new to droid...how to add a new contact from SMS

[walterkurtz]

sorry, i am frustrated. i wanted to add a new contact from an sms text. i hit the plus sign on top, filled in the blanks and boom no contact in my phonebook. did it again from within the phonebook and boom not in the contacts. so i pulled down the phonebook menu and selected google instead of phone and found the new contact. please tell me i am doing it wrong cause it sure doesn't feel right. am i supposed to add a new contact, sync to gmail then import my gmail phonebook to my phone? for one new contact? say it aint so!! i am new to android (from blackberry) and apologize for my androignorance. thank you

UPDATE: ok i started over and hit the plus sign from inside my phonebook. under contact type, i chose 'phone'. immediately a warning box come up telling me that 'adding a phone contact will be synced with outlook only via htc sync otherwise it will be saved on device locally. are you sure you want to create phone contacts?' does this mean the new contact will not sync to gmail? (trying it now) but there must be a better way. i do have a gmail account. but i don't use outlook or htc sync.

thanks!!

 

[Kris Simundson]

sorry, i am frustrated. i wanted to add a new contact from an sms text. i hit the plus sign on top, filled in the blanks and boom no contact in my phonebook. did it again from within the phonebook and boom not in the contacts. so i pulled down the phonebook menu and selected google instead of phone and found the new contact. please tell me i am doing it wrong cause it sure doesn't feel right. am i supposed to add a new contact, sync to gmail then import my gmail phonebook to my phone? for one new contact? say it aint so!! i am new to android (from blackberry) and apologize for my androignorance. thank you

kinda of a stupid question but are you hitting save before leaving the create contact page?

 

[walterkurtz]

yes. i think it's a google vs phone contact issue i am having. i am new to droid so maybe or actually obviously i haven't wrapped my head around 'local' contacts (on the phone, see UPDATE above) and synced contacts (at gmail). my blackberry didn't have that option. everything was on the phone until i plugged it in and synced it to my computer. of course those were the olden days.

i also still don't understand what linked contacts are or why when i type in the contact box to start a new sms that my contacts are often duplicates or triplicates. i need to read up on how to manage contacts on android cause i am clearly not getting it to the point of wanting to jump ship to iphone.

 

[walterkurtz]

ok i went to sync on the phone, then google, the contacts and touched it to sync. then i went to gmail on my computer to check my contacts and as warned the new contact is not there. so back to my original question...

how do i add a contact from an SMS? if i do it as a google contact it doesn't show up in my phonebook? i think i need to set my phonebook to show my google contacts only and delete the other phonebook? i'm confused....and frustrated.

 

[Ken CleanAir System]

You may have noticed that, by default, quite a few different apps will contribute to the contacts in your contact list. Your Gmail contacts, Facebook contacts, Google+ contacts, Skype, and others depending on what apps you have installed. Linking contacts takes the contact card created by each of these apps and merges them for the duplicate contacts you may have from more than one source. So you may have four entries for a friend that's in your Gmail, Facebook, Twitter, and Skype contact lists, but when linked all the info is merged into a single contact card.

Posted via Android Central App

 

[walterkurtz]

You may have noticed that, by default, quite a few different apps will contribute to the contacts in your contact list. Your Gmail contacts, Facebook contacts, Google+ contacts, Skype, and others depending on what apps you have installed. Linking contacts takes the contact card created by each of these apps and merges them for the duplicate contacts you may have from more than one source. So you may have four entries for a friend that's in your Gmail, Facebook, Twitter, and Skype contact lists, but when linked all the info is merged into a single contact card.

Posted via Android Central App

i did notice that the first day or two i had this phone. and i ended up spending a morning deleting and syncing contacts to and from the phone and gmail. it was a PITA but i thought everything was good. then i noticed the issue with texting when i typed into the contact box to start a new text and was seeing duplicates and triplicates of people. i grew to accept it as just a quirk of android but it's still kind of annoying. i've only had this phone a week and today was the first time trying to add a new contact from SMS a quite simple procedure on my old blackberry (of course it's apples to oranges as this is a far more sophisticated device). anyway today brought back my frustration or lack of understanding with contacts and contact management on an android device. i deleted twitter. and somewhere, early on, i figured out how to stop gmail from adding everyone i've ever emailed through that account into my contacts. but still i don't understand linked contacts etc. what am i supposed to do with them? i do have single contact cards in my default phonebook setting ('phone') but it seems everywhere else i have multiple listings of the same person. kind of sucky. here is a screen grab to help you understand (my GP and dentist if anyone needs a good DR in LA). good news is my battery life seems to be improving. that's after leaving the juice at 6am!

thank you!

