Gmail Contacts : Here is Everything You Need to Know

There are many services that Google Mail provides, one of which is Gmail Contacts / Google Contacts. And in today’s article, I am going to guide you on every aspect of Gmail Contacts, which you might not have known.

Gmail Contacts is an online address book that is integrated with other Gmail products, which can sync your contacts stored in Gmail to all your devices. It can store and organize your contact information that you communicate with. You can access your contact stored in your Gmail Contacts wherever you go and whatever device you use.

I am trying to cover each and every query regarding Google Contacts in this article. So, keep on reading the article to learn more; or go to the specific topic or questions from the Table of Content below.

Table of Contents

How to Open and Access Google Contacts

In order to open and access Gmail Contacts, you need to have a Gmail Account. If you don’t have the account, you cannot use the Gmail Contacts. So, create a Gmail account first.

To open your Gmail Address Book in a desktop, follow the steps:

Head over to your browser, Open Gmail.com, and log in to your account.

Once your Gmail dashboard opens up, select the App icon in the top right corner of your screen. The app icon is right beside your profile icon.
From the Drop-down menu, select Contacts. This will open a new window containing all your email addresses and contacts in it.

How to Add Manually Contacts in Gmail Contacts?

There are two different ways you can add Contacts to Gmail manually. One is via the Contact Form itself, while another method is adding a contact from the email.

How to Add Contacts in Gmail from Contact Form?

Go to your Gmail Contact Page: https://contacts.google.com/
On the left sidebar click on the Create contact
Now a Dialogue box “Create new contact” with a form will pop up on your screen.

Fill up the form with the user details.
If you want to add more details about the user like birthday, their locations, their websites, your relationship with that person, click on the Show more button on the bottom left of the dialogue box.
Now click the Save button to save the contact to your Gmail. Gmail lets you review the contact you just created by displaying details of the contacts on your screen.
If you want to make any changes, you can click the pencil icon to edit the contact. Click on the Star icon to add contact to Favorite.

You have successfully added a contact to your Gmail.

How to Add Contacts to Gmail from an Email?

Open your favorite browser and Login to your Gmail Account
Click on the email message from the sender you want to save to your contact list.

Hover your mouse to the username or the email of the person at the top of the email.
From the pop-up panel, click on Add to Contacts.
If you want to edit detail or add more information about the user, click on Edit Contact from the same pop-up panel. This will open the Contacts page in a new window.

In the Edit contact pop up panel, enter the user information you want to add and click the Save
There is an option to add more information to the user. To do so, click on the Show more on the bottom left corner of the Edit contact panel. Then click the Save button after adding the information.

Now, you can easily and quickly add the contact to the To field while composing a new email. Just type the first two letters of the contact, and Gmail will auto-fill the contact that matches the list.

How to Access and Edit the Contacts in Gmail?

When a user in your contact changes their contact detail like changing their email address or the phone number or their location, it’s best to update the contact of your list too.

Here are the steps to access and edit the contacts in Gmail:

Login to your Gmail.
Open your Contacts from the Google Apps menu on your Gmail. https://contacts.google.com/

On the Contacts windows, you will see the list of all the contacts saved to your Gmail. To search contacts on your list, start typing the contact’s name in the search field and select the contact from the search result. Or select the contact manually from the list.
Once you select the user, the Contact details of the user will appear on your screen. From the Contact dashboard, click on the pencil icon on the top right corner of the panel to edit the contact.
Make your changes, if you want to add additional details. Select Show more to see additional fields.

Finally, to complete your changes click on the Save

How to add an image to a Contact in Gmail?

Gmail can display the image for any contacts and will appear on all you linked the account on your browser or Android Device. When you assign an image to a contact, you will see a picture next to their profile or email address. Here is how you can add an image to a Contact in Gmail.

Login to your Gmail Account and go to Contacts from the Google Apps menu.

Now from the contact list, click on the contact where you want to add an image for.
Once the contact dialogue box opens, click on the image section “Set contact photo.”
If your Google Photos is enabled, you can select the saved photo from the Photos; or you can select an Upload photo to choose a photo from your device you want to upload.

Now, crop the image to set your profile picture and click Done on the top right corner of the edit section.

There you go, you have successfully added a profile picture to a contact in Gmail.

How to Delete Contacts in Gmail Contacts?

