diff --git a/nirvana-ios/ContentView.swift b/nirvana-ios/ContentView.swift
index debd32d..24532f3 100644
--- a/nirvana-ios/ContentView.swift
+++ b/nirvana-ios/ContentView.swift
@@ -11,7 +11,7 @@ import NavigationStack
 struct ContentView: View {
     var body: some View {
         NavigationStackView {
-            RouterView()        
+            RouterView()
         }
     }
 }
diff --git a/nirvana-ios/Models/Messages.swift b/nirvana-ios/Models/Messages.swift
index 07c37ed..8dc5d24 100644
--- a/nirvana-ios/Models/Messages.swift
+++ b/nirvana-ios/Models/Messages.swift
@@ -9,7 +9,7 @@ import Foundation
 import FirebaseFirestoreSwift
 
 struct Messages: Identifiable, Codable {
-    @DocumentID var id: String? = UUID().uuidString
+    @DocumentID var id: String?
     var senderId: String
     var receiverId: String
     
diff --git a/nirvana-ios/Models/User.swift b/nirvana-ios/Models/User.swift
index f0a4df3..92f45a9 100644
--- a/nirvana-ios/Models/User.swift
+++ b/nirvana-ios/Models/User.swift
@@ -9,7 +9,7 @@ import Foundation
 import FirebaseFirestoreSwift
 
 struct User: Identifiable, Codable {
-    @DocumentID var id: String? = UUID().uuidString
+    @DocumentID var id: String?
     var nickname: String?
     var phoneNumber: String?
     var emailAddress:String?
diff --git a/nirvana-ios/Services/AuthSessionStore.swift b/nirvana-ios/Services/AuthSessionStore.swift
index 3c68018..ee7a99a 100644
--- a/nirvana-ios/Services/AuthSessionStore.swift
+++ b/nirvana-ios/Services/AuthSessionStore.swift
@@ -121,17 +121,22 @@ final class AuthSessionStore: ObservableObject, SessionStore {
             
             guard let self = self else { return }
          
+            self.sessionState = user == nil ? SessionState.isLoggedOut : SessionState.isAuthenticated
             
             // get the user from the auth table in firebase auth
-            if let user = user {
+            if let uid = user?.uid {
                 // if we have a user, create a new user model
-                print("auth listener: Got user: \(user.uid)")
-                print("auth listener: phone number: \(user.phoneNumber!)")
+                print("auth listener: Got user: \(uid)")
+                print("auth listener: phone number: \(user?.phoneNumber)")
                 
-                // TODO: go to firestore and get full user document for the current authenticated user
-                // and have this in environment for all pages to access without having to fetch all the time
-                
-                self.getAndSetEnvironmentUserDetails(userId: user.uid)
+                // get user from firestore and store in environment
+                self.firestoreService.getUser(userId: uid) {[weak self] firestoreUser in
+                    // if we get a user back, then set this to our authsessionstore for our views
+                    print("user from firestore in auth listener: \(firestoreUser)")
+                    if firestoreUser != nil {
+                        self?.user = firestoreUser
+                    }
+                }
                 
                 self.sessionState = .isAuthenticated
             } else {
@@ -141,18 +146,6 @@ final class AuthSessionStore: ObservableObject, SessionStore {
             }
         }
     }
-    
-    private func getAndSetEnvironmentUserDetails(userId: String) {
-        self.firestoreService.getUser(userId: userId) {firestoreUser in
-            // if we get a user back, then set this to our instance to allow UI to get published with all user details
-            if firestoreUser != nil {
-                // TODO: prolly useless since we never set up a background thread for the rest of this code before
-                DispatchQueue.main.async {
-                    self.user = firestoreUser
-                }
-            }
-        }
-    }
 }
 
 extension UIApplication {
diff --git a/nirvana-ios/Views/Router/RouterView.swift b/nirvana-ios/Views/Router/RouterView.swift
index a655460..590c93d 100644
--- a/nirvana-ios/Views/Router/RouterView.swift
+++ b/nirvana-ios/Views/Router/RouterView.swift
@@ -31,21 +31,20 @@ struct RouterView: View {
     
     var body: some View {
         SplashView()
-        .onAppear() {
-            print(authSessionStore)
-            print("figuring out where to send the user based on \(self.authSessionStore)")
-            if authSessionStore.sessionState == SessionState.isAuthenticated {
-                if let user = authSessionStore.user {
-                    // evaluate where the user should go based on how much data he has
-                    
-                    // user is authenticated but has never picked a username or avatar
-                    if user.nickname != nil && user.avatar != nil {
-                        self.navigationStack.push(OnboardingTrioView())
-                    } else {// user is existing user for a year -> signs in is pushed nicely right to hub
-                        self.navigationStack.push(InnerCircleView())
-                    }
+        .onReceive(self.authSessionStore.$user) {updatedUserFromAuth in // observing user because takes longer to get the user details than see updates to sessionstate and we need the user for the logic below
+            print("figuring out where to send the user based on state: \(self.authSessionStore.sessionState)")
+            if self.authSessionStore.sessionState == SessionState.isAuthenticated && updatedUserFromAuth != nil {
+                print("user stored in authsession store: \(updatedUserFromAuth)")
+                // evaluate where the user should go based on how much data he has
+                
+                // user is authenticated but has never picked a username or avatar
+                if updatedUserFromAuth?.nickname != nil && updatedUserFromAuth?.avatar != nil {
+                    self.navigationStack.push(OnboardingTrioView())
+                } else {// user is existing user/up and running user -> signs in is pushed nicely right to hub
+                    self.navigationStack.push(InnerCircleView())
                 }
             } else {
+                print("sending user to welcome view")
                 // go to welcome page at which point they can go and follow the programmatic
                 // line to the sigin and so on and so forth
                 self.navigationStack.push(WelcomeView())