How to save contacts to Google Contacts (A step-by-step guide)

Wondering how to save contacts to Google Contacts?

The tool lets you easily access and backup contacts across multiple platforms. Whether you're using an Android device, iPhone, or desktop, you can manage and import contacts using the app or the web version.

In this step-by-step guide, we'll show you every possible way to save contacts to Google. By using the app or the website version of Google Contacts, you'll be able to sync contacts across all of your devices.

Let's dive right in!

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What is Google Contacts?

Google Contacts is one of the most popular contact management tools. It’s essentially an online address book linked to all of a user’s Google accounts.

With Google Contacts, you can easily gather and store the names, phones, and email addresses of everyone you communicate with through different Google apps. The coolest part is that the tool automatically saves your contacts to Google.

Google Contacts can be used on different mobile and desktop platforms, such as Android, iOS, Windows, and MacOS. There's a web version of the app that allows you to save contacts to Google even if you're not using an Android phone. This means that you'll be able to access your contacts on any device and operating system.

Both Google Contacts and its web version use secure connections to sync contacts to Google. This makes it safe to backup iPhone contacts to Google from services like iCloud, vCard, Outlook, and others. Automatic backups are also available, although only for Android phones.

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Why should you use Google Contacts?

A better question would be, “Why not?” 

Google Contacts makes it easy to import and export contacts on all of your devices and find contact information easily. Plus, you can enable syncing across apps, which saves valuable time because otherwise, you’d be manually entering the same contact details for people over and over across every device you use.

Here's what else you can do with Google Contacts:

• Store all your contacts from different Google apps in one place
• Easily import and export your contacts using CSV or vCard file
• Seamlessly sync contacts across different devices and operating systems
• Automatically backup contacts to Google
• Tag or segment contacts by adding labels
• Easily share contact information with others
• Keep your contacts' data secure

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How to save or backup contacts to Google

Saving and backing up your contacts to Google is pretty straightforward. You can use these steps to backup your iPhone contacts or Android contacts to Google Contacts.

Here are the steps you need to follow on the Google Contacts website or app:

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For mobile

On a mobile device, you can save and backup contacts in the app or you can import contacts. Below are the steps for each option.

How to add contacts to Google Contacts on mobile

1. Go to the Google Contacts app on your mobile device.
2. To add a contact, tap the + button.
3. In the Create Contact screen, enter your contact's details. Fill in their name, company, phone number, email address, and any other relevant information. You can even add a photo of the person or business.
4. Optionally, at the bottom of the screen, tap the More fields label to add more information like Notes, Labels, Website, and Nickname.
5. Tap the Save button.

How to import contacts to Google Contacts on mobile

You can import your contacts from a SIM card or a VCF file. It's important to note that after you import them, they'll still exist in the original location.

From a SIM card

1. With your SIM card in the device, open the Google Contacts app.
2. From the menu at the bottom of the screen, tap Fix & Manage.
3. Select Import from SIM.
4. Choose which Google account to save your contacts to (in case you're using multiple accounts).

From a VCF file

1. In the Google Contacts app, select Fix & Manage from the bottom of the screen.
2. Tap Import from file.
3. Select which Google account you want to save your contacts to (in case you're using multiple accounts on your phone).
4. In the next screen, choose the location of the VCF file, and select it. The file might be located on your phone or in your Google Drive.

How to move Google Contacts from one Google account to another 

1. In the Google Contacts app, select a contact.
2. Open the menu at the right top corner by tapping the three dots.
3. Select Move to another account.
4. Choose which account to move the contact to.

Please note: After moving a contact, it will be deleted from its original location.

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For desktop

If you want to manage your contacts from a computer, use a browser and go to the Google Contacts website. Sign in to your Google account if you haven't already, and follow the relevant steps below.

How to add a Google Contact (or multiple) on a desktop

1. Click the + Create Contact button in the top left corner.
2. You can choose to either Create a Contact or Create Multiple Contacts.
3. Fill in your contact’s details, such as name, company, email, telephone number, photo, etc. At the bottom, you can click the label Show More to add extra details, including custom fields.
4. Click the Save button on the top right corner of the screen.

How to import Google Contacts on a desktop

From a file

1. From the left-hand side menu, select Import.
2. Choose the file where your contacts live. Optionally, select a label to tag the contacts.
3. Open the file and click the Import button.

From a Gmail account

1. At the right corner of your Google Contacts list, click the Export icon.

2. From the drop-down menu, select which contacts to export.
3. Select Google CSV as the exported contacts file format.
4. Click the Export button.
5. Log out of your current Google account.
6. Sign in to another Google account.
7. Follow steps 1-3 above under “From a file” to import your contacts from the file you've just saved.

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Manage your contacts more effectively with Streak

Google Contacts is a valuable, easy-to-use tool. However, there are still some limitations — especially if you're seeking advanced functionality for business purposes.

That’s why there’s Streak. To make communicating with customers and prospects as simple as possible, we've built our Contacts and organizations feature. It makes tracking contacts and their various email touchpoints with your organization automatic. Every contact and conversation in your pipeline is stored and shareable with a simple link, thanks to automatic email sharing. Plus, with a hand from AI, Streak will pull in any relevant publicly available data about a person or organization and add it to the relevant contact(s). This information will appear in all of your team's pipelines, and make it a breeze to keep everyone internally on the same page.

Want to give it a try on our dime? Sign up for your free trial of Streak to test out this feature for yourself. It only takes 30 seconds to get started.