The subject technology provides for customizing or personalizing and presenting content based on user presence and identification. The disclosed techniques may include obtaining, at a media device, identification information of a present user, who is present in a predefined space around the media device, and determining whether the identification information of the present user is associated with identification information pre-configured at the media device. Based on a determination that the present user's identification information is associated with the device user's identification information, sending a content request to a data source for digital content related to the present user. The requested digital content may be received and personalized at the media device. A personalized portion of the digital content may be provided from the content pool for rendering using an output device.