# Contacts

Contacts store information about people you communicate with. Organize them in contact books, share them with your team, and sync them from email providers or external systems.

## Contact books

Contact books are containers for your contacts. You can create multiple books to organize contacts by purpose (Sales, Support, VIPs) and control who has access.

### Creating a contact book

{% stepper %}
{% step %}
**Open the contacts panel**

Click your avatar in the bottom-left corner of the sidebar and select **Contacts**, or use the command bar (<kbd>⌘/Ctrl</kbd> + <kbd>K</kbd>) and search for "contacts".
{% endstep %}

{% step %}
**Create a new book**

Right-click in the contact book list and select **New contact book**.
{% endstep %}

{% step %}
**Configure the book**

Enter a name for your contact book. To share it:

* Check **Share this contact book with others?** to open sharing options
* Select **Share with entire organization** or choose specific teams/users
* Optionally check **Exclude contacts from search results?** to hide these contacts from global search
  {% endstep %}
  {% endstepper %}

### Managing contact books

To edit or delete a contact book, right-click on it in the contact book list and select **Edit contact book** or **Delete contact book**.

{% hint style="warning" %}
Deleting a contact book permanently removes all contacts in it.
{% endhint %}

### Sharing contact books

Share a contact book by right-clicking it and selecting **Edit contact book**, then checking **Share this contact book with others?**

You can share with your entire organization, a specific team, or individual users. All shared users can view and edit contacts. Only the owner and organization admins can change sharing settings or delete the book.

### Personal vs shared contact books

| Type           | Who can access               |
| -------------- | ---------------------------- |
| Personal       | Only you                     |
| Organization   | Everyone in the organization |
| Team           | Members of a specific team   |
| Specific users | Selected users you choose    |

## Managing contacts

### Creating a contact manually

{% stepper %}
{% step %}
**Open the contacts panel and select a book**

Click your avatar in the bottom-left corner of the sidebar and select **Contacts**, then choose the contact book where you want to add the contact.
{% endstep %}

{% step %}
**Start creating**

Click **Create contact** at the bottom of the contacts list.
{% endstep %}

{% step %}
**Fill in contact details**

Enter the contact information:

**Basic info:**

* First name, middle name, last name
* Prefix (Dr., Mr., etc.) and suffix (Jr., Sr.)
* Nickname, gender, pronouns
* Avatar (drag an image or click to upload)

**Company/Organization:**

* Company name (creates or links to existing organization)
* Job title, department, location

**Group membership:**

* Add to contact groups for categorization

**Contact info:**

* Email addresses (labels: work, home, personal, other)
* Phone numbers (labels: mobile, main, home, work, home fax, work fax, pager)
* Physical addresses
* Social media: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter
* Website URLs (labels: homepage, profile, blog, personal, work)
* Custom fields (your own label + value pairs)

**Notes:**

* Free-text notes field (supports markdown)
  {% endstep %}

{% step %}
**Save the contact**

Click **Create** to save the contact to the selected book.
{% endstep %}
{% endstepper %}

{% hint style="info" %}
Click **More fields** in the form to reveal additional fields like prefix, suffix, phonetic names, and physical addresses.
{% endhint %}

### Creating contacts from conversations

When viewing a conversation, the details sidebar shows email addresses and phone numbers from the messages. For addresses not yet in your contacts:

1. Select the email or phone number in the sidebar
2. Click **Add to contacts** in the popup
3. The contacts panel opens with a new contact form pre-filled with the address

### Viewing a contact

Click any contact in the list to open their contact card. The card shows all saved information: name, company, email addresses, phone numbers, social media, and notes.

{% hint style="info" %}
You can also use the command bar (<kbd>⌘/Ctrl</kbd> + <kbd>K</kbd>) to quickly open contacts. Type "contacts" to open the contacts panel, or "open contact book" to jump directly to a specific contact book.
{% endhint %}

From the contact card you can:

* **Star** the contact to mark them as important
* **Edit** to update their information
* **View all conversations** to see every conversation involving this contact

### Editing a contact

1. Click the **Edit** button in the contact card header
2. Modify any fields
3. Click **Save** to confirm changes

You can also change which contact book a contact belongs to from the edit form.

### Starring contacts

Click the star icon in the contact card to mark important contacts. Starred contacts appear with a star indicator in the contact list.

### Deleting a contact

1. Click the **More** button in the contact card header
2. Select **Delete**

The contact is deleted immediately.

### Companies and groups

Beyond contact books, you can organize contacts using **companies** and **groups**:

* **Companies** (organizations) link contacts to their employer. Add a company name when creating a contact to associate them. Multiple contacts can belong to the same company.
* **Groups** work like tags for contacts. Use them to categorize contacts across companies (e.g., "VIPs", "Leads", "Partners").

