Getting more Value out of contacts

There is more to contacts than meets the eye. Continuing our deep dive into Google Contacts, here are some less-known things that can make your life easier and appreciate how Google Contacts fits into the great scheme of things. Because we are into great schemes of things around here.

Let's get started!

That weird logo last time drew complaints. Does this one bring back memories?

Where do birthdays come from?

I will spare you the talk about bees and flowers. When you see birthdays (with or without a year) in contacts, either you have entered it (you can enter contact details - only you will see these) or the person has entered it in their Currents profile.

So hop over and update your birthdate (leave out the year if you prefer), because then you will show up in the calendars of people who have you in their Contacts list (remember Other Contacts vs. Contacts?). Now you know exactly how it works!

Contact labels are amazing!

Contact labels started their life as "Contact groups" which led to endless mixing up with Google groups. Labels are the better metaphor, carried over from Gmail. Two simple steps to use it: Label your contacts, then use the label to bring all the labeled contacts up at once!

Labeled contacts can make your life simpler in Gmail, Drive, Calendar and everywhere you can share. Labels are a shortcut to typing many contacts at once - they get resolved instantly. For example, to share something with your "Steering Committee Client X" folks, you start typing that label, select it, and it will dissolve from that email, leaving only the individuals. Nobody will ever know such a label even existed.

Adjust what columns are displayed

Sure, there aren't many columns, but then again, how scientific are you going expecting to get about contacts? It's contacts and this isn't your spam tool.

Click the three-dot menu and select "change column order". There will be some columns not displayed, so you can have the birthday displayed, for example.

Contacts keeps itself up to date

You learned all about Other Contacts and the directory, and how this is really Google's space. Google has recently started to update your Other Contacts' names when they change - say someone marries. It would be awkward (at best) to still address them with their old name, especially in email where your alias is visible to everybody copied.

So Google keeps that name updated now - as long as the contact is in Other Contacts. It assumes that if you know the person well enough to promote to "My" Contacts, you would update the details manually.

You can import and export contacts

Contacts is the main area where your personal and professional lifes overlap. Being able to import and export is helpful for your digital afterlife.

It is also good for your life before - if you're in sales, for example, and need to import your contacts into Google. Or you need to edit your contacts and do not want to do that in Contacts.

You can delegate contacts

Delegating contacts works much like delegating Gmail access. Executives will frequently share their contact list with their executive assistant(s). The EAs are then able to organize or get in touch with the executive's contacts. Being able to delegate contacts without delegating mail (or vice versa) makes sharing very flexible.

You can print contacts

... hooray for trees?

Hint: You can print all contacts or only those of a single label, that may open entirely new possibilities.

There are clever things we are not yet doing with Contacts

To be sure, we are doing a lot of nice things with G Suite and one can always do more. But by importing more people data we could:

Display reporting structures (who reports to whom). Google can do that automatically, we just don't have the data in the directory.
Schedule better meetings, if we only managed our rooms in Calendar and told it Contacts where we sat. (Cue the "at home" jokes!)

When I started this series on Contacts, I was asking myself where Contacts was going. I now think it is in a really good place. There are things I wish Google would reconsider - the whole Currents profile integration is not yet in a good place and feels all over the place, but the directory and everything else is solid. The new interface and the subtle renaming of certain components has differentiated it from Gmail and Groups, it has clearly earned its own spot and its original mission to tie different components together is clear again. Contacts has clearly arrived where it was meant to be. Thanks for reading!

#contactsPublished 2020-05-28 by Holger Matthies.Modified 2022-02-08 by Holger Matthies.Written listening to Simon O'Shine - Your distant world (Original mix) on repeat

Page updated

Report abuse