6. Managing Contacts
In this chapter, you learn how to ensure that your iPhone has the contact information you need when you need it. Topics include the following:
Setting your Contacts preferences
Creating contacts on your iPhone
Working with contacts on your iPhone
Managing contacts on your iPhone
Contact information, including names, phone numbers, email addresses, and physical addresses, is useful to have on your iPhone. When you want to contact someone, you don’t need to remember an email address or phone number; instead, just tap the name of the person you want and tap how you want to communicate with them. Or, you might want to see a contact’s address in the Maps app.
The Contacts app enables you to do all these things plus much more. This app makes using your contact information seamless. You can access contact information directly in the Contacts app and take action on it (such as placing a call), or you can use your contact information within other apps, such as Mail, Phone, and Messages.
To use contact information, it first must be stored in the Contacts app. You can add this information to your iPhone via iCloud, Exchange, and other similar accounts; by capturing it when you perform tasks (such as reading email); or by entering information manually. You’ll also need to manage your contact information over time, such as adding to it or changing it.
Setting Your Contacts Preferences
Use the Accounts & Passwords settings to configure the online accounts in which you store contact information. Refer to Chapter 3, “Setting Up and Using an Apple ID, iCloud, and Other Online Accounts,” for help setting up online accounts.
Using the Contacts settings, you can determine whether contact information can be used in Siri and other apps, how contacts are sorted and displayed, if or how names are shortened on various screens, your contact information, and which account should be the default for contact information. You can probably work with these settings just fine without making any changes to these Contacts settings, but if you want to make adjustments, open the Settings app and tap Contacts. Use the information in the following table to configure your contact settings.
Settings App Explained
To get detailed information on using the Settings app, see “Working with the Settings App” in Chapter 2, “Using Your iPhone’s Core Features.”
Contacts Settings
Setting |
Description |
|---|---|
Accounts & Passwords |
Use the Accounts & Passwords settings to configure the online accounts you use to store contact information. |
Siri & Search |
Set the Search & Siri Suggestions switch to off (white) if you don’t want to use contact information in searches or to allow Siri to access your contact information. Set Find Contacts in Other Apps to off (white) if you don’t want contact information in the various apps to be suggested to you, such as to automatically complete addresses when you create emails, or try to identify callers when a number calling you is unknown. You typically should leave both of these on (green) unless you find the automatic contact suggestions annoying or not helpful. |
Sort Order |
Tap First, Last to have contacts sorted by first name and then last name or tap Last, First to have contacts sorted by last name and then first name. |
Display Order |
To show contacts in the format first name, last name, tap First, Last. To show contacts in the format last name, first name, tap Last, First. |
Short Name |
You can choose whether short names are used and, if they are, what form they take. Short names are useful because more contact information can be displayed in a smaller area, and they look “friendlier.” To use short names, move the Short Name switch to the on position (green). Tap the format of the short name you want to use. You can choose from a combination of initial and name or just first or last name. If you want nicknames for contacts used for the short name when available, set the Prefer Nicknames switch to on (green). |
My Info |
Use this setting to find and tap your contact information in the Contacts app, which it can insert for you in various places and which Siri can use to call you by name; your current contact information is indicated by the label “me” next to the alphabetical index. |
Default Account |
Tap the account in which you want new contacts to be created by default (which is then marked with a check mark). If you have only one account configured for contacts, you don’t have this option. |
Where Contacts Are Stored Matters
You should store your contacts in an online account (for example, iCloud or Google), because the information is accessible on many devices and it is also backed up. If you don’t have an online account, contact information is stored only on your iPhone. This is not good because, if something happens to your phone, you can lose all of your contacts.
Creating Contacts on Your iPhone
You can create new contacts on an iPhone in a number of ways. You can start with some information, such as the email address on a message you receive, and create a contact from it, or you can create a contact by manually filling in the contact information. In this section, you learn how to create a new contact starting with information in an email message and how to create a new contact manually.
