5. Managing Contacts
In this chapter, you find out how to use the Contacts app to create and manage your business and personal contacts. Topics include the following:
Understanding the Contacts interface
Creating, viewing, and editing contact records
Joining multiple contact records for the same person
Defining and working with contact groups
Backing up your contacts to built-in memory or a memory card
Exporting contacts from Outlook (Windows) and Contacts/Address Book (Mac) and importing them into Google Contacts
Setting display options for the Contacts record list
Contacts is the built-in address book app on the Galaxy S5. It’s populated by contact records created on the phone, in your Google Contacts account on the Web, and in other information sources that you sync to it, such as Facebook, LinkedIn, and Exchange Server accounts. The Contacts app links to Phone for dialing numbers, Email for selecting email recipients, and Messages for selecting text and multimedia message recipients.
Verizon and Other Carriers
The tabs across the top of the Contacts screen are slightly different for Verizon phones. Verizon users will see a Recent tab, whereas everyone else will see a Logs tab. Both tabs and their uses are discussed in this chapter, but the figures shown are a mixture of Verizon and non-Verizon ones.
The Contacts Interface
Contacts has four sections, each represented by a tab at the top of the screen. Here’s what you can do in each section:
• Keypad. Tap the Keypad tab to switch to the Phone app to make a call. (Phone and Contacts are linked; you can quickly switch between them by tapping the appropriate tab. Chapter 4, “Placing and Receiving Calls,” covers the Phone app.)
• Logs (all carriers other than Verizon). Tap the Logs tab to view your call records (dialed calls, missed calls, received calls, and rejected calls), enabling you to easily return calls and assign numbers to your Auto Reject List.
• Recent (Verizon only). Tap the Recent tab to view a list of people and companies that you frequently call but have not marked as favorites.
Non-Verizon Phones
If Verizon isn’t your carrier, you can view the people you frequently call by selecting the Favorites tab and scrolling to the Frequently Contacted section.
• Favorites. Tap the Favorites tab to view a list of only those contact records that you’ve marked as favorites. To add or remove someone as a favorite, open the person’s record for viewing in any list and tap the star icon at the top of the record. For more information about favorites, see “Mark Contacts as Favorites,” later in this chapter.
• Contacts. The default tab is Contacts. It displays a scrolling list of your contact records. You can tap a person’s name to view her contact record. This section of Contacts can optionally be displayed by Phone, Email, and Messages to enable you to select a call, email, or message recipient. The Contacts list is discussed throughout this chapter.
Creating a Contact Record
In addition to creating contacts in Google Contacts or another address book utility that you’re syncing with your phone, you can create new contact records directly on the phone.
1. Tap the Contacts icon on the Home screen or select it in Apps.
Other Contacts Launch Options
You can also launch Contacts by tapping the Contacts tab in the Phone app or the Contacts icon in Email or Messages when selecting message recipients.
2. Tap the Contacts tab if it isn’t already selected.
3. Tap the + (plus) icon to create a new contact record.
4. Verizon only: Choose where the new contact will be created. Select Phone for a contact that will reside only on the phone. Select a specific account from your installed accounts to share this record with the account’s contact list. (Other carriers specify where the record is created in Step 6.)
Adding Accounts
Chapters 1, “Galaxy S5 Essentials,” and 6, “Using the Calendar,” provide examples of adding accounts to the phone.
5. The screen for creating a contact appears, ready for you to enter the person or company’s contact information.
6. The top entry shows the account in which the contact will be created and shared. Tap the entry to change the location.
Storage Location and Sharing
To create and store the record only on the phone, choose Phone (Verizon) or Device (carriers other than Verizon).
7. Enter the person’s name. You can type the full name in the Name field or—to enter more detailed name information, such as a prefix, suffix, or middle name—tap the expand/collapse arrow beside the field. When you finish entering the name components, you can collapse the name by tapping the same arrow.
8. Enter a phone number for the person in the Phone field. If the label (Mobile, for example) is incorrect, tap the label and select the correct one from the drop-down list. (Select Custom—at the bottom of the list—if you want to create your own label.)
