How to Organize Your Address Book Like a Pro?

Could you recall the last time writing down a phone number in your diary? Nopes, because time has changed now. Thanks to super-advanced smartphones and the internet, we can now save hundreds of phone numbers, emails, and mailing addresses in our digital contact list. But you may mishandle your contact list with unnecessary old contacts, incomplete addresses, or duplicates that pile up like a mess. This makes it harder to find the right information at the right time and the whole process of managing your address book demands much legwork. 

Fortunately, there are many contact optimization tips to bring order to the chaos of your contact list. Let’s dig in here:

● Sync Up Contacts at a Consolidated Place

If you have invested in a new iOS or Android device, you might have previously saved your contacts either on an iCloud account or in a Google account. Before you take any step to transfer contacts to the new device, make sure to organize all your contacts at a consolidated place. It is important to sort out duplicates or incomplete contacts. 

Here’s the best recommendation: If you choose to store your contacts with a Gmail address, put your contacts in Google’s address book and keep them there. You can sync a Google account with pretty much any phone and access it on the web. Additionally, it contains loads of cutting edge features and can even suggest updated data for your contacts who also use Gmail. 

iPhone clients could match up with iCloud, Samsung clients can synchronize with their Samsung account, etc — yet these generally don’t have the same number of specifications as Gmail. Other accounts won’t generally sync with different platforms, so it would be convenient for you if you sync all your phone book information through your Gmail services. 

If you own a phone with Android’s OS, your contacts are likely previously put away in a Gmail account. Yet, on the off chance that you own an iPhone, they could be put away in any number of spots, so head to > Settings and afterward > Passwords & Accounts to see the various accounts on your phone. Then > Add Accounts > Google. Any entries recorded here with “Contacts” under its name is set to synchronize contacts — this could incorporate iCloud, Gmail, Yahoo, Outlook, and others. 

If you have contacts in different accounts, you need to export them out to a document on your PC, at that point import them into Gmail (or your email record of decision). Head to the web interface, discover the “Export” option and use it to put the document on your desktop for now — at that point import them into your consolidated place (preferably, Google, since it's accessible in the most places and on the most gadgets). Do not pay much heed to the duplicate contacts — we can always re-organize them later in the article. 

When you've done that, you can make a beeline for your iPhone’s Accounts page and uncheck “Contacts” for the accounts you no longer need to sync up, or remove the contacts from those accounts altogether. 

● Delete Unnecessary Contacts

Once all your contacts are at one place, now it is important to clean up your messy contacts list. There is definitely a good chance that your address book would be very disorganized and filled with outdated, missing, or duplicate entries. It is high time to declutter your smartphone’s phone book so that you find whatever you need, whenever you need - in a hassle-free way. 

So set aside some efforts to experience a clean contact list. It is better to find out and delete unneeded and erase the ones you would prefer not to see. In case you’re using an Android-based device, you can simply tap and hang on a contact to enter determination mode. From that point, you can choose the same number of contacts as you need, at that point press the Delete button to get rid of them at once. 

In case you’re on an iPhone, there is no choice for cleaning multiple duplicate contacts at the same time — you need to open every one up, tap "Edit", and look down to Delete Contact.

● Merge Identical Contacts

Up till now, we have cleaned up all messy contacts that are either old or acquaintances that are not in contact anymore. Here comes a critical step: taming, merging, and managing the wreck of similar contacts in your phone book. If you've been matching up contacts from numerous accounts, you most likely have a couple of copies in your address book rundown.

For an Android’s smartphone, you can smartly merge duplicate contacts on the web by tapping the “Duplicates” option in the left sidebar. You'll be given a list of contacts Google believes are duplicates, and you can tap the “Merge” button to merge multiple similar entries as one unique record. You can also see this menu on an Android phone by opening the Contacts application, tapping the three-line menu on the left, and tapping “Suggestions”. 

For an iPhone, by and by, you're in a clingy wicket. Apple does not have any solution to this problem. However, you can use Google’s web interface as portrayed above, or — you may use a contact optimization app on an iOS device if your contacts are synced with iCloud. In this way, the task will be accomplished by tapping a few clicks and manual legwork will be avoided. 

● Update Incomplete Data

You're in the home stretch now. You have your list of significant contacts, you simply need to ensure each email, phone number, name, and address is entirely updated and there is no missing information. Lamentably, you'll need to do a ton of this work yourself: While Gmail can import some additional data from contacts when you include them, this data can frequently be obsolete. So you have to manually check and revisit each contact from your address book. That’s a huge task. There is an amazing duplicate contacts cleaner app that can automatically scan, review, and enlist incomplete contacts data from your phone book in a jiffy. 

Bottom Line

It isn't fun, yet when you are done with managing and optimizing your phone book, your contact list should feel like an organized and efficient contacts library. What’s more, so now whenever you send somebody a message or an email, you will be sure that it is heading up to the right contact.