Creating New Contacts from Email
When you receive an email, you can easily create a contact to capture the email address. (To learn how to work with the Mail app, see Chapter 8, “Sending, Receiving, and Managing Email.”)
1. On the Home screen, tap Mail.
2. Use the Mail app to read an email message (see Chapter 8 for details).
3. Tap the email address from which you want to create a new contact; if the address isn’t in blue as shown, tap Details before tapping the address. The contact’s Info screen appears. You see as much information as could be gleaned from the email address, which is typically the sender’s name and email address.
4. Tap Create New Contact. The New Contact screen appears. The name, email address, and any other information that can be identified are added to the new contact. The email address is labeled with iPhone’s best guess, such as other or home.
5. Use the New Contact screen to enter more contact information or update the information that was added (such as the label applied to the email address) and save the new contact by tapping Done. This works just like when you create a new contact manually, except that you already have some information—most likely, a name and an email address. For details on adding and changing more information for the contact, see the next task, “Creating Contacts Manually.”
More Information for New Contacts
In some cases, such as when an email comes from an email server that includes full contact information (such as email from an Exchange account), you see a bar at the top of the email message above the From and To section. This bar shows the sender’s name and phone number. Under this, you see Ignore and Add to Contacts. Tap Ignore to ignore this additional contact information. Tap Add to Contacts to create a new contact with all of the information available; this does the same thing as steps 3 through 5 except the resulting new contact contains more information with the name and email address; for example, phone numbers.
>>>Go Further: MORE ON CREATING CONTACTS FROM APPS
It’s useful to be able to create contact information by starting with some information in an app. Keep these points in mind:
• Mail is only one of the apps from which you can create contacts. You can start a contact in just about any app you use to communicate, such as Messages, or get information, such as Maps. The steps to start a contact in these apps are similar to those for Mail. Tap the Info icon (i) for the person or address for which you want to create a contact, and then tap Create New Contact. The Contacts app fills in as much of the information as it can, and you can complete the rest yourself.
• You can also add more contact information to an existing contact from an app you are currently using. You can do this by viewing the contact information (such as a phone number) and tapping Add to Existing Contact (instead of Create New Contact). You then search for and select the contact to which you want to add the additional information. After it’s saved, the additional information is associated with the contact you selected. For example, suppose you have created a contact for a company but all you have is its phone number. You can quickly add the address to the contact by using the Maps app to look it up and then add the address to the company’s existing contact information by tapping the location, tapping Add to Existing Contact, and selecting the company in your contacts.
Creating Contacts Manually
Most of the time, you’ll want to get some basic information for a new contact from an app, as the previous task demonstrated, or through an online account, such as contacts stored in your Exchange account. If these aren’t available, you can also start a contact from scratch and manually add all the information you need to it. Also, you use the same steps to add information to or change information for an existing contact that you do to create a new one, so even if you don’t start from scratch often, you do need to know how to do so.
The Contacts app leads you through creating each type of information you might want to capture. You can choose to enter some or all of the default information on the New Contact screen, or add additional fields as needed.
The following steps show creating a new contact containing the most common contact information you are likely to need:
1. On the Home screen, tap Contacts. (If you don’t see the Contacts app on the Home screen, tap the Extras folder to open it and you should see the app’s icon. You might want to move the Contacts icon from this folder to a more convenient location on your Home screen; see Chapter 5, “Customizing How Your iPhone Looks and Sounds,” for the steps to do this.) The Contacts screen displays.
If you see the Groups screen instead, tap Done to move to the Contacts screen. (Groups are covered later.)
2. Tap the Add (+) icon. The New Contact screen appears with the default fields. (You can add more data fields as needed using the add field command.)
3. To associate a photo with the contact, tap add photo. You can choose a photo already on your phone or take a new photo. These steps show using an existing photo. See the “Taking Photos” note for the steps to take a new photo.