Google Contacts has plenty of room for storing data and information about any contact that you communicate with. It’s not unusual of your Gmail contact to fill up with contacts you haven’t heard for years, or you mistakenly added. So, to delete a contact or email address from your Gmail Address Book, remove contacts from the Gmail Contacts. Here is how:

Login to your Gmail Account.
Open your Contacts from the Gmail Apps menu.
From the Contact page, select all the contacts you want to delete by clicking the Check button.
To check an entry, first, hover your mouse button over the contact you want to delete.
Right in place of a contact profile, you will see a checkmark button that is next to the User’s name.
Now click the Check Button.
You can select multiple contacts clicking the check button.

Now click the three vertical dots on the Menu bar that appears when you select any contacts right below the Search Bar.
From the drop-down menu, click the Delete

Now a pop dialogue box will appear on your screen where you will need to confirm your deletion. Click the Delete button to delete the contact.

How to Recover Deleted Contacts in Gmail 2022? / How to Roll Back Gmail Contacts to a Previous State

The dashboard of Google Address Book is changed to a newer version. You will see a lot of old articles on the internet providing guides on older Gmail Contacts Platform. Previously the restore option was on the left sidebar of the contact page. But now, it’s moved to the setting menu. So, here is how you can recover deleted contacts in Gmail 2022.

Open your Gmail account and go to your Contacts in your browser.

On the top Menu bar, click on the Settings Menu. The setting menu is the gear icon that you will see next to your profile picture.
Next, a drop-down menu will appear on your screen containing Undo changes and More Settings.
Clicking on the Undo changes will pop up a dashboard from where you can retrieve contacts.
Gmail can only restore contacts from the past 30 days.
If you are trying to retrieve contacts you deleted before 30 days, you cannot recover those contacts.

Now click on the radio button to undo changes. If you want to retrieve your contact that you deleted before one week before, then click on Custom.
Now add Days, Hours, and Minutes to restore your Contacts to that date.
Click the Confirm button to complete your step to recover deleted Gmail Contacts in 2022.
It will take some time to work, so be patient and wait for any notification from google. It might take an hour to restore your Contacts.

How to stop Automatically Saving Contacts on your Gmail?

Gmail is set to create a new contact for every email you sent. However, this feature can sometimes hassle than becoming a handy tool to save contacts. We get frustrated when some random contact shows up in our contact list when we reply to emails from a seller or a buyer.

To disable the automatic contact syncing feature, follow these simple steps.

Click on the gear icon to open the dropdown menu from the menu bar of your inbox. It’s located on the top right corner of your window.
Select the Settings option from the list to open the Setting Page.
On the General tab of the Setting page, scroll down and look for Create contacts for auto-complete.
The default selected option will be “When I send a message to a new person, add them to Other Contacts so that I can auto-complete to them next time.” This is the reason every time you sent emails to a person; their email gets saved to your contact list.

Now, you need to select the other option “I’ll add contacts myself” to stop Gmail from automatically saving contacts.
Finally, scroll down to the end of the General tab and click Save Change Button, and you are done.

Now you can send emails to anyone without having to worry about the contacts to save in your contact list automatically.

How to Export your Gmail Contacts

The address book you create isn’t tied to one Gmail Contacts. If you have any other email address, you can use these contacts with another Gmail account or any other Email service program such as Yahoo Mail, AOL, Mozilla Thunderbird, or Hotmail. For this, you will need to export your Gmail Contacts to your hard drive.

To Export your Gmail address book:

Open your Gmail Contacts by selecting Contacts from Google Apps.

On the left sidebar of your Contact Windows, select Export
Once you select the export option, a dialogue box will appear on your screen containing Contacts dropdown, and Export as an option.

From the drop-down menu, you can either choose all contacts or the contacts you created Labels for or the contacts you frequently contacted or Starred Contacts.
On the export as an option, you can choose the file format that you want to download (Google CSV, Outlook CSV, vCard)
Google CSV Format: It exports data using Unicode preventing international characters.
Outlook CSV Format: It exports all the data converting names to default character encoding.
vCard Format: It’s an internet started format that is supported by many email programs and contact managers.
Finally, click the Export button to export all of your contact from the Gmail address book to your computer.

How to Import and Restore your Gmail Contacts (CSV File)

Suppose you have lost your access to your Gmail account, but luckily, you took a backup of your Contact list from your Gmail. You now created a new Gmail and want those contacts in that account. Here is how you can do it:

Open your Gmail Contacts from the Google Apps tab.
Select the Import option from the left sidebar of the contact window.

Click on the Select file button on the pop-up Import contacts
From the Open window navigate through your directories and select CSV file or the vCard file and click the Open
From the Import contacts dashboard select Import
Your contacts will be imported to your Google Address Book.

