When was the last time you wrote a number in a journal? The contacts or phone book app on our smartphones has made things a lot easier for us. And Google Contacts is one of the widely used ones for obvious reasons – syncing between devices. That’s why we’re sharing a set of Google Contacts app tips and tricks to help you organize and manage your contacts wisely.
The Google Contacts app comes pre-installed on stock Android phones. However, it can also be installed on phones running the custom Android skin. If you are a new user or have been using it for a while, the tips outlined here will ease your use of the app.
Let’s check out the cool features of the Google Contacts app.
1. Switch Between Accounts
The typical way to switch between accounts in the Google Contacts app is to tap the profile picture icon at the top and select the account. However, there is an easy way. All you have to do is scroll down the profile picture and the account will change automatically.
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2. Change How Contacts Are Displayed
Google Contacts offers two ways to customize how contacts are shown. First, you can sort your contacts by first or last name. Second, you can display the last name instead of the first name.
To customize these two options, open the Google Contacts app and tap the three-bar icon at the top. Select settings.
Then change the values under Display for Sort and Name format.
3. Add Contacts to Home Screen
Do you often call someone? To make it easier to search for them, you can add that person’s detail pane as a shortcut to the home screen. By doing this, your phone will directly call the contact when you tap the shortcut.
To add a shortcut to a contact on the home screen, open the contact in the People app. Next, tap on the three-dot icon at the top. Select Add to Home screen from the menu.
A confirmation message will appear. Tap on Add. The icon will be added to your home screen.
4. Assign Custom Ringtone
Did you know that you can assign custom ringtones to the contacts you choose? For that, open the contact and tap on the three-dot icon. Next, tap on Set ringtone. Choose from a ton of available options. Similarly, repeat the steps for all the contacts you want to change the ringtone for.
5. Set a Contact Picture
Who doesn’t want to see a picture of their loved one when they call you? To set a picture for any contact, open the contact and tap the Edit contact button. Then tap the camera icon at the top. Select Choose photo and assign an image.
6. Create Groups
If you regularly send messages or emails to more than one person, you can group them. This will help you send the same message to those people with a single tap. You can group contacts in this app using the tags feature. Unfortunately, unlike the Samsung Contacts app, you cannot set a common ringtone for all tag members.
Tap the three-bar icon at the top to create a label. Then select Create tag.
Tap the tag name to add members to the tag. Then tap the add floating button at the bottom.
Open the label to send an email or message to all members of the label. Next, tap on the three-bar icon at the top and select either Send email or Send message.
7. Select All Contacts
Sometimes you need to select all contacts. It can be thought that they have to select each person individually by tapping on them. However, this is not the case. Google Contacts provides an easy way to do this. To do this, tap the three-dot icon on the app’s home screen. Select Select All from it.
8. Merge Contacts
To do this, select the contacts you want to merge on the home screen of the app. Tap the three-dot icon. Select Merge.
9. Move Contacts to Another Account
If you accidentally saved a contact to the wrong account, you don’t need to delete it and add it again. You can transfer it to any account you want.
To move a contact, press and hold the contact’s name on the app’s home screen. Then you can select more contacts if you want or use the Select All option. Once selected, tap the three-dot icon at the top and select Move to another account. Next, select the account you want to migrate.
10. Quickly Add Contact
If you have a phone running Android 7.0 Nougat and higher, you can use app shortcuts to create a new contact. To do this, press and hold the Contacts app icon on the home screen. Then select Add contact from the menu.
11. Change App Theme
Are you a fan of dark mode? Luck is on your side as the Contacts app supports this. To change the theme, open the app Settings from the three-bar icon. Next, tap Theme. Choose Dark. You can switch to light mode by selecting Light.
Fly: Want to turn off dark mode in other Google apps? Learn how to do this
12. Undo Changes
Have you ever accidentally edited or deleted a contact on our phone? You knew the trauma that followed. Fortunately, Google Contacts provides an easy way to undo changes you’ve made to your contacts in the last 30 days. You must select a time range from when you want to undo the changes.
For this, open the Contacts app and go to Settings from the three-bar icon. Scroll down and tap on Undo changes.
13. Check What the App Says
Similar to other Google apps, the People app is also smart. This is because it not only detects duplicate contacts, but even lets you merge them automatically. That’s not all. It also offers other suggestions for your contact list, such as missing names, new details about a contact, restore, and more.
To do these, tap the three-bar icon in the app. Then tap Suggestions.
Bonus: Stop Syncing Contacts
You must have noticed that when you add a Google account to your Android phone, it automatically syncs its contacts. Quite irritating as there is no option to turn it off at startup. But if you want to do that, check out our helpful guide to help you stop syncing your Google contacts.
more fun
We hope you enjoyed the Google Contacts tips and tricks above. If you want to explore contacts further, you should check the web version at contact.google.com. You get extra features like hiding and printing contacts.
Next: Do you want to remove a Google account from your phone? Here’s what happens by doing this on Android and iPhone from the given link.
