Take Control of
Apple Contacts

Apple’s Contacts app, which is part of macOS, iOS, iPadOS, watchOS, and the iCloud website, is not a flashy piece of software. And, to be candid, Apple has paid it very little attention over the years. It feels like an app that’s still stuck in the early 2000s.

But Contacts is still an essential hub, serving as the central repository for contact information that numerous other apps (such as Mail, Messages, Calendar, Maps, Phone, and Siri) rely on. So it pays to know what you can—and can’t—do with the app and how to deal with its quirks and deficiencies.

This compact book by Take Control publisher Joe Kissell covers everything you need to know about Contacts, including:

• Which features differ from one platform to another—and which devices you should use to perform various actions
• How to add external accounts (such as iCloud, Exchange, CardDAV, and LDAP) to Contacts, as well as how to work with local contacts stored only on your device
• Ways to create contacts, including adding them from Mail and Messages
• What import and export options are available and how to use them
• The numerous tools for editing contact cards, including working with avatars, contact posters, and customized fields
• Methods to share one or more contacts—or even an entire account—with other people (spoiler: it can get messy!)
• How to create and use conventional lists, “smart” lists, and distribution lists
• What to do if you have duplicate contact cards (in the same account or different accounts)
• Printing envelopes, mailing labels, and lists from the Mac version of Contacts
• Customizing display order, sort order, and a wide variety of other settings
• How to manage other apps’ access to information in your Contacts

Perhaps most importantly, the book shows you that it’s not just your imagination: Contacts can’t do some things you would reasonably expect it to, and yes, this design oddity and that missing feature and those anachronisms are as weird as they look. But, in many cases, there are ways to work around the things that aren’t quite right.

About Joe Kissell

Joe Kissell is the author of more than 75 books about technology. In 2017, he also became the publisher of Take Control Books, when alt concepts—the company he runs with his wife, Morgen Jahnke—acquired the Take Control imprint from TidBITS Publishing Inc.’s owners, Adam and Tonya Engst. Before he began writing full-time in 2003, Joe managed software development, a totally normal profession for someone with degrees in philosophy and linguistics.

In his rare non-work hours, Joe likes to walk, cook, read, and teach tai chi. He lives in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada, with Morgen and their sons. You can follow him on Mastodon (@joekissell) or Bluesky (@joekissell.com), or visit his personal website, JoeKissell.com.