Sometimes with all the emphasis on smart features of phones, it can be easy to forget that there’s a phone behind all that and any good phone – even before smart phones – can maintain contact lists. On Android, you can use a Google account to automatically back up your contacts to the Internet so if you ever break or lose your phone or just get a new one you won’t lose them.
Accessing your contacts is easy, you can either open the “Contacts” app, or choose the little person icon inside the Phone app.
Adding a contact
To add a contact, click the (+) button inside the Contacts App and fill out the information of your contact. Once you fill in a phone number, your phone will tell you the name of the person the next time they call you instead of just a number.
Adding a Contact from Recent calls
You can also select a recent phone call and choose “Add a Contact” and have the number pre-filled for you.
Removing a Contact
Removing a contact is just as simple as adding one, open the Contacts app and then long press on the contact you want to remove. You can tap on additional contacts if you want to delete more. Once they’re selected touch the trash can icon at the top right.
Backing up Contacts
Perhaps the most important task you will do with contacts is backing them up safely to the Internet. Phones are fairly reliable, but you can never be certain that something won’t happen and it stops working or you may lose it or simply get a new phone.
On Android, if you sign into a Google account your contacts and many other settings on your phone will be backed up automatically. This is by far the easiest way to ensure your contacts remain available. If you don’t have a Google account, it’s easy to make one. When you are setting up your phone the first time, it will ask if you’d like to make an account. If you agreed or signed into an existing account, you are good to go. If you do not have an account or do not know if you have an account, you can make a new one at Google. You may very well have an account and not know it, so you can try the “Forgot Password” link and put in your phone number to see if you may, and then follow the password recovery links. Generally, your phone number is enough to prove you are the owner of the account and you can set a new password by proving you are the owner of the phone number by entering a code they send to you in a text message.
…but what if you don’t want a Google account?
There are plenty of good reasons to not want a Google account, but you may still need to back up your contacts. Luckily, your phone has a small chip inside it that identifies your phone to the cell towers called a SIM card. This card is also able to store contacts. Using the Contacts app, you can export your contacts to the SIM card or to a file that can be imported later.
To export your contacts, in the Contact app touch the button at the top left that is three lines (it’s called a hamburger menu) and choose Settings. Then go to Import or Export. Import allows you to bring in contacts from your SIM card or the file you exported, and Export saves contacts from your phone to the card or file.
- Basic concepts – Android
- Basic concepts – iPhone
- Managing contacts – Android
- Managing contacts – iPhone
