Here’s a confession: I’ve never actually bothered to sort out the contacts I have in my Gmail account — or any other contact list I have, for that matter.
So whether I get emails from someone new or exchange phone numbers with someone I just met, all these contacts just end up as a big puddle of unnamed numbers and email addresses that I just can’t be bothered to wade through. Gmail’s search-as-you-type function means I don’t have to manually type in complete email addresses, anyway.
But I have a reason for that, and I do think it’s a pretty valid one: there simply hasn’t been a system that’s efficient or intuitive enough for me to want to work my way through the hundreds of contacts I have in my Gmail account.
Until now, that is.
Yesterday, Google unveiled a preview of the new Google Contacts, which come with a number of cool features.
For one, the new Google Contacts will allow you to remove duplicate contacts easily. (Goodness knows how much I need this — I’m guessing about a third of all my contacts are really just duplicates, only with different profile pictures.)
This feature works as simply as it sounds. By clicking on the “Find duplicates” tab, repeat contacts will pop up in pairs, and all you have to do is select merge to banish the second contact forever.
Another feature that will kick in is one that will allow us to view recent emails that we’ve sent to, or received from, a particular person on our contact list. This means by clicking on any one person’s contact card, we’ll be able to view a history of our sent emails and conversations.
The new update will also see your contact list get kept up-to-date automatically, as Google will periodically gather updated information such as the job titles and email addresses of your contacts and revise them as they change.
From what I see, I’m definitely having high hopes for Google Contacts. It seems like Google has finally made it easy enough for me to want to organise my contact lists — and thank goodness for that, because I could definitely do without duplicate contacts of that friend from primary school I no longer want to speak with.