Add more numbers by tapping the Phone field’s plus (+) icon. To remove an unwanted or blank number, tap its minus (–) icon.
Text Messaging
If you intend to send text or multimedia messages to this person, you must enter at least one number that’s designated as Mobile.
9. Tap the + (plus) icon beside the Email field to record an email address for the person. Use the same process as you did for the Phone field (see Step 8).
10. Add fields that aren’t currently shown by tapping Add Another Field at the bottom of the screen. As an example, Steps 11–12 explain how to add an Address field to the record.
11. Select Address in the Add Another Field dialog box and tap OK.
12. Use the same method that you used to enter Phone and Email information. Address is a composite field with separate entries for Street, City, State, ZIP Code, and Country. To add other elements, such as P.O. Box and Neighborhood, tap the expand/collapse icon.
13. Optional: You can assign the person to one or more contact groups. The advantage of using groups is that you can text or email all members of the group by addressing a message to the group rather than to each member. To assign the person to groups, tap the Groups field, select the check box of each appropriate group, and tap Save. (To learn how to create and use groups, see “Working with Contact Groups,” later in this chapter.)
14. Optional: To specify a distinctive ringtone that will announce calls from this person, tap Ringtone, select an option in the Ringtones dialog box, and tap OK.
Specifying a Ringtone
You can select ringtones from those provided with the phone (Ringtones) or use any audio file—such as a downloaded ringtone or a complete song—that you’ve stored on the phone. To assign such a custom ringtone to the record, tap the Add button and locate the audio or music file. Ringtones are discussed in detail in “Ringtones” in Chapter 3, “Making the Phone Your Own.”
15. Optional (Verizon only): To choose a distinctive alert for messages from this contact, tap Message tone, select an alert tone in the Message tone dialog box, and tap OK.
16. Optional (Verizon only): To assign an identifiable vibration pattern to the contact, tap Vibration Pattern, select a pattern in the Vibration Pattern dialog box, and tap OK. To create a custom vibration pattern, tap Create, and then touch and release the screen with varying lengths of time to create the pattern on the Create Pattern screen.
17. When you finish entering the initial information for this contact, tap the Save button at the top of the screen or tap Cancel to discard the record.
Adding a Photo to a Contact Record
To help identify a contact, you can add a photo to the person’s record. You can use any photo that’s stored on the phone or use the phone’s camera to shoot the picture.
1. Associate a photo with the contact by tapping the photo placeholder in the upper-left corner while creating or editing the contact record. (If the record already has a photo, you can tap it to replace it with a new photo.)
2. Select the appropriate option in the Contact Photo dialog box. Tap Image to use a photo stored on the phone. Tap Tagged Pictures to use a previously shared image. Tap Take Picture to use the phone’s camera to shoot the picture now.
3. If you tapped Image or Tagged Pictures in Step 2, Gallery launches. Tap the folder that contains the photo, tap the photo’s thumbnail, and go to Step 5.
4. If you tapped Take Picture in Step 2, Camera launches. Tap the Camera button to take the person’s picture. If you don’t care for the shot, tap Discard and try again; otherwise, tap Save.
5. On the cropping screen, move and resize the blue cropping rectangle to select the area of the photo that you want to use, and then tap Done. The cropped photo is added to the contact record.
6. If you’re done creating or editing the record, tap the Save button at the top of the screen.
Viewing Contacts
The bulk of what you do in Contacts involves finding and viewing individual contacts so you can call, email, or text them.
1. Launch Contacts by tapping its Home screen icon.
2. With the Contacts tab selected, contacts are displayed in an alphabetical scrolling list. By default, all contacts from all sources are listed. You can restrict contacts to a single source (LinkedIn, for example) and set other display options by following the instructions in “Setting Display Options” at the end of this chapter.
3. To find a particular contact, you can use any of the following techniques:
• Flick up or down to scroll the list.
• Tap an index letter on the right edge of the screen to go to that approximate spot in the alphabetical list.
• Press and drag in the index letter list. As you drag, a large version of each index letter appears. Remove your finger when the correct letter is shown. For example, to find a person whose last name is Jones, release your finger when J appears.
