December 8, 2011

Google Contacts Integrates With Google+

Gmail's contact manger started to include information from Google Profiles. You can also find your Google+ circles in the sidebar, below the list of groups.


By default, the data obtained from Google Profiles is displayed below the information you've entered, but you can combine them: go to a contact page, click the "More" dropdown and select "[Show external data] inline".

It's interesting to notice that the Google Profiles data is automatically added when you enter an email address associated with a profile. To remove this information, just delete the corresponding email address.

The latest features are also available at google.com/contacts, which has recently switched to the new Google Contacts interface, but you can find them in the old Gmail interface, as well.

{ Thanks, Scott, Filipe, Venkat, Yavuz, Shimmy, Zachary and Matt. }
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25 comments:

  1. Cosmin SANDUDecember 8, 2011 at 4:28 AM

    This functionality is not available yet for Google APPS!

    ReplyDelete
  2. CJ YetmanDecember 8, 2011 at 4:43 AM

    Google+ contacts are now also showing up in Google Chat in the Gmail interface

    ReplyDelete
  3. katty GeltmeyerDecember 8, 2011 at 5:42 AM

    The only thing I can't find is, how to put a specific contact in a group. I e.g. made a googlegroups group in the contacts, for adding adresses of googlegroups like accessible@googlegroups.com in; but how to get that adress in the googlegroups group? There are no checkboxes or something like that, in the dropdown menu you can't select add to group, like you can add a label in gmail to a conversation.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Alex ChituDecember 8, 2011 at 6:09 AM

    @Katty:

    Select a contact, click the Groups dropdown at the top of the page (the third button from the right/left) and you'll be able to select one or more groups. The interface is similar to Gmail's "add a label". If you're on a contact page, click the same dropdown.

    Another option is to click a group's name in the sidebar, click "Add to [group's name]" at the top of the page and start typing the email addresses of the contacts you want to add to the group, separated by commas.

    Hope this helps.

    ReplyDelete
  5. AnonymousDecember 8, 2011 at 6:42 AM

    Well, it doesn't seem to work for Google Apps users. But even my google.com/contacts pages seems older than my GMail contacts page. I guess I'll have to be patient once again.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Joshua TalleyDecember 8, 2011 at 7:15 AM

    What I'd really like to do is merge the two. I spent a lot of time years ago creating my own "circles" with my contacts, only to partially redo them when G+ came along. You can copy people from your circles into your contact groups, but not the other way around.

    ReplyDelete
  7. app development irelandDecember 8, 2011 at 10:38 AM

    i think this should be an opt-in feature, not too keen on it..

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Parts and ThingsDecember 28, 2012 at 8:05 PM

      I agree,

      I really must be behind as I didn't notice this until I got my new GS3, that is where I noticed it anyway.

      Delete
  8. WaldirDecember 9, 2011 at 1:10 AM

    @Josh, my thoughts exactly. But now they now allow you to add contacts to circles from the contact sidebar that appears when you open an email from them, so I suppose it might be done for the main contacts interface too. Still, I'd rather have the concepts merge, since you'd have to keep them in sync manually.

    Another thing: They didn't convert the whole interface yet: in google.com/contacts, if you try to add/change someone's image, the dialog is still styled as before, only with the huge white padding common to the G+ redesign.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Brad TaylorDecember 9, 2011 at 3:10 PM

    Makes total sense to me. Good marriage between the two services. One of many to come no doubt.

    ReplyDelete
  10. UnknownDecember 10, 2011 at 12:20 PM

    @Josh and Waldir,
    I have the same problem. Anyway, it seems the whole process of integration is still in its beginning phase, I mean this new contact interface seems quite much an unfinished work, at least to me.

    ReplyDelete
  11. RégisDecember 13, 2011 at 2:28 PM

    This only thing I need is that my Google contact groups and Circles become exactly the same thing. Because I'm not going to waste my time building my "circles" again.
    Until that happens, G+ is a no go for me.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Google SiriDecember 18, 2011 at 12:25 AM

    This functionality is not available yet for Google APPS!