4. Tap Choose Photo.
5. Use the Photos app to move to, select, and configure the photo you want to associate with the contact (see Chapter 14, “Viewing and Editing Photos and Video with the Photos App,” for help with the Photos app).
6. Tap Choose. You return to the New Contact screen where the photo you selected is displayed.
7. Tap in the First name field and enter the contact’s first name; if you are creating a contact for an organization only, leave both name fields empty. (The Display Order preference determines whether the First name or Last name field appears at the top of the screen.)
8. Tap in the Last name field and enter the contact’s last name.
9. Enter the organization, such as a company, with which you want to associate the contact, if any.
10. Tap add phone to add a phone number. A new phone field appears along with the numeric keypad.
Taking Photos
To take a new photo for a contact, tap Take Photo in step 4 instead of Choose Photo. The Camera app’s screen appears. Use the iPhone’s camera to capture the photo you want to associate with the new contact (taking photos is covered in Chapter 13, “Taking Photos and Video with Your iPhone”). Use the Move and Scale screen to adjust the photo so it is what you want to use. Then, tap Use Photo. The photo is pasted into the image icon on the New Contact screen.
11. Use the numeric keypad to enter the contact’s phone number. Include any prefixes you need to dial it, such as area code and country code. The Contacts app formats the number for you as you enter it.
12. Tap the label for the phone number, such as home, to change it to another label. The Label screen appears.
13. Swipe up and down the Label screen to see all the options available.
14. Tap the label you want to apply to the number, such as iPhone. That label is applied and you move back to the New Contact screen.
15. Repeat steps 10–14 to add more phone numbers to the contact.
16. Swipe up the screen until you see add email.
17. Tap add email. The keyboard appears.
A Rose by Any Other Name Isn’t the Same
The labels you apply to contact information, such as phone numbers, become important when a contact has more than one type of that information. For example, a person might have several phone numbers, such as for home, an iPhone, and work. Applying a label to each of these numbers helps you know which number is for which location. This is especially useful when you use Siri as you can tell Siri which number to use to place a call, such as “Call Sir William Wallace home” to call the number labeled as home on William’s contact card.
18. Type the contact’s email address.
19. Tap the label for the email address to change it.
20. Tap the label you want to apply to the email address. You move back to the New Contact screen.
21. Repeat steps 17–20 to add more email addresses.
22. If necessary, swipe up the screen until you see Ringtone.
23. Tap Ringtone. The list of ringtones and alert tones available on your iPhone appears.
24. Set the Emergency Bypass switch to on (green) if you want sounds and vibrations for phone calls or new messages associated with the contact you are creating to play even when Do Not Disturb is on. (For more about Do Not Disturb, see Chapter 1, “Getting Started with Your iPhone” and for information about working with notifications, see Chapter 2, “Using Your iPhone’s Core Features.”)
25. Swipe up and down the list to see all of the tones available.
26. Tap the ringtone you want to play when the contact calls you. When you tap a ringtone, it plays so you can experiment to find the one that best relates to the contact. Setting a specific ringtone helps you identify a caller without looking at your phone. (For more on working with sounds and vibrations, see Chapter 5.)
27. Tap Vibration and use the resulting screen if you want to set a specific vibration for the contact.
28. Tap Done. You return to the New Contact screen.
29. Using the pattern you have learned in the previous steps, move to the next item you want to set and tap it.
30. Use the resulting screens to enter the information you want to configure for the contact. After you’ve done a couple of the fields, it is easy to do the rest because the same pattern is used throughout.
31. When you’ve added all the information you want to capture, tap Done. The New Contact screen closes and the new contact is created and ready for you to use in Contacts and other apps. It is also moved onto other devices with which your contact information is synced. See the “Creating Contacts Expanded” Go Further sidebar for additional information on syncing and maintaining contacts.