• Search for someone by tapping the Search box and entering any element of the person’s record, such as first or last name, street name, or email address. As you type, a list of likely matching contacts appears. When you see the correct record, tap the person’s entry.
4. When you find the contact, tap it to view the person’s record. Depending on the information recorded for the contact, you can dial any listed number by tapping the green phone icon, send a text message to the person by tapping the orange envelope icon, or address a new email to the person by tapping an email address’ envelope icon.
Editing Contact Records
Contact records sometimes require editing. You might have to add or change an email address or phone number, or you may want to substitute a better picture. Editing a contact employs the same techniques that you use to create contact records. In this section, you discover several ways to edit records, as well as delete them.
Edit Contacts
When changes to a record are necessary to bring it up to date, here’s what you need to do:
1. Select the record that you want to edit in Contacts. The complete record displays.
2. Tap the Edit icon.
3. Using the techniques described in “Creating a Contact Record,” make the necessary changes to the person’s information.
4. Tap Save to save your edits, or tap Cancel if you decide not to save the changes.
Set Defaults for a Contact
Several contact fields can have multiple entries. For example, a record can have several phone numbers, email addresses, IM usernames, and mailing addresses. For some of these fields, you can optionally specify a default entry—that is, one that you want to treat as primary.
1. In any Contacts list, select the record for which you want to view, set, or change defaults. The complete record displays.
2. Tap the menu icon and choose Mark as Default. All items for which you can set a default are displayed.
3. Tap a radio button to set an entry as a default. If necessary, scroll to see any additional items.
4. Tap Save to set the new defaults for the record.
5. Whenever you view the record, default entries are denoted by a blue check mark.
Link and Unlink Contacts
Your contact records probably come from multiple sources. Some are created on the phone; others might originate in Google Contacts, LinkedIn, an Exchange Server account, or a social networking site. As a result, when you scroll through the entries in Contacts, you may find some duplicates. You can use the Link Contacts command (formerly known as Join Contact) to merge the duplicates for a person into a single contact record.
1. In the Contacts list, locate a pair of records for the same person by browsing or searching. This example uses a person with a record that was created on the phone and another created in Gmail. Tap the record that you want to serve as the primary record.
2. Tap the menu icon and choose Link Contacts. The Suggested Contacts list appears.
3. If the list includes the person’s other record, select it and tap Done. Otherwise, scroll down to locate the record, select it, and tap Done.
4. The two records are linked to create a single record. If you view the record, you can see the sources of the linked records. If more records exist for this person, you can link those as well by using the Link Contacts command again.
Unlinking Contacts
If necessary, you can unlink records, re-creating the original, individual records. Open the linked record, tap the Link icon (which looks like a chain link) or choose Unlink Contacts from the menu, and tap the minus (–) sign beside one of the listed records.
Mark Contacts as Favorites
To make it easy to quickly find people with whom you’re in regular contact, you can mark records as favorites. Doing so adds those people to the contacts in your Favorites list.
1. In a Contacts list, tap a contact name.
2. Tap the star icon at the top of the screen to add the contact to your Favorites. When marked as a favorite, the star is gold. If you subsequently need to remove the contact from Favorites, open the record and tap the star icon again.
Simultaneously Removing Multiple Favorites
To remove multiple contacts from Favorites, select the Favorites tab, tap the menu icon, and choose Remove from Favorites. Tap the check box of each person that you want to remove, and then tap Done. (When removing favorites, you can also remove people from the Frequently Contacted list by tapping their check boxes.)
Grid Versus List View
If you’ve added photos to your favorite contacts, tap the menu icon and choose Grid View to display favorites as photo thumbnails. (To restore the Favorites scrolling list, open the menu and choose List View.)
Delete Contacts
People leave your personal and business life for many reasons. When you’re certain that you no longer need certain contact records, you can delete them.
1. To delete one or more records while viewing any Contacts list, press and hold any of these records. (Alternatively, you can open the menu and choose Delete.)
2. Select other contacts that you also want to delete, if any. Selected contacts have a green check mark.
3. Delete the selected contacts by tapping the Trash icon or Done, respectively (depending on the technique employed in Step 1). Tap OK in the Delete Contact confirmation dialog box.
