Google Contacts: The Digital Address Book

The computer, smartphone and tablet all have their own application for keeping track of contacts. But if you also want to use this contact information on another device, you have to retype everything. With Contacts from Google, you don’t have to. The service copies names, email addresses and phone numbers to your personal online storage space associated with your Google account. This way you can also easily access this data on other devices.

Google Contacts has its own app for Android smartphones and tablets, but in this article we will start from the web application of the service. To use Contacts, you need a Google account. Don’t have one yet? Then first follow the steps from the article ‘Create a Google account’.

Open the Contacts web application as follows:

• Open a web browser, for example Chrome.
• surf to contacts.google.com.
• Sign in with your Google account.
  • Enter your Gmail address and click Next one or click on your Google account if it is already listed.
  • Enter the corresponding password and click Next one.

You are logged in and Contacts opens.

You can easily add a single contact or a small number of contacts manually.

• Click on the top left +Make contact.

  

• click on Create a contact.
• Fill in the boxes. It is not necessary to fill in everything, but at least a name and a telephone number or e-mail address is handy.
• Click on Show more to fill in more information such as birthdays or websites.
• click on Save.

The new contact shows in a new window. Check if the entered information is correct.

• Click on the cross if the information shown is correct.
• If necessary, click on ‘Edit contact’ to add or change information.

Since Gmail and Contacts are both from Google, email addresses used in the mail program are automatically added to Contacts. But they are not immediately marked as contact. They have yet to be added.

• Click on the tab on the left side of the screen Other contacts.
• A list of email addresses appears in the middle window.
• Move the mouse pointer over a contact. Icons appear behind it.
• Click on the icon of a person with a plus sign (Add to contacts).

  

The contact person will disappear from this overview and will from now on appear in the overview of the ‘Contacts’ tab.

You can also add e-mail addresses and telephone numbers from a file. If you happen to keep phone numbers in an Excel file, it is very easy to transfer them to Google Contacts. Note: Unfortunately, the import does not always go well. We have not found a solution for this.

• Open the contacts file you are keeping on your computer.
• Save a copy of the file as a csv or vCard file.
• Go to Google Contacts and log in if necessary.
• Click on the tab on the left Import.
• click on Select file, navigate to the file on the computer and click To open.
• click on Import.

The contacts are added and can now be found on the ‘Contacts’ tab. You may see a message that says: ‘No contacts found. Please check the file and try again.” We have not been able to find a cause or solution for this.

You can easily transfer phone numbers to Google Contacts. Unfortunately, the app does not exist for iPhones and iPads, so this is only possible on Android devices. The starting point for the next steps is a Samsung device with Android 10.

• Download and install the Google Contacts app in the Play Store.
• In the Play Store, tap To open.
• Tap on To allow when the app asks to access the contacts on the Android device.
• Tap on To allow to be able to make phone calls from the Contacts app.
• Tap on Enable backup and sync so that existing and future contacts on the device will automatically appear in Google Contacts.
  • Don’t see this? Then tap the icon of your Google account at the top right .
  • Tap on Contacts app settings.
  • Tap on Google Contacts sync settings.
  • Tap on Also sync device contacts and tap the slider next to ‘Automatic backup and sync of device contacts’. The slider turns blue.

The contacts are linked to Contacts. You can now always access it via the website or app. Note: contacts stored on the SIM card are not copied.

Sometimes a contact without a name appears in the overview. Then add it manually.

• If necessary, click on the ‘Contacts’ tab on the left.
• Move the mouse pointer over the contact to be edited. Click on ‘Edit contact’ .
• Adjust what is needed and click Save.

If a contact appears twice in the overview, for example once with e-mail and once with a telephone number, merge them.

• Move the mouse pointer over a contact. Click on the square that appears in front of it.
• Do the same for the contact you want to merge it with.
• Click the ‘Merge’ icon below the search bar .

Do you want to delete a contact? This can be done as follows:

• Move the mouse pointer over the contact to be deleted and click on the three dots.
• In the drop-down window click on remove > remove.

You can also delete multiple contacts at once.

• Move the mouse pointer over a contact and click on the empty square in front of it.
• The box turns blue with a white check mark. Also check other contacts.
• Click on the three dots under the search bar > remove > remove.