Companies and groups are useful for:

* Filtering contacts in the contacts panel
* Creating rule conditions (e.g., "if sender is in company Acme Corp")
* Viewing all conversations with anyone from a company - click a company name to open its card, then click **View all conversations**

## Syncing contacts

### Google contacts sync

Sync contacts between Missive and your Google account:

{% stepper %}
{% step %}
**Open account settings**

Go to **Settings** > **Accounts** and select your Gmail account.
{% endstep %}

{% step %}
**Enable contact sync**

In the **Start syncing** section, click **Sync contacts**.
{% endstep %}

{% step %}
**Access synced contacts**

A dedicated contact book is created for your Google contacts. Changes sync both ways - edits in Missive appear in Google Contacts, and vice versa.
{% endstep %}
{% endstepper %}

{% hint style="info" %}
To import contacts into a synced Google contact book, use the Google Contacts interface. They'll automatically sync to Missive.
{% endhint %}

### Office 365 contacts sync

Sync contacts between Missive and your Microsoft account:

{% stepper %}
{% step %}
**Open account settings**

Go to **Settings** > **Accounts** and select your Outlook/Office 365 account.
{% endstep %}

{% step %}
**Enable contact sync**

In the **Start syncing** section, click **Sync contacts**.
{% endstep %}

{% step %}
**Access synced contacts**

A dedicated contact book is created for your Microsoft contacts. Changes sync both ways between Missive and Outlook.
{% endstep %}
{% endstepper %}

### Importing contacts from CSV

Import contacts from a CSV file into any contact book that isn't synced with an email provider. Right-click on a contact book and select **Import contacts (CSV)**.

Missive supports CSV files in Google and Outlook formats. See [Importing contacts](https://missiveapp.com/docs/core-features/contacts/importing) for supported fields, template files, and troubleshooting.

### API sync

Contacts can be synced programmatically using the Missive REST API. This is useful for integrating with CRMs and other business systems.

See the [REST API - Contacts](https://app.gitbook.com/s/egxqkD7AXM4n11rNf5qI/rest-api/endpoints#contacts) documentation for endpoints and examples.

## Using contacts in rules

[Rules](https://missiveapp.com/docs/advanced-features/rules) can check contact membership and automatically create contacts.

### Contact conditions

Use these operators on address fields (From, To, Cc, etc.) to match contacts:

| Operator               | Matches when                                       |
| ---------------------- | -------------------------------------------------- |
| in contact book        | Address is in a specific contact book              |
| not in contact book    | Address is not in a specific contact book          |
| in contacts            | Address exists in any organization contact book    |
| not in contacts        | Address does not exist in organization contacts    |
| in contact group       | Address belongs to a contact in a specific group   |
| not in contact group   | Address is not in a specific contact group         |
| in contact company     | Address belongs to a contact in a specific company |
| not in contact company | Address is not in a specific company               |

See [Rule conditions](https://missiveapp.com/docs/advanced-features/rules/conditions#contact-operators) for the full list of operators.

**Example use cases:**

* Route messages from VIP contacts to a dedicated team
* Skip auto-responses for existing customers
* Apply different labels based on contact company

### Create contact(s) action

The **Create contact(s)** [action](https://missiveapp.com/docs/advanced-features/rules/actions#create-contacts) automatically adds new contacts from incoming messages:

1. Add a **Create contact(s)** action to your rule
2. Select the target contact book
3. When the rule fires, sender/recipient addresses are added as contacts

This is useful for building a contact database from incoming leads or support requests.

## Contact sidebar

When viewing a conversation, the details sidebar shows contact information for all participants:

* **Matched contacts**: Shows contact cards with full details for addresses in your contact books
* **Unknown addresses**: Shows the email or phone with an **Add to contacts** option
* **Quick actions**: Copy name, copy email/phone, new email, view all conversations

Hover over any address to see a preview popup with contact details and quick actions:

* **View contact** / **Add to contacts**: Open or create the contact
* **All conversations**: Search for all conversations with this contact
* **All from \[domain]**: Search for all conversations from the same email domain
* **Copy name** / **Copy email**: Copy contact info to clipboard
* **New email**: Start composing a new email to this address

### Viewing conversations by organization or group

When a contact belongs to a company or group, the sidebar shows options to view all conversations with that organization or group:

* Click the organization name to see all conversations involving contacts from that company
* Click a group name to see all conversations involving contacts in that group

This helps you quickly see the full conversation history with a company or group, even if different people from that organization were involved.

## Searching contacts

### Search within contacts

Use the search field at the top of the contacts panel to find contacts by:

* Name (first, last, nickname)
* Email address
* Phone number
* Company/organization name
* Notes content
* Custom field values

### Filter by contact book

Select a specific contact book from the list to limit results to that book. Select **All** to search across all your contact books.

## Shortcuts

| Shortcut                                            | Action                |
| --------------------------------------------------- | --------------------- |
| <kbd>⌘/Ctrl</kbd> + <kbd>Shift</kbd> + <kbd>,</kbd> | Open contacts panel   |
| <kbd>⌘/Ctrl</kbd> + <kbd>K</kbd> then "contacts"    | Open contacts panel   |
| <kbd>↑</kbd> / <kbd>↓</kbd>                         | Navigate contact list |