How to Easily Save and Share iPhone Contacts

It’s very simple to save a new contact to an iPhone. Or you can add on to one that already exists. You have multiple options for saving and sharing iPhone contacts. These steps also work for the iPad.

How to save iPhone contacts

You can save contacts you receive in a text message by pressing and holding the phone number until a menu pops up. Select “Add to Contacts.” A new contact entry appears.

On the new entry, select “Create New Contact” or “Add to Existing Contact.”

For a new contact, the iPhone opens a new entry and fills in the phone number for you. Just add the rest of the information and select “Done” to close the screen. The iPhone takes you back to your SMS conversation.

Selecting “Add to Existing Contact” brings up all your contacts. Search for and select the contact. The iPhone will fill in the phone number for you and allow you to make edits. When you’ve finished, select “Update” and you’re done.

How to share iPhone contacts

A friend asks if you have someone’s phone number. You do. You have two ways you can share a contact with a friend through your iPhone.

vCard

On your iPhone or iPad, open the Contacts app. Search for the person whose information you want to share.

Select “Share Contact” and “Message” to share it through a text message. Or select “Mail” to send it by email. Whichever you do, this sends the contact information as a vCard, which is compatible with many contacts apps. The following image shows the vCard in a text message.

If the recipient of the vCard is on an iPhone, he or she selects the vCard as and it’ll to “Create New Contact,” “Add to Existing Contact” or “Update Contact [person’s name].”

If you send the vCard by email, some email apps allow people to select the vCard to copy it to their contacts.

Copy / paste

The second way you can share the contact’s information is by copying it. You may have other contact information or notes that you don’t want to share. In this case, you can copy and paste the phone number or info you want to share.

To do this, open Contacts and find the contact. Select the Contact and simply press and hold the phone