 

[Ken CleanAir System]

ok i went to sync on the phone, then google, the contacts and touched it to sync. then i went to gmail on my computer to check my contacts and as warned the new contact is not there. so back to my original question...

how do i add a contact from an SMS? if i do it as a google contact it doesn't show up in my phonebook? i think i need to set my phonebook to show my google contacts only and delete the other phonebook? i'm confused....and frustrated.

Have you tried opening the text conversation, clicking the three dots up in the top right hand corner, and choosing 'Save to People'? If your accounts and sync settings are set up correctly it should save the contact to your contact list and automatically sync it to your Google (Gmail) account.

Posted via Android Central App

 

[walterkurtz]

that was my very first attempt. then i went into my 'contacts' (displayed as 'phone' not gmail) and the new addition was not there. that's why i am confused. i guess moving forward i have to add to 'people' then sync to gmail then sync to my android? seems counter-intuitive (read: lengthy). or maybe i need to delete the 'phone' contacts and use gmail only. any suggestions on how to handle the 'linked' contacts? why are there two or three of everything??

thanks!!!

 

[Patrick Williams13]

Was having the very same problem. Here's what I done.
Click into the sms. The number should be across the top with a tiny arrow next to it. Click the arrow and click save to people. Then click create new contact. Then under contact type it will probably say Google by default. Click Google and change it to sim. Boom that should do it.

Posted via Android Central App

 

[walterkurtz]

i like that idea patrick williams13 but i have SIM unticked in my phonebook view. i have been researching this all afternoon, and it seems i am going to have to give in to having google sync all my contacts. but i still haven't a clue why there are duplicates and triplicates in my contacts when i start a new sms. and as i recall, it is only a problem in the stock SMS. with textra and k-9 email, contacts are displayed properly...that is: one single contact. but that does bring up a good question: should i export ALL of my contacts to the SIM card? or with google sync is that unnecessary? theoretically if i lose or replace this device, all my contacts will simply be downloaded from google right?

thanks!!

 

[Patrick Williams13]

It's handy to have all your contacts on your Google account as when I changed form my iPhone 5 the contacts came across seamlessly. About the duplicate contacts you should try link them to get rid of them. That problem hasn't happened me though.

Posted via Android Central App

 

[walterkurtz]

Re: new to droid...how to add a new contact from SMS SOLVED

surrendered to google today. here is what i did....

went to CONTACTS>MANAGE CONTACTS>IMPORT/EXPORT CONTACTS>EXPORT TO PHONE STORAGE

that saved all of my files in a vcf file in the sd folder on my phone (why is there no way to see this from within the phone?? still not getting why i can't 'search' my device...)

then i paired my HTC with my desktop computer via bluetooth (a pain, i will research this problem next...i'm pretty sure it's operator inexperience/error)

found the .vcf file in my phone and dragged it to my computer's desktop

selected all contacts on my phone (sim, google, etc) and deleted them

selected all contacts in my gmail account and deleted them

imported the vcf card to gmail

went to SETTINGS>ACCOUNTS & SYNC>GOOGLE>GMAIL>CONTACTS

touched to sync now

problem solved

tried starting a new sms and a new email and both showed only one contact per person

restarted phone

moving forward, will use default GOOGLE setting when adding new contacts

EDIT: the auto sync with my address book on this apple computer revealed part of the problem. for whatever reason, the address book is formatting the contacts differently than gmail and creating duplicates. only i could figure out how to fix this problem was to disable sync between my gmail account and address book. these things drive me a little crazy and may drive me to iphone. but i really am loving this phone otherwise...