Google Contacts Tips

In the beginning, there was Google.

Well, it’s not that old but Google has come a long way in the last twenty years from being just a search engine. Aside from their name becoming a verb included in the dictionary, their other accomplishments include developing Gmail and later, the Android operating system for smartphones.

Now, Google has all its services working together in tandem for its users. You can save phone and email contacts in the same place, create online calendars and invitations for events, and keep track of your tasks to complete too.

All of this can be done from your computer or smartphone wherever you’re connected (or offline once synchronized). Plus, Google Workspace brings even more features to the table if you want to use the Google ecosystem in a workplace or school setting.

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Whether you’re using Gmail (who isn’t?), Android, or Google Workspace, Google Contacts is the place to go to reach people. And since it’s such an important address book, we’ve put together some of our tips on making the most of the service.

Check out these Google Contacts tips and find out how you can sync your Outlook and iCloud contacts into one address book too.

If you’re snappy with your Android phone, you’ll love this tip.

Since all the photos you take on your Android phone are synced to the Google cloud, it’s easy to update your contacts’ photos from Google Photos.

Just click the profile icon for one of your saved contacts and you can see all your Google Photos. Pick their best photo, then crop and rotate it to ensure that it fits the frame well. Once you’re happy, click ‘Done’ to save the photo for your contact.

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Believe it or not, having a photo for your contacts is another time-saving tip in the long run. You can quickly find someone in your address book based on their photo. It’s also a good way to match names and faces if you’re a little forgetful in that regard.

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Here’s another tip to jog your memory about your Google Contacts. You can view your earlier email interactions in Gmail with a saved contact.

Click on your contact and under the Interactions tab, you can see the last email communications you have had with them. Even better, you can click the subject line and follow a link to the email in your Gmail inbox.

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This is another great way to manage your contacts list and see your history with them. You can also follow up on emails and get back in touch with them if needed too.

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It always seems that we write multiple instances of the same person in our address books. Whether we have one phone number or one email address, we end up with a few duplicates of the same contact. And they start to accumulate when you have multiple different contacts with duplicates.

Tidying up your address book is needed when the duplicate contacts start to take over. Thankfully, Google Contacts will give you a hand.

Under the ‘Merge & Fix’ tab, possible duplicate contacts are flagged here. You can then approve duplicates and merge them into one for better organization.

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If you merge contacts by mistake, it’s just as easy to undo.

Click the gear icon in the top-right corner for settings and click ‘Undo Changes’. From here, you can select a date range to undo changes from – starting from 10 minutes ago up until a month ago. You can also specify a custom time frame to revert your contact list to if you remember exactly when the changes happened.

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If you want to add Outlook contacts to Google, there are a few ways to do it.

We’ll explain the manual way first and then show you how to sync Outlook Contacts to Google Contacts automatically. If you’d like to try the manual method, read on below.

To import contacts manually, you’ll first need to export your Outlook contacts into a compatible file. Your Outlook contact data can be exported as a Comma Separated Values (CSV) file.

To convert your contacts into a CSV file, just follow these steps:

• In your desktop version of Outlook, click ‘File’
• Then, click the ‘Open & Export’ tab
• You will see the option to ‘Export to a file’ and the choice for two file types. Select the CSV option
• Choose the contacts folder to be exported and then click ‘Finish’ when you’re done

‍Note: you can export all your contacts or just a specific contact folder into a CSV file using this method.

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Once you have created the CSV file, importing Outlook Contacts to Google Contacts is just as easy. Head to your Google Contacts home page and click the ‘Import’ tab on the left-hand side of the page.

Now select the CSV file you created from Outlook to import the contacts. You can also add a label to your imported contacts – choose from an existing contact label or just leave it blank. Either way, Google Contacts will also create a label showing it as an imported contact and the date that it was added.

Although it’s better than entering contacts one by one, there are quite a few steps involved and the CSV file itself can be prone to errors. It also doesn’t keep your Outlook and Google contacts updated. If you add a new contact in Outlook, you’ll either need to do the whole process again or manually enter it into Google.

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This is where SyncGene’s online synchronization comes in.

We realized that everyone uses different platforms for their contacts – such as Outlook 365 at work or Google at home – and how much of a pain it is to keep these address books updated and organized.

That’s why we streamlined the process of transferring your contacts and keeping them continually updated with automatic synchronization. It’s easy to get started in three steps:

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1. Sign up for SyncGene using your preferred method.

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2. Add the sources that you would like to sync – Google and Microsoft Office 365 – and authenticate them with SyncGene.

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3. Select what will be synced and click ‘Sync Now’ to start the process.

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Your contacts will now be synchronized across both platforms in just a few moments!

If you want even more flexibility with synchronization, you can filter contact folders and lists to sync only certain contacts. You can even specify one-way sync from a master source for better organization.

For example, you might like to sync Outlook contacts to Google whilst keeping your personal Google contacts clear from Outlook. This way, you’ll always have your Outlook contacts with you on the go or when working from home.

And since SyncGene can sync your calendars and tasks too, these sync filters will give you complete control over your data. Choose how you would like your contacts, calendars, and tasks to be synchronized between Google, Outlook, and iCloud too.

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Whether for work or home use, SyncGene is the best solution to bring all your digital organization tools together in one place.

Try using these Google Contacts tips with SyncGene and see the difference with connected contacts wherever you need them. Get started syncing today.

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