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

# Segments

> Named audiences — an explicit list, or a saved filter that works out its own members — and how they are used.

A segment is a set of people with a purpose: "March webinar attendees", "customers who bought last quarter". A [tag](/contacts/fields-and-tags) is a fact about one person. Both exist because collapsing them is how a tag list becomes sixty entries nobody dares delete.

Open **Segments** from the Contacts page header.

## Two kinds

<CardGroup cols={2}>
  <Card title="List" icon="layer-group">
    You choose who is in it — from Contacts, the Inbox, an import, an automation or a flow.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Filter" icon="filter">
    Membership is worked out from rules every time it is read, so it is never out of date.
  </Card>
</CardGroup>

<Warning>
  The kind is chosen when you create the segment and **cannot be changed afterwards**. A filter has no membership list to keep, and a list has no rules to apply — so switching either way would throw something away.
</Warning>

## Creating one

<Steps>
  <Step title="Name it and pick a colour">
    The name has to be unique in the workspace. The colour is what you see on chips in the contact drawer and the Inbox sidebar.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Add a description">
    Optional, and only shown for a list segment — a filter segment describes itself with its rules.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Choose List or Filter">
    This is the permanent decision above.
  </Step>

  <Step title="For a filter, add rules">
    See below.
  </Step>
</Steps>

The manager lists every segment with its kind, its member count, and a one-line summary — the description for a list, the rules read out for a filter.

## Filter rules

A filter segment holds a set of rules and a match mode: **all of the rules** or **any of the rules**.

| Field            | Group         | Operators                                      |
| ---------------- | ------------- | ---------------------------------------------- |
| Tag              | Contact       | has, does not have                             |
| Phone number     | Contact       | is (set / empty)                               |
| Source           | Contact       | is, is not                                     |
| Name             | Contact       | contains, is exactly, is not, is set, is empty |
| Email            | Contact       | contains, is exactly, is not, is set, is empty |
| Company          | Contact       | contains, is exactly, is not, is set, is empty |
| Created          | Activity      | after, before                                  |
| Any custom field | Custom fields | contains, is exactly, is not, is set, is empty |

**is set** and **is empty** take no value; every other operator needs one.

<Warning>
  **An unfinished rule is ignored, and a filter with no usable rules matches nobody.**

  A rule with no value on an operator that needs one is dropped before the segment is resolved. The editor warns when that happens — *"N unfinished rules are ignored when this segment is resolved"* — and says so more loudly when nothing usable is left. An empty audience looks exactly like an empty audience, so this warning is the only thing standing between you and a broadcast to nobody.
</Warning>

Custom fields appear in the rule list automatically once your workspace defines them.

## Putting contacts into a list segment

Several surfaces file somebody into a list segment, and each records how it happened — an automation adding ten thousand people is a visibly different fact from an operator ticking a box.

* **Contacts** — tick rows and use **Add to segment** in the bulk bar.
* **The contact drawer** — the **Labels** tab.
* **The Inbox contact panel** — **Edit** beside Segments.
* **CSV import** — **Add everyone to a segment**, which covers every row in the file including numbers you already had.
* **The Add to segment / Remove from segment [automation steps](/automations/steps).**
* **The Segment contact [flow node](/flows/nodes).**
* **The public API.**

Filter segments are shown in all of these but cannot be edited by hand — they work out their own members, and the picker says so rather than offering a control that would do nothing.

Adding somebody who is already in the segment is a no-op, not an error. The confirmation reports how many were actually added.

## Using a segment

* **Filtering contacts** — the Segments filter on the Contacts page.
* **Broadcast audiences** — pick several segments at once (the union of them), and exclude segments as well. "Everyone except last month's buyers" is the shape most suppression lists take. See [Broadcasts](/whatsapp/broadcasts).
* **Automations and flows** — as a step or a node.
* **The public API** — segments reuse the existing contacts scopes, so a key you already issued can use them.

## Deleting

Deleting a segment removes the segment and, for a list, its membership records. The contacts themselves are untouched.