Deleting an Open Record
You can also delete a record while you’re viewing it. Tap the menu icon, choose Delete, and tap OK in the Delete Contact confirmation dialog box.
Working with Contact Groups
A group is a collection of contacts that have something in common, such as membership in a parents’ organization, employees in a company department, or high school friends. Because each group is a subset of Contacts, you can use groups to quickly find every important person of a particular type. You can also use a group as the recipient for an email or text message, automatically sending it to all members. You can create groups and define their memberships from scratch, as well as use the built-in groups (Family and Friends, for example) and ones created for you by websites, such as LinkedIn.
Create a Group
1. In Contacts, tap the Groups icon.
2. Tap the plus (+) icon to create a new group.
3. Optional: Specify the account of which this group will be a subset by tapping Create Group In.
4. Enter a name for the group.
5. Optional: Specify a ringtone that will announce calls from group members.
6. Optional: Specify an alert for text messages from group members.
7. Optional: Specify a vibration pattern that will announce calls or text messages from group members.
8. Optional: Tap Add Member to set the initial group membership. Select members by tapping their names and then tap Done. (Note that you can add members at any time.)
9. Tap the Save button to save the group name, membership, and settings. The group name is added to the Integrated Groups list. Whenever you want to view the group’s membership, tap the Groups icon (refer to the figure for Step 1) and tap the group’s name in the Integrated Groups list.
Changing a Group’s Definition or Membership
You can quickly change a group’s settings or membership. Tap the Groups icon, tap the group’s name, and then open the menu and choose Edit Group. When you finish making changes, tap Save.
A Hidden Groups Feature
Below the Integrated Groups list are two categories labeled Accounts and Organizations. Tap Accounts to view contacts grouped by account, such as your LinkedIn associates. Tap Organizations to view all people affiliated with the same organization, such as all Microsoft employees. If you aren’t great at remembering names, opening an organization group might be just the help you need to find the name, phone number, or email address of the person you’re trying to contact.
Quickly Removing Members from a Group
In addition to adding new members to a group, you can easily remove one or more members. Open the group to display its membership. Then tap the menu icon, choose Remove from Group, select the members that you want to remove, and tap Done.
Change a Person’s Memberships
1. With the Contacts tab selected, tap a person’s name to open her record.
2. Tap the Edit icon.
3. Tap the Groups entry.
4. Add or remove check marks to assign or remove the person from the listed groups. Tap Save to save the changes. (Note that a person can be a member of multiple groups.)
2. Tap the Contacts icon to select email or message recipients.
3. In Contacts, tap the Groups tab and select the group that you want to email or message.
4. Select the individual group members that you want to email or message, or tap Select All to include the entire group as recipients.
Multiple Choice
If a selected individual has multiple email addresses or mobile phone numbers, a dialog box appears in which you must select the correct address or number.
5. Tap Done to transfer the selected members’ email addresses or mobile numbers to Email or Messages, respectively. Complete your email or compose your message as you normally do.
Start an Email or Text Message from Contacts
You can also initiate a group email or text message from within Contacts. Tap the Groups icon, tap the group name, tap the menu icon, and choose Send Message or Email. Indicate whether you want to send a message or email, select recipients, and tap Done. (Another way to perform this procedure is to choose the Send Message or Email command with the Contacts tab selected, and then select a group and specify members who will be recipients.)
2. Change a group’s position by dragging the group up or down by the dot pattern on its right edge. Release the group when it’s in the desired spot. Repeat for other groups whose positions you want to change.
3. Tap Done to save the new group list order.
Delete a Group
1. Tap the Groups icon, and then open the menu and choose Delete Group.
2. Select the groups you want to delete by tapping check boxes, and then tap Done.
3. Indicate whether you want to delete only the selected group(s)—leaving the associated contact records intact—or the group(s) and member contact records.
4. Confirm the deletion(s) by tapping OK or tap Cancel if you’ve changed your mind.
Deleting a User-Created Group
To quickly delete a group that you created, press and hold its entry in the groups list and tap the Trash icon.