>>>Go Further: CREATING CONTACTS EXPANDED
Contacts are useful in many ways, so you should make sure you have all the contact information you need. Here are a few points to ponder:
• You can (and should) sync contacts on multiple devices (computers and other iOS devices) by using iCloud, Exchange, Gmail, or other similar online accounts to store your contact information on the cloud from where all your devices can access it. Refer to Chapter 3 for the details of setting up online accounts.
• Syncing your contacts works in both directions. Any new contacts you create or any changes you make to existing contact information on your iPhone move back to your other devices through the sync process.
• To remove a field in which you’ve entered information, tap Edit, tap the red circle with a dash in it next to the field, and then tap Delete. If you haven’t entered information into a field, just ignore it because empty fields don’t appear on a contact’s screen.
• The address format on the screens in the Contacts app is determined by the country you associate with the address. If the current country isn’t the one you want, tap it and select the country in which the address is located before you enter any information. The fields appropriate for that country’s addresses appear on the screen.
• If you want to add a type of information that doesn’t appear on the New Contact screen, swipe up the screen and tap add field to see a list of fields you can add. Tap a field to add it; for example, tap Nickname to add a nickname for the contact. Then, enter the information for that new field.
• When you add more fields to contact information, those fields appear in the appropriate context on the Info screen. For example, if you add a nickname, it is placed at the top of the screen with the other “name” information. If you add an address, it appears with the other address information.
• As you learn in Chapter 7, “Communicating with the Phone and FaceTime Apps,” you can configure the Phone app to announce the name of callers when you receive calls. This can be even more useful than setting a specific ringtone for your important contacts.
Working with Contacts on Your iPhone
There are many ways to use contact information. The first step is always finding the contact information you need, typically by using the Contacts app. Whether you access it directly or through another app (such as Mail), it works the same way. Then, you select the information you want to use or the action you want to perform.
Using the Contacts App
You can access your contact information directly in the Contacts app. For example, you can search or browse for a contact and then view the detailed information for the contact in which you are interested.
1. On the Home screen, tap Contacts. (If you don’t see the Contacts app on the Home screen, tap the Extras folder to open it and you see the Contacts app. You might want to move the Contacts icon from this folder to a more convenient location on your Home screen; see Chapter 5 for the steps to do this.) The Contacts screen displays with the contacts listed in the view and sort format determined by the Contacts settings. (If the Groups screen appears, tap Done. You move back to the Contacts screen.)
You can find a contact to view by browsing (step 2), using the index (step 3), or searching (step 4). You can use combinations of these, too, such as first using the index to get to the right area and then browsing to find the contact in which you are interested.
2. Swipe up or down to scroll the screen to browse for contact information; swipe up or down on the alphabetical index to browse rapidly.
3. Tap the index to jump to contact information organized by the first letter of the format you selected in the Contact Preferences (last name or first name).
4. Use the Search tool to search for a specific contact; tap in the tool, type the name (you can type last, first, company, and nickname), and then tap the contact you want to view on the results list.
5. Tap a contact to view that contact’s information.
6. Swipe up and down the screen to view all the contact’s information.
7. Tap the data or icons on the screen to perform actions, including the following:
• Phone numbers—Tap a phone number to call it. You can also tap one of the phone icons just under the contact’s image to call that number. For example, to call the number labeled as mobile, tap the mobile icon.
• Email addresses—Tap an email address or the icon with the address’s label (such as other for the email address labeled as other) on it to create a new message to that address.
• URLs—Tap a URL to open Safari and move to the associated website.
• Addresses—Tap an address to show it in the Maps app.
• FaceTime—Tap video or FaceTime to start a FaceTime call with the contact. (If an icon, such as video, is disabled, you don’t have that type of information stored for the contact.)
• Text—Tap the message icon or tap Send Message and choose the phone number or email address to which you want to send a text message.
