Best way to import contacts in Google Contacts

Google Contacts. Something that you are fairly familiar with. In case you have little or no idea about it, let me tell you what exactly Google Contacts are for and what is the correct method to import your contacts in Google Contacts.

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Google Contacts is a contact management system by Google that lets everyone store contacts in Google and organize the contact information of the eople. Each contact can contain basic information like names, email addresses, and phone numbers, but can also include extended information, like physical addresses, employer, department, job title, etc.

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Why Google Contacts?

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Well, contacts are an essential medium to communicate and there are numerous contacts saved on our phone. Right from our business contacts to family ones, from friends to our favorite food joint’s number. Having understood the importance of contacts, anyone definitely cannot afford to lose them.

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You MUST have all your contacts synced and stored, despite any circumstances. And Google Contacts helps EXACTLY does this. That’s the most significant reason why Google Contacts should be your ONLY contact app.

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Since I briefed you about the advantages of having contacts in gmail or google, moving further let us explore some other features of the Google Contacts.

Key features of Google Contacts

Google Contacts, that is popularly known for being able to store and access the contacts, has much more in its bag.

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• ‍Add and access contacts

Needless to explain, how you can add different contacts and access them anytime.

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• ‍Create Contacts with Labels

Similar to Gmail, you can create the label and then choose the contacts you want to add to a particular label. As you can create the labels, you can remove them too. With labels, you can manage your groups’ contacts effortlessly.

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• ‍Create your organization directory

With Google Contacts, you can create a directory of your organization, where you can store contact information about everyone in your organization and shared external contacts. While you set up Directory, you might want to disable Directory (turn off contact sharing), then turn it back on when you’re ready.

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• ‍Enable/Disable Directory

You can even restrict or allow the conact sharing within the directory.

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• ‍Import Export contact

You can import contacts to Google Contacts (That we are going to learn in our next section). You can always export your existing contacts.

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• ‍Merge Duplicate contacts

To optimize your contact list, Google Contacts finds similar contacts and allows you to merge your duplicate contacts.

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So these are a few of the many important features of Google Contacts. However, amid all the features of Google Contacts, importing contacts is of utmost importance while setting up.

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Let's look at how it is done.

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How to import contacts in Google Contacts the right way

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Prerequisite

You need to have all your contacts in either excel or CSV file.

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Step 1

Locate the option of import contacts on the left side bar.

As you click on that button, a dialog box asking to import a CSV file of your contacts will appear.

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This is where it gets tricky. Google Contacts import accepts almost all types of data in Excel or CSV file format, if we do not have the data in the correct format, it doesn't store it in the way it should be.

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For ex. your contact's phone number or email may get stored as custom field and not as phone number or email.

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So we have prepared a sample file that you can directly use. Get it from the below link.

Download sample CSV file

and open it with Google Sheets.

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Step 2

You will see that we have kept a few sample contacts. All the columns in that sample file needs to be there even if you don't have a value for that. So keep those blank, fill in other data you have in this file format and save it locally. Once filled, download the file as .CSV.

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Click on select file in Google Contacts and open the .CSV file that you have saved locally.

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Step 3

Lastly, click on Import. So all contacts will be imported successfully on Google Contacts. Click on any contact to view information.

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So, this is how you can import contacts in Google Contacts. However, Google Contacts does not allow users to share contacts with other coworkers like the way files can be shared on Google drive.

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We have created a plugin for that so If you are willing to share contacts with your colleagues, you can easily share them by using ContactBook.

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I’ve mostly covered everything you need to know about Google Contacts. In case you need clarity on any points above, let me know in the comment section. I’d love to help you.

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FAQs

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Q. Can I Import contacts into Google Contacts?

A. Yes, you can import contacts into Google Contacts by clicking on the "Import" button, choosing the file containing the contacts, mapping the fields, and clicking "Import".

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Q. What format do I Import Google Contacts into?

A. To import Google Contacts, you can export them in CSV, vCard, or Google CSV format.

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Q. How do I export multiple contacts to Google?

A. To export multiple contacts to Google, select them, export them to a CSV file, go to your Google account, import the CSV file, and wait for the process to complete.

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Q. How do I Import a CSV file into contacts?

A. Steps to import CSV file into contacts: Open the contacts app, select import contacts, choose the CSV file, map the columns to corresponding fields, import contacts, and verify for errors or duplicates.

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