The smartphone is an all-singing-all-dancing device and yet in an era of multi-media, there’s nothing that cuts to business like a phone call. If you have a phone, you likely have a large number of contacts, but have you ever tried to manage these contacts from your device? If you have then you’ll know that it’s not that easy. One option is to actually edit or manage your contacts directly from your computer instead.
You can manage your phone contacts using the three main mobile platforms – iOS, Android and Windows – from your computer. Here’s how:
Manage Your IOS Contacts From Your Computer
If you use an iPhone, you can sync your contacts with Apple’s iCloud. You can sign up for iCloud on your device by going to Settings and tapping on Home. Select iCloud and enter your Apple ID.
Once you have activated iCloud, or if you already have signed up for it, press the Settings app on your phone and select iCloud from the menu that opens. Once the iCloud settings open ensure that Contacts is on. This will automatically sync your contacts to iCloud and make them available to any device that you sign into using the ID you linked to the service.
Give your phone and iCloud a couple of minutes to sync and then you should be able to access these from any device. To manage contacts from your computer, the easiest thing to do is to open a Web browser and go to the iCloud website (icloud.com/#contacts).
When the site loads you should see a list of your phone contacts. You can click on a contact to edit information and even delete. Just be sure to click Done at the bottom of each contact to save any changes.
Manage Your Android Contacts From Your Computer
If you use an Android device, your best bet is to sync your contacts with your Google account. This can be done by opening the Settings app on your device, (pull down from the top of the screen and select Settings), scroll down to Accounts and tap on Google. Select your account from the menu that opens and ensure thatContacts is ticked. Press the three vertical boxes at the top of the screen and select Sync now.
The syncing of contacts should be automatic if a Google account is linked with your phone. Once the sync has completed, you can edit your contacts on your computer by:
- Opening any Web browser and logging into Google, using the account name that you have linked your phone with.
- Going to contacts.google.com
- Clicking on the contact you would like to edit.
- Editing the contact and pressing the back arrow once you have finished, which is beside Contacts above the contact info.
There is no need to save information as any changes will be automatically saved. To delete contacts, go to the main Contacts screen and tick the box beside the contact name. You can select more than one at a time if you would like to delete more than one contact at the same time. Once selected, press More, above your contact list, and select Delete contacts. Your device should sync within a minute or two and the selected contacts should be gone.
Manage Your Windows Phone Contacts From Your Computer
If you use a Windows Phone you can edit contacts on your computer using live.com. In order to do this you will need to link your phone with a Microsoft account. If you don’t have one, go to signup.live.com on any Web browser and follow the sign-up process. Once you have an account, you need to link your phone to it. This can be done by:
- Opening Settings from the App List.
- Tapping on Email + Accounts.
- Entering your Microsoft account email address and password.
- Tapping Sign-in.
Your phone’s contacts should sync with your account within a few minutes. To edit your contacts, go to live.com and log in. You should see all of your contacts in a list to the left side of the screen. Clicking on each contact will show contact information, and you can edit this by clicking Edit, above the card. Once you have finished editing, be sure to press Save at the bottom of the page. If you click Delete from the menu bar at the top, you will be able to remove your contact.
To learn more about using smartphones in your office, please contact us today.
Published on 6th November 2013 by Jeanne DeWitt.
