Better way to organize contacts in smartphone?

[atgcpaul]

I stepped up to the Samsung Galaxy S5 last week and am now going through my contacts. Here's my dilemma. Take my parents' contact info, for example. They have a house phone and each of them has a phone--3 numbers--and a shared house address. They each have an entry in my Contacts with their numbers (and email addresses) as well as an entry for their home number and address. At least this way when they call, I know who or where they're calling me from but to maintain three separate entries is a pain. Maybe there's a way to group them all together under one contact but still break out their individual numbers by their names rather than Mobile and Home. Is there?

Thanks
Paul

[frumper64]

You could have one entry for them both and then have one of the mobiles listed as "mobile" and then the other listed as "mobile 2" or "work" or something similar. As long as you remember which way you set it up, you would know who it was and where they were calling from. At least it would work that way on my trusty Moto X.

[radhak]

The S5 is Android, so all your contacts are (or can be, and for optimal reasons, must be) created on gmail. This means, all your phone contacts can sync to your Gmail account, and should be so. (Might already be true if you were on android before; if not, and you were on a 'flip phone' you should sync them now).

This also means that you get to use one neat thing there - any phone number can be assigned home / mobile/ etc, or, at the bottom (scroll down), to 'Custom'. Selecting this allows you to edit that field and name it as-you-like-it.

My contacts for this now reads 'Mom Home', 'Mom Cell', 'Dad Cell', etc, for the various phone numbers for a given contact name ('Parents').

I still find a small problem with this - dunno about the S5, but the Nexus 5 only allows a single picture for each contact. I'd prefer each phone number within a contact was allowed a separate picture; that way, the picture would tell me who the caller is instead of having to read the assigned name below it. But still, better than before.

Note - if you have a long list of contacts, I'd advise you to sync them to Gmail first, and then do your editing on the computer (it syncs immediately). I for one still prefer a keyboard to typing on a small piece of glass .

[atgcpaul]

This also means that you get to use one neat thing there - any phone number can be assigned home / mobile/ etc, or, at the bottom (scroll down), to 'Custom'. Selecting this allows you to edit that field and name it as-you-like-it.

My contacts for this now reads 'Mom Home', 'Mom Cell', 'Dad Cell', etc, for the various phone numbers for a given contact name ('Parents').

Thanks! Yes, this is what I was looking for. I filed them both under "Mom and Dad" and subdivided them to Dad Cell, Mom Cell, and Home. Only quitk, though, is that a text from my Dad now shows up as Mom and Dad rather than Dad Cell. Any advice on that?

[radhak]

Hmmm - funny that I never tested that out! Looks like I only receive texts from one of any couple...

But you are right - the texts arrive with the Contact name instead of the custom name assigned to the phone number. Lemme see if there's a work around for that...

[tfischer]

No idea about Android, but on iOS, you can have more phone number and email addy's than I've ever needed for one person. Not sure what the actual limit is.

[radhak]

I feel Paul's need is more nuanced - the number of phone numbers is not an issue; rather, the need is to distinctly name each phone within a contact .

So, while you might have Rick and Ann under 'Scott Family', both will have separate cell phones, and it can get confusing to get a call or text from the Scott Family and not know quickly enough from which of them. (Unless you read the phone number attached and try to recall whose it is).

Not sure how iOS handles that.

[atgcpaul]

I feel Paul's need is more nuanced - the number of phone numbers is not an issue; rather, the need is to distinctly name each phone within a contact .

So, while you might have Rick and Ann under 'Scott Family', both will have separate cell phones, and it can get confusing to get a call or text from the Scott Family and not know quickly enough from which of them. (Unless you read the phone number attached and try to recall whose it is).

Not sure how iOS handles that.

Yes, I'm a special case But I can't be THAT special. We all have Aunts and Uncles or couple friends in the same boat. I guess if I'm planning a surprise party for my Mom, I need to make sure I'm not texting my Mom when I actually intended to text my Dad.

I'm curious to see what will now happen when I make a hands free call in my car. In the past, I would say "Call Mom&Dad" or "Call Dad Mobile" or "Call Mom Cell". My wife has two entries under her name each filed under Mobile or Work. I would say "Call Wife (name changed to protect the innocent) Mobile/Work" and the system would use one or the other. Now that my parents' cell and home numbers are filed under "Mom&Dad" with the labels changed from Mobile to "Dad Mobile" and "Mom Mobile" and "Home", will I have to say "Call Mom&Dad Dad Mobile" or "Call Mom&Dad Mom Mobile"?

I'm actually a little excited to see if everything will blow up. At work I have one guy who does software development for me. I usually work up the flow diagram for him and he writes the code. It's always fun to test out the unintended consequences.

[tfischer]

I don't group people together. If I know a "Don and Carol Smith", I list them separately as "Don Smith" and "Carol Smith". For each person, iOS lets you have multiple phone numbers. I can do home, mobile, work, a second mobile if they have one, etc. If I get a call from any of those numbers, it will come up as something like "Don Smith (mobile)"

I don't know how Android handles this but I can't imagine it would be that much worse, as the two keep fighting to be on top of the feature pile.

[atgcpaul]

I don't group people together. If I know a "Don and Carol Smith", I list them separately as "Don Smith" and "Carol Smith". For each person, iOS lets you have multiple phone numbers. I can do home, mobile, work, a second mobile if they have one, etc. If I get a call from any of those numbers, it will come up as something like "Don Smith (mobile)"

Android does it the same way. I'm just trying to pair down the entries that I consider to be overlapping".

It's kind of funny you used "Don and Carol" as your test couple. I actually know a Don and Carol couple and get this, their last name is King. Several times a week, I get emails from "Don King" or "Carol King". Makes me chuckle.

[TB Roye]

I have all Apple stuff now iPhone iPad and iMac and with IOS 8 and Yosemite all my contacts are on each device. I can receive or send Text and make calls on each of them which gets interesting. I have each contact listed separately and each has places for multiple phone numbers and even email address. My caller ID shows who is calling or texting. What I like is I can add, delete or edit a contact and it goes to all my devises. My wife Mini Cooper has built in software for blue tooth phone and it shows who's is connected. We both can be in the car and if one gets a call it shows up on radio and we can speak hands free, as long as it isn't her boyfriend or my girl friend, that could be dangerous. What I like is I can access my contacts either by voice or by the buttons on radio head neat. and has controls on the steering wheel for the phone and voice activation.

Tom