Gone are the days of carrying around an address book with us, or a little black book with contacts in it. We just throw all of these names and e-mails into our smartphones. In fact many of us would just ask for a Facebook account or something like that. However, when things need to be done officially there’s a need still for phone numbers and e-mail addresses. Adding this information to our smartphones is great, especially on Android with Google contact sync but, we’ve gotten lazy and our contacts have gotten messy. If that sounds like you, then read on to see if Contact CleanApp can sort your contacts out.
Description: The premise of Contact CleanApp is a simple one; it looks through your contacts and presents you with duplicate contacts, or duplicate numbers. It then gives you the option to merge them and quickly edit fields. If – like pretty much every use on Android – have your contacts synced with Google through GMail then changes you make with Contact CleanApp will be synced back to your account.
How it Works: To get started, you’ll have to go and download the app from the Play Store. There’s no free version but, it’s a small price to pay for a utility like this, plus the price means there are no ads or anything like that.
It really is that easy to get the app going, just hit the big green button!
You’ll see the progress meter fly by and once it’s done, you’ll be greeted with your duplicates, if you have any. Let’s face it, you probably do:
It’ll show you each one of your duplicates one-by-one, it’ll let you know which duplicate you’re looking at in the top-left corner. (Note: these examples are fictitious humans, the numbers lead nowhere). As you can see I have two David Kingleys in my address book, because I inputted a mobile and a home or work number at different times. This is a common occurrence for a lot of people, you might have the work number for someone but they give you a mobile as well, it’s perhaps easier to create a new contact. For those that do these sort of thing a lot, Contact CleanApp will clean up after you. You’ll not that both numbers are listed as mobiles – I think this is default for all numbers – but you can easily change this to any one of the following number types:
Once you’ve made your changes, you’ll see them in the contact you’re editing:
Then just hit the merge button in the top right of the app and there you go. Repeat the process for all your duplicates and you’re done. It really is as simple as that. Depending on how often you go through your contacts, Contact CleanApp could well be a godsend and it’s a small price to pay to be able to get a little more organized.
Opinion: I’m normally pretty good at keep my contacts organized but, there are a lot of people I know that have contacts all over the place. If your device imports from a SIM as well as syncing from Google, then you could have a boat load of duplicate contacts that you don’t need in your phone. It’s a great app for maybe, organizing contacts after a business conference or when catching up with old friends to make sure you don’t have duplicates and all your info is up-to-date. It’s not an expensive application either so it’s well worth buying and keeping installed on your phone.
Ratings
- Speed (5/5) – The app loads quickly and scanning your contacts takes hardly any time at all.
- Features (4/5) – It might only serve one function but it does so very well, it’s quick and there’s no hassle in getting your contacts sorted out.
- Theme (4/5) – Contact Clean has a good-looking theme that does the job, it’s easy on the eye and it’s inviting.
- Overall (4/5) – This is a brilliant app if you have messy contacts on your device and they’ll just sync back to your Google account which makes this app really useful.
Pros
- Quick and easy set-up process makes it easy to clean up your contacts.
- Good-looking theme give the app an inviting tone and makes it easy to use the app.
- Works quickly and efficiently to find any duplicate contacts you might have.
- Offers you the quick option to merge contacts and you can quickly edit fields.
Cons
- Option to deal with contacts on SIM Card could be useful.
- App cannot distinguish between home and cell phone numbers; at least not in the UK.
Conclusion: Contact CleanApp is definitely an application that I’d recommend especially to those that keep on adding contacts repeatedly without taking a quick look first. While you can edit your GMail contacts online, doing things on the phone is a lot easier and Contact CleanApp makes it a painless process that any can manage. It’s not an expensive app, there are no ads of course, and it looks good. If anything, Contact CleanApp ticks all the boxes and if you know you haven’t been taking care of your address book, and see it’s cluttered every time you make a call, then this app is a must for you!