membership rules** section, click **+ Add a condition**.
2. In the rule block, use the first dropdown to select a category for the condition – **User Positions**, **User Activity**, **Manager Queries**, **User Profile**, **Content**, or **Badge**. For details on each category, see [Condition Types](/v1/docs/smart-audiences#condition-types) below.
3. Use the dropdown menus that appear to set the value to match against, such as a job title, a date, or specific content.
4. (Optional) Click **+ Add another condition** to add more conditions to the same rule block. Conditions in a block are joined by **AND** – a user must meet every condition in the block to qualify.
5. (Optional) Click **+ Add OR rule block** to add a new rule block. Rule blocks are joined by **OR** – a user who meets the conditions in any one block is included. Think of each rule block as defining one type of person you want to include – for example, Senior managers in the UK **OR** new starters in any region **OR** anyone who has completed onboarding.
6. Repeat steps 2–5 steps until your rules describe everyone you want included.

> [!NOTE]
> Note:
> 
> Membership is continuous, not a one-time snapshot: Thrive evaluates every user against your rules, adding them when their data matches and removing them when it no longer does.
7. Review your choices, then click **Create audience**.

Your Smart Audience is now live and appears on the **Audiences** tab.

## Condition Types

Every condition begins with a category. Select the category first, then the specific field and matching options shown for it.

| Category | Description |
| --- | --- |
| **User Positions** | Their position in the organisation, such as job title |
| **User Activity** | Activity such as first or last login date |
| **Manager Queries** | Their reporting relationships |
| **User Profile** | Profile data such as skills, tags, language, email domain, or custom fields |
| **Content** | Whether they have completed specific content |
| **Badge** | Whether they have attained a specific badge |

### User Positions

Targets users by their position in the organisation, using fields such as **Job Title**, **Organisation**, **Days in role**, and start or end dates. Each field offers matching options suited to its data – for example, text fields like **Job Title** let you match exact values with **Is any of**, or match on part of a value using **Starts with**, **Ends with**, or **Contains** (useful when titles vary slightly).

### User Activity

Targets users by their login activity, such as when they first or last signed in. Select the activity you want to match on, choose a date operator such as **After** or **Before**, then set the date.

This is useful for membership that depends on engagement over time – for example, welcoming people who logged in for the first time after a certain date, or identifying users who haven't signed in since a given point.

### Manager Queries

Targets users by their reporting relationships. Choose one of the following questions, then answer **Yes** or **No**:

- **Do they have an indirect report?**
- **Do they have a direct report?**
- **Do they have a line manager?**

### User Profile

Targets users by their profile data – tags, skills, email domain, language, or custom fields.

Most User Profile attributes offer two operators: **Is any of** and **Is not any of**. Select one or more values to match against.

**Custom Fields** works a level deeper. After selecting it, choose the specific field configured for your platform (such as department or employee ID). Alongside **Is any of** and **Is not any of**, text-based custom fields offer three further ways to match:

- **Starts with**, **Ends with**, or **Contains**: Match on part of a value – useful when field data isn’t standardised.
- **Is not empty**: Include only users who have any value in the field, regardless of what it is. No value needs to be entered for this one.

> [!NOTE]
> Note:
> 
> For fields that use **Is any of** or **Is not any of** – **Job Title**, **Email domains**, and text custom fields – you don’t need to search for and add each value one at a time. Click **Bulk add** next to the value field to open the **Bulk add** dialogue box.

### Content

Targets users by what they have completed. Choose **Completed** or **Not Completed**, then select one or more content items. If you select several items, the condition is met when a user has completed any one of them.

Then set the completion window:

| Option | Includes |
| --- | --- |
| **Ever** | Users who completed the content at any point |
| **Since** | Only users who completed it after a date you choose |

Adding this condition can take up to 24 hours to find existing matches. After that, new completions are added instantly. A user is removed if their completion record is deleted. The same timing applies to **Badge** rules below.

### Badge

Targets users by the badges they hold. Choose **Attained** or **Not Attained**, then select one or more badges.

## Important

- Text matching works on simple patterns, not advanced expressions or regex.
- Because evaluation is continuous, the quality of your user data directly affects who is captured.

Tags applied to content helping users personalise their learning experience and discover relevant development opportunities, either by personal choice or assignment.