• Share Contact—Tap Share Contact. The Share menu appears. To share the contact via email, tap Mail; to share it via a text, tap Message; or to share it using AirDrop, tap AirDrop. You can also share via Twitter or Facebook. Then, use the associated app to complete the task.
• Favorites—Tap Add to Favorites and choose the phone number or email address you want to designate as a favorite. You can use this in the associated app to do something faster. For example, if it’s the Phone app, you can tap the Favorites tab to see your favorite contacts and quickly dial one by tapping it. You can also quickly access favorites from the FAVORITES widget by swiping to the right when you are on the Locked screen. You can add multiple items (such as cell and work phone numbers) as favorites for one contact.
8. To return to the prior screen without performing an action, tap the back icon located in the upper-left corner of the screen.
>>>Go Further: MAKE CONTACT
When working with your contacts, keep the following points in mind:
• Last known contact—The Contacts app remembers where you last were and takes you back there whenever you move into the Contacts app. For example, if you view a contact’s details and then switch to a different app to send a message, and then back to Contacts, you are returned to the screen you were last viewing. To move back to the main Contacts screen, tap the back icon (it is labeled with the previous screen’s name, such as Search or Contacts) in the upper-left corner of the screen.
• Groups—In a contact app on a computer, such as Contacts on a Mac, contacts can be organized into groups, which in turn can be stored in an online account, such as iCloud. When you sync, the groups of contacts move onto the iPhone. You can limit the contacts you browse or search; tap Groups on the Contacts screen.
The Groups screen displays the accounts (such as iCloud or Exchange) with which you are syncing contact information; under each account are the groups of contacts stored in that account. If a group has a check mark next to it, its contacts are displayed on the Contacts screen. To hide a group’s contacts, tap it so that the check mark disappears. To hide or show all of a group’s contacts, tap All account, where account is the name of the account in which those contacts are stored. To make browsing contacts easier, tap Hide All Contacts to hide all the groups and contacts; then, tap each group whose contacts you want to show on the Contacts screen.
Tap Done to move back to the Contacts screen.
• Speaking of contacts—You can use Siri to speak commands to work with contacts, too. You can get information about contacts by asking for it, such as “What is William Wallace’s work phone number?” If you want to see all of a contact’s information, you can say “Show me William Wallace.” When Siri displays contact information, you can tap it to take action, such as tapping a phone number to call it. (See Chapter 11, “Working with Siri,” for more on using Siri.)
It’s Not All Good: Managing Contact Groups
When you create a new contact, it is associated with the account you designated as the default in the Contacts settings and is stored at the account level (not in any of your groups). You can’t create groups in the Contacts app, nor can you change the group with which contacts are associated. You have to use a contacts app on a computer to manage groups and then sync your iPhone (which happens automatically when you use an online account, such as iCloud) to see the changes you make to your contact groups.
Accessing Contacts from Other Apps
You can also access contact information while you are using a different app. For example, you can use a contact’s email address when you create an email message. When you perform such actions, you use the Contacts app to find and select the information you want to use. The following example shows using contact information to send an email message, and using your contact information in other apps (such as Phone or Messages) is similar.
1. Open the app from which you want to access contact information (this example uses Mail).
2. Tap the Compose icon.
3. Tap the Add (+) icon in the To field.
4. Search, browse, or use the index to find the contact whose information you want to use. You see the results of your search under the Search bar. The text that matches your search is shown in bold. For example, if you search for Wal, you see people named Wallace, Walker, Walken, etc., and “Wal” is shown in bold in each result.
5. Tap the contact whose information you want to use. (If a contact doesn’t have relevant information; for example, if no email address is configured when you are using the Mail app, that contact is grayed out and can’t be selected.)
If the contact has only one type of the relevant information (such as a single email address, if you started in the Mail app), you immediately move back to the app and the appropriate information is entered, and you can skip to step 7.
6. If the contact has multiple entries of the type you are trying to use, tap the information you want to use—in this case, the email address. The information is copied into the app and entered in the appropriate location.