Backing Up/Restoring and Exporting/Importing Contact Records
As security against phone-related disasters or in preparation for switching to a new phone, you can back up your Contacts data to a memory card or built-in memory, or you can merge the data with your Google or Samsung account.
Exporting To and From the SIM Card
Some carriers also allow you to export Contacts data to and from a phone’s SIM card. However, because only a record’s name, phone number, and email address are exported, backing up to the SIM card is considerably less useful than any other method described in this section. Furthermore, only some carriers support this feature.
To export contacts to the SIM card, select the Contacts tab and tap the menu icon. Choose SIM Management, Copy Contacts to SIM or choose Settings, Contacts, Import/Export, Export to SIM Card, depending on your carrier. To restore contacts from the SIM card, select the Contacts tab and tap the menu icon. Choose SIM Management, Copy Contacts from SIM or choose Settings, Contacts, Import/Export, Import from SIM Card.
You can also use export/import procedures to manually move copies of contact records from your computer-based email and address book utilities into Contacts. For information about and strategies for syncing your contact data with its various sources, see Chapter 17, “Synchronizing Data.”
Carriers Differ
Each carrier decides the Contacts backup and restore procedures that it supports, as well as the steps required. However, regardless of which carrier you have, you should find several procedures in this section—occasionally with small variations—that are applicable to your phone.
Backing Up Contact Data
Regardless of your carrier, there are multiple options for backing up your Contacts data.
Merge with Google Contacts or Your Samsung Account
1. With the Contacts list displayed, tap the menu icon and choose Merge Accounts.
2. Tap Google or Samsung Account, as appropriate.
3. Tap OK in the confirmation dialog box. When you open and view individual contact records, you see that all are now marked as Google contacts or as Samsung contacts.
Only the Device (Phone) Records Merge
If you merge your phone’s contacts with the Samsung account that you created during the phone’s setup, only those contacts created with Device or Phone as the source are merged; Google contacts are left unchanged.
To Merge or Not to Merge
Think carefully before performing a Merge with Google or—to a lesser degree—Merge with Samsung Account, especially if your contact records have many different sources and you want to keep those sources intact. Unlike the other backup and export procedures described in this section, the Merge commands modify the records by changing their creation source. Thus, use Merge with Google only if you’re committing to using Google/Gmail as the repository of all your contact data.
Back Up to a Memory Card
1. With the Contacts tab selected, tap the menu icon and choose Settings. (Note that you must have a memory card installed in the phone to export your Contacts data using this procedure.)
2. Tap Contacts.
4. Tap Export to SD Card.
5. Tap OK in the Confirm Export dialog box. The data is exported to the displayed vCard filename (.vcf) and location. The extSdCard in the file pathname indicates that your add-in memory card is the destination.
Multiple Backups
As time passes, you can export multiple backups of the Contacts database to your memory card. Each new backup increments the filename by 1 over the highest-numbered backup on the card. For example, if there’s already a Contacts.vcf, the next backup will be Contacts_002.vcf.
Exporting to USB (Built-In Memory)
If you don’t have an add-in memory card, you can export your contacts to a vCard file in the phone’s built-in memory (USB Storage). From there, you can copy the file to your computer or store it in an online storage service. In Step 4 of this task, select Export to USB Storage, and then tap OK in the Confirm Export dialog box.
Restoring Contacts from Backups
If something happens to the Contacts database on your Galaxy S5 or you get a new phone, you can restore the data from one or more backups.
Restore Contacts from a Memory Card Backup
If this is a new phone, install the memory card in the phone to which you want to restore your Contacts database. (See “Adding a Memory Card” in Chapter 20, “Optimizing and Troubleshooting,” for instructions.)
1. Launch the Contacts app. With the Contacts tab selected, tap the menu icon and choose Settings.
2. Tap Contacts.
4. Tap Import from SD Card.
5. When the contacts are imported, you must associate them with an account. Select an account from the Save Contact To dialog box.
6. If you’ve only exported to the memory card once, your contacts are immediately imported. On the other hand, if you’ve created multiple SD Card backups, the Select vCard File dialog box appears. Select the file or files that you want to import, and then tap OK.