    ReplyDelete
  13. AnonymousDecember 31, 2011 at 11:53 AM

    It seems that I cannot name Gmail email contact groups the same thing as Google+ Circles. Yet, I cannot (in Gmail contacts) add contacts into Google+. Anybody see what I mean? Basically Google has made it so that I cannot use the same organizing structure in both Gmail and Circles.

    ReplyDelete
  14. destin floridaJanuary 2, 2012 at 2:44 AM

    It's about time they did that. They are starting to link all the special services from one to another which makes it so much powerful. It's a nice move by Google.

    ReplyDelete
  15. George B. MogaFebruary 22, 2012 at 1:23 PM

    Looks like you can now invite people to Google+ from contacts directly. Must have been rolled out at the same time, but I haven't noticed it until now...

    ReplyDelete
  16. AnonymousApril 11, 2012 at 1:37 PM

    I would like google contact groups to upload into google+ circles....

    more sync discussion at
    https://groups.google.com/a/googleproductforums.com/forum/#!topic/google-plus-discuss/uwSKgknh1xA

    My use situation is- I am new to Google+. I have well over 4000
    gmail contacts, of which a subset are in more than 50 contact groups.

    I simply need way to place/invite all the persons in a contact group
    into a circle. This issue is the major issue I have that impedes my
    Google+ usage.

    For my needs, several possible changes to google contacts and google+
    would work as follows:

    Possibility A
    In contacts go to group that is desired to be a circle. Check box
    "all". Click on groups button, scroll to bottom and ( a CHANGE)
    circles could show up to be selected like other groups.

    Possiblilty B
    When adding to circles allow group name to be input into add field

    Possibility C
    Fully merge groups and circles.


    I have tried and looked for workarounds- if you know of any (that
    allow moving groups and do NOT require to move every contact) PLEASE
    post!

    ReplyDelete
  17. AnonymousMay 30, 2012 at 4:00 PM

    I do not have G+, but I do have Gmail.

    A friend of mine (whom we'll call "Frodo Baggins") has a G+ account under the name of "Ron Weasley."

    He is listed under my contacts in Gmail as "Frodo Baggins." Because the email address I use to send email to him is the same one that he used for his G+ account, Gmail will not auto-complete when I type "Frodo Baggins" anymore. It complains that the name won't resolve and tells me to go check the address.

    Google linked his G+ account to his entry in my Gmail contacts list. So now when I want to send him email I have to send it to "Ron Weasley."

    Thanks Google.....

    ReplyDelete
  18. daniJuly 20, 2012 at 1:58 PM

    I would like to have this functionnality as optional. I want to print a simple family agenda without all the fancy sites and extended info everyone adds but with this new functionnality I just can't... Is it possible?

    ReplyDelete
  19. UnknownAugust 6, 2012 at 5:14 PM

    It seems g+ wants me to add my 500+ gmail contacts one by one. I don't think I'll do it.

    ReplyDelete
  20. AnonymousAugust 14, 2012 at 2:23 PM

    The problem is that people do not always update their Google+ profiles. When I manually enter their new numbers in google contacts, they revert back to the old Google+ information. I have lost few phone numbers this way!

    ReplyDelete
  21. AnonymousSeptember 9, 2012 at 3:22 PM

    The issue I have is that it changes the name of my contacts - so, for example, instead of "John Doe" it defaults to their chosen Google+ username eg: "Super John" but how am I supposed to know that? It's irritating when trying to write an email to someone.

    ReplyDelete
  22. John DoeOctober 2, 2012 at 10:23 AM

    Same issue with Google overwriting the contacts name with their G+ name. Idiotic and arrogant on Google's part

    ReplyDelete
  23. Maria March 17, 2016 at 7:26 AM

    Good morning,
    When adding a contact, their google plus profile is displayed and can be part of my contacts. That's great. But when I export to outlook excel, I do not see the address in their google plus profile. Is their any way I can merge their google plus profile to my contacts so I can export to an excel spread sheet?

    ReplyDelete

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