7. Complete the task you are doing, such as sending an email message.
Managing Your Contacts on Your iPhone
When you sync contacts with an iCloud, Exchange, or other account, the changes go both ways. For example, when you change a contact on the iPhone, the synced contact manager application, such as Outlook, makes the changes for those contacts on your computer. Likewise, when you change contact information in a contact manager on your computer, those changes move to the iPhone. If you add a new contact in a contact manager, it moves to the iPhone, and vice versa. You can also change contacts manually in the Contacts app on your iPhone.
Updating Contact Information
You can change any information for an existing contact, such as adding new email addresses, deleting outdated information, and changing existing information.
1. Use the Contacts app to find and view the contact whose information you want to change.
2. Tap Edit. The contact screen moves into Edit mode, and you see Unlock icons.
3. Tap current information to change it; you can change a field’s label by tapping it, or you can change the data for the field by tapping the information you want to change. Use the resulting tools, such as the phone number entry keypad, to make changes to the information. These tools work just like when you create a new contact (refer to “Creating Contacts Manually,” earlier in this chapter).
4. To add more fields, tap add (+) in the related section, such as add phone in the phone number section; then, select a label for the new field and complete its information. This also works just like adding a new field to a contact you created manually.
5. Tap a field’s Unlock (–) icon to remove that field from the contact.
6. Tap Delete. The information is removed from the contact.
7. To change the contact’s photo, tap the current photo, or the word edit under the current photo, and use the resulting menu and tools to select a new photo, take a new photo, delete the existing photo, or edit the existing one.
8. When you finish making changes, tap Done. Your changes are saved, and you move out of Edit mode.
No Tones or Vibes?
If you leave the default tones or vibration patterns set for a contact, you won’t see those fields when you view the contact. However, when you edit a contact, all the fields you need to add these to a contact become available.
Adding Information to an Existing Contact While Using Your iPhone
As you use your iPhone, you’ll encounter information related to a contact that isn’t currently part of that contact’s information. For example, a contact might send you an email from a different email address than the one you have stored for her. When this happens, you can easily add the new information to the existing contact. Just tap the information to view it (such as an email address), and then tap Add to Existing Contact. Next, select the existing contact to which you want to add the new information. The new information is added to the contact. Depending on your iPhone model, tap Update or Done (or Cancel, if you decide not to keep the new information) to return to the app you’re working in.
Deleting Contacts
To get rid of contacts, you can delete them from the Contacts app.
1. Find and view the contact you want to delete.
2. Tap Edit.
3. Swipe up to get to the bottom of the Info screen.
4. Tap Delete Contact.
5. Tap Delete Contact to confirm the deletion. The app deletes the contact, and you return to the Contacts screen.
>>>Go Further: LINKING CONTACTS
When you enter Edit mode in a contact, the Linked Contacts section appears at the bottom of the screen. You can use this to combine contacts. For example, if you end up with two contacts for the same person, you can link them to combine their information into one contact. Or, you might want to link multiple people to a company. When you link contacts, information from all the linked contacts appears on one contact, which is the contact from which you start the link process.
To link a contact, tap Edit and then tap link contacts. Find and tap the contact you want to link to the one you are editing. That contact’s information displays. Tap Link.
The information from the second contact is linked to the first. You can repeat this as many times as you want. (Note that you have to have the group within which a contact is stored displayed to be able to link it.) When you are finished linking contacts, tap Done. The contact to which the others are linked is known as the unified contact (or card). It is labeled with the contact from which you started the linking process.
You can change how the information in the unified contact is displayed by viewing the unified contact, and then tapping one of the linked contacts. Tap the command you want to use, such as Use This Photo for Unified Card, which uses the image for the main contact in the unified contact.
To unlink contacts, edit the unified contact, tap the Unlock icon next to a linked contact, and tap Unlink. The contact information is separated as it was before you linked them.