Beware of Duplicates
When restoring a backup from a memory card, the procedure doesn’t check for duplicate records. Thus, it’s safest to restore to a device that contains no contact records or only new, unique records that you’ve created on the phone. Remember, too, that if you have any contacts that you previously created or synced with Google Contacts, those contacts will automatically be restored on your first sync. In other words, restoring from the SD card might be unnecessary.
Restoring a USB (Built-In Memory) Backup
If you’ve stored your Contacts backup in the phone’s built-in memory—rather than on an add-in memory card, you can restore it by tapping Import from USB Storage in Step 4. In the Save Contact To dialog box, choose an account to associate with the restored contacts.
If you’ve only exported to USB once, your contacts are immediately imported. On the other hand, if you’ve created multiple USB backups, the Select vCard File dialog box appears (see the figure for Step 6). Select the file or files that you want to import, and then tap OK.
Importing Contact Data from Other Sources into Google Contacts
Although Google Contacts (Gmail’s address book) is the de facto source for Android contact data, it’s not the place in which many of us have chosen to store our contacts. You may already have years of contacts stored in email clients and address book utilities on your computer. This section explains how to export your existing computer contacts and then import them into Google Contacts.
Exporting Your Computer’s Data
Here’s how to export your data from your existing contact-management application on your Mac or PC:
• Address Book or Contacts (Mac). Select the contacts to export and then choose File, Export, Export vCard (or Export Group vCard). Alternatively, drag the contacts out of the Address Book or Contacts window to your Desktop or a convenient Finder window.
• Outlook 2010 or 2013 (Windows). Click the File tab, click Options, and then click Advanced. Click the Export button to launch the Import and Export Wizard, click Export to a File, and click Next. Select the Comma Separated Values (Windows) option and click Next. Select the Contacts folder and click next. Click Browse, select the folder in which to place the exported file, and click Next. Finally, click Finish to export the data.
Import the Exported Data into Google Contacts
1. In your computer’s browser, go to mail.google.com or gmail.com and log into your account. Open the Gmail menu and choose Contacts.
Just in Case...
As a safety measure, you might want to back up the Google Contacts data by opening the More menu and choosing Export. If the import described in this task doesn’t go as planned, you can then restore your original Google Contacts data by choosing More, Import or by choosing More, Restore Contacts. The former command restores from your backup file, whereas the latter restores from one of several Google-provided backups.
2. To replace all current data in Google Contacts with the new data, you must delete all the records. From the first Contacts menu, choose All to select all visible records. Then from the More menu, choose Delete Contacts.
If Google Contacts contains records that do not exist in the imported data, you may want to delete all records except those.
3. If still more records exist, repeat Step 2. Continue until all records have been deleted.
4. Choose More, Import.
5. Select the data file to import by clicking the Choose File button in the Import Contacts dialog box.
6. Select the exported data file in the dialog box and click the Choose button.
7. Click the Import button in the Import Contacts dialog box. The exported data appears in Google Contacts.
Setting Display Options
With the Contacts tab selected, you can set a variety of useful options that determine which records are displayed and the order in which they appear.
1. Tap the menu icon and choose Settings.
2. Tap Contacts.
3. Tap the Only Contacts with Phones check box to hide contact records that don’t include a phone number. (To restore the full contacts list, tap it again to remove the check mark.)
4. You can sort contacts alphabetically by first name or last name. To change the current sort order, tap Sort By and then select an option in the Sort By dialog box.
5. Regardless of the Sort By order specified in Step 4, you can display each contact as first name first (Bob Smith) or last name first (Smith, Bob). Tap Display Contacts By, and then select an option in the Display Contacts By dialog box.
6. When you finish making changes, tap the Back icon or press the Back key.
Specifying Contacts to Display
There’s also an option to view only those contacts associated with a particular account. For instance, you can view only your Facebook friends or LinkedIn colleagues. On the Settings screen, tap Contacts to Display, and select the account that you want to view. To create a custom view that combines several accounts, tap the Settings icon to the right of the Customized List option.