In the importing process, your CSV file might contain duplicate contacts. But worry not, Gmail automatically detects the duplicate values or contacts and merges the contact.

Import Contacts From Another Account Into Gmail Contacts

When you switch your other email service from one platform to another, for example: from Yahoo, Hotmail, or AOL to Gmail, you can transfer all of the data from these accounts to your Gmail Account. Here in this article, I am focusing on how to import contacts from other email service providers to Gmail. So let’s get started.

Open your favorite browser and log in to your Gmail Account.

From the Mail, windows, select the gear icon on the top right corner.
Select the Setting option from the menu that comes up.
From the Setting Windows, select Accounts and Import

Look for Import mail and contacts from the list and click on Import mail and contacts.
Next, a new window will come up. Here, you will have log into the account from where you are trying to import contacts.
Enter your Yahoo Mail, Hotmail, AOL mail, or any other webmail to import contacts from.
Now you will need to confirm the request that the Gmail sends from the account you want to import contacts from.
Select the Agree button to give access to Gmail to receive data from your Webmail.

Now you will get a message saying “Authentication successful” Please close this window to continue.

Now all of your contacts saved to another webmail will be imported to your Gmail contacts.

Address Book Groups in Gmail

If you send the same emails to a group of people every time, over and over again, it’s better to add them to a group. This way, you can send the message to a group rather than typing each email address.

After you create a group, instead of single typing emails at a time, directly type the group name in the To section while writing an email.

How to Create a New Gmail Group

Open your Gmail Contacts from your Gmail account.
From the Contacts page, select each contact you want to add in the group. To select contacts, hover your mouse button over the contact and click the checkbox.

Next, select Manage labels from the top navigation bar of the Contacts page. It’s right next to three vertical dots.
From the drop-down menu, select Create label.
In the Create label dialogue box, enter a name for your new group, and select Save.

The group will appear in the Folder pane of your left sidebar under the Labels section.

How to Create an Empty Gmail Contacts Group

Creating an empty group is useful when you want to add the contacts later on. Here is how you can create one.

Login to your Gmail account and go to Contacts from Google Apps.

In the Google Contacts, select Create label from the left sidebar of the windows.
Now, type in the name of the group in Create label dialogue box, then select Save
You have successfully created an empty group. To access the group, search for the name you gave to the group in the Labels section of the Folders pane in the left sidebar.

Add Members to a Gmail Contacts Group

You can add contacts to any existing groups from the contacts page. Here is how you can do it:

Go to your Contacts
Select your contacts. To select the contact, hover your mouse button over the contacts, and click the checkbox when it comes up.

On the top navigation pane of the Contacts page, you will find an arrow-like icon right next to three vertical dots; it is called Manage labels. Click the manage labels icon.
From the drop-down menu, select the name of the group to which you want to add the contacts.
Finally, Select Apply to add contacts to the group you want to save.

How to Delete Members from a Google Contacts Group

Removing contacts from a group is not removing them from your Gmail Contacts. Follow the steps to remove members from a Gmail contacts group.

Open your Contacts page.
In the Labels section from the left sidebar, select the group from which you want to remove members.

From the list of members from your group select contacts, you want to remove by hovering the mouse button over the contacts. And select three vertical dots from the top navigation panel of the Contact page.
If you want to delete a single contact, then click in the three vertical dots right next to the contacts that appear when you hover your mouse button over the contact.
From the drop-down menu, select the option Remove from the label.

There you go, you have successfully removed contacts from the google address book group.

How to Delete a Group in Gmail

Go to your Contact page.
In the Label section on the left sidebar, select the group you want to delete.

Select the Trash Can Icon that is located right next to the group name.
In the Delete this label dialog box, there are two options to choose; one is to delete entire contacts inside the group along with the group, and the other is to remove the group, keeping the contact details.
If you want to delete the group and keep contacts, select Keep all contacts and remove this label.
Select Delete all contacts and delete this label to delete the group along with the contact information.
Finally, select the Delete button to delete the group in Gmail contacts.

If you changed your mind and want to restore all the contacts and groups, I have already written how to restore Gmail contacts to its previous stage in this article.

Conclusion

I have tried to cover all the queries regarding Gmail Contacts through this article. However, if you have any questions you didn’t find it in our article, do comment on your queries in the comment section below so that no one who lands in our article leaves empty-handed. We will be very happy to hear it out from you and will definitely clear things out.