What's Your Number? 10 Tricks Inside the iPhone Contacts App (2024)

The Contacts app on your iPhone and iPad is a useful way to manage contact information for family, friends, colleagues, and everyone else in your life. But you can also use it to create multiple contact lists, message contacts, export lists, turn contact info into a widget, and more. You can also create a poster for any contact and include specific pronouns for them.

Many of these features require iOS 16 or iPadOS 16, though some of the newer capabilities were added with iOS 17 and iPadOS 17. To make sure your OS is up to date, go to Settings > General > Software Update. You’ll be told that your device is up to date or see a prompt to install the latest update.

(Credit: Lance Whitney / Apple)

By default, all your contacts are stored in one list, but you can split them into separate lists: one for family, one for friends, one for colleagues, etc. Open the Contacts app and tap the Lists link in the upper-left corner of your main Contacts list. Select Add List, enter a name, and tap Done.

You can add people to a list by tapping one from the Lists screen and selecting Add Contacts on the empty page. Select the individual contacts you want to add and tap Done. Note that you can add someone to more than one list. If a list is already populated with contacts, tap the plus (+) icon to add more people.

To remove a contact from a list you created, open the list, swipe the person’s name to the left, and tap Remove. Note that removing someone from a created list does not remove them from the main contact list. To rename a list, press down on the list and tap Rename. Long-press on it and tap Delete if you want to remove it.

2. Drag and Drop a Contact to a List

(Credit: Lance Whitney / Apple)

Instead of adding a contact to a list through the Add Contacts link, you can also drag and drop the name. This maneuver requires two hands or two fingers. Open your main contacts list or the All Contacts list. Press down on the name of a contact and drag it slightly. With another finger, tap the Lists entry in the upper left corner. Drag and drop the contact onto a specific list to add them. Open the list and you’ll see the name of the person.

(Credit: Lance Whitney / Apple)

Rather than communicating with individual contacts, you can reach out to all the people in an entire list in one shot. To do this, open the Lists screen and press down on the list you wish to use. From the menu, choose Email All to compose an email or Message All to write a text. When you send the message, all individuals on the list will receive it.

4. Merge Duplicate Contacts

(Credit: Lance Whitney / Apple)

The Contacts app can automatically detect and merge duplicate contacts. To try this, tap All Contacts from the Lists screen. If any duplicates are discovered, a message appears at the top telling you how many were found. Tap the View Duplicates link to view them. Select Merge All and then tap Merge Duplicates to merge each duplicate account into one contact. Choose Ignore All to leave the duplicates in place.

5. Export a List

(Credit: Lance Whitney / Apple)

You can export a list from the Contacts app to save it for use elsewhere or share it with another person. To do this, open the Lists screen and press down on the list you want to save or share. Choose Export, then select which fields you wish to include in the transfer. Pick the method or destination, such as AirDrop, Messages, Mail, Quick Note, or Files.

(Credit: Lance Whitney / Apple)

If you need to share a contact's info with someone, you don't have to send every detail. Press down on the name of the contact in a list and choose Share or open the card for the contact you wish to share and tap Share Contact. Under the person’s name, tap Manage Shared Info.

Tap the fields you don't want to share to deselect them and then tap Done. For example, you may need to share someone's phone number but don’t want to reveal their email and street addresses. Now choose the app or person with which you want to share the card, and only the fields that are selected will be included.

(Credit: Lance Whitney / Apple)

if you have iOS 17 or iPadOS 17, you can add a pronoun for a specific contact. To do this, tap the contact’s name and then tap Edit in the upper-right corner. At the editing screen, tap the add pronouns entry. Enter the pronoun you wish to use for this person in each of the three fields. When finished, tap Add and then tap Done.

Note that the pronouns you choose are used only by specific apps and aren’t shared with Apple or third-party developers.

8. Create a Poster for a Contact

(Credit: Lance Whitney / Apple)

Just as you can create a full screen contact poster for yourself, you can also create one for another person. Open the person’s contact card and tap Contact Photo & Poster. At the next screen, choose the type of poster you want to create among the four options. Choose Camera to take a new picture or pick Photos to choose an existing photo from your library. Selecting Memoji will let you pick a specific memoji, while Monogram lets you use the contact’s initials.

After selecting your desired option, the image appears on the screen. Pinch the screen to crop and move the image. Tap the contact’s name to change the font and/or color. Tap Done when finished. At the Preview Poster screen, tap Continue. Next, you can move and scale the image and then apply a filter. Tap Done, then Continue, then Done again. You’ll now see the new contact poster whenever you open the person’s contact card or speak with them by phone.

9. Use the Quick Actions Menu

(Lance Whitney/Apple)

Press down on the name of a contact, and a Quick Actions menu pops up. From the menu, you can message, call, or email the contact. You can also pay them using Apple Cash, copy or share the contact card, remove the contact from the current list, or delete the card entirely.

(Lance Whitney/Apple)

If you frequently need to access information for specific contacts, you can add those people to a widget. To do this, swipe to the right on the home screen until you reach the widgets screen. Tap the Edit button at the bottom and then tap the plus (+) icon at the top. Swipe down the screen until you reach the list of apps and then select Contacts.

You can choose from three different types of widgets showing one, four, or six contacts. After selecting your preferred widget, tap the Add Widget button and then tap Done. By default, the widget displays the first one, four, or six contacts in your list. To see different contacts, press down on the Contacts widget and select Edit Widget. Tap the name of a contact that you wish to replace and choose the contact you want to see from the All Contacts list.

You can also change the order of the contacts in the widget by pressing down on the name of a specific contact and dragging it higher or lower until they all appear in your preferred order.