---
title: Identities
description: An identity is a unique user resource within PingOne that interacts with the applications and services in the environment to which the user is assigned. The primary services that define and configure a user identity are:
component: pingone-api
page_id: pingone-api:foundations:management-apis-overview/identity-management-apis
canonical_url: https://developer.pingidentity.com/pingone-api/foundations/management-apis-overview/identity-management-apis.html
---

# Identities

An identity is a unique user resource within PingOne that interacts with the applications and services in the environment to which the user is assigned. The primary services that define and configure a user identity are:

* **Users and the user schema**

  The users endpoints enable directory operations to create and manage user accounts, including assigning the user to a population, assigning user roles, managing passwords, managing MFA devices, unlocking a user account, managing user consents, and managing ID verification transaction records. It also supports an import capability that gives privileged applications the ability to create a new user and set the user's password.

  For more information, refer to [Users](../../platform/users.html) in the *PingOne Platform APIs*.

  For information about user core attributes and about adding custom attributes to the user schema, refer to [Schemas](../../platform/schemas.html) in the *PingOne Platform APIs*.

* **Groups**

  The groups API provides endpoints to create collections of users with the same access to applications. For more information, refer to [Groups](../../platform/groups.html) in the *PingOne Platform APIs*.

* **Credential Issuance**

  The Credentials Issuance API provides endpoints to create custom verifiable credentials for users. The resulting credentials can then be shared with native applications. For more information, refer to [PingOne Credentials](../../credentials/introduction.html).

* **Identity providers**

  The identity provider endpoints manage external identity provider configurations. It enables the social login, authoritative login, and inbound SAML login features in PingOne. For more information, refer to [Identity Provider Management](../../platform/identity-provider-management.html) in the *PingOne Platform APIs*.

* **Identity propagation**

  The identity propagation API provides for configurable and audit-capable propagation of identities and their attributes between identity stores owned or managed by a customer. For more information, refer to [Identity Propagation (Provisioning)](../../platform/identity-propagation-provisioning.html) in the *PingOne Platform APIs*.

* **Identity counts**

Active identity counts use authentication and password-evaluation user events to determine whether an identity is active within a specified sampling period. Total identity counts provide the number of unique identities associated with a specified environment per day.

For more information, refer to [Active identity counts](../../platform/active-identity-counts.html) and [Total identities](../../platform/total-identities.html) in the *PingOne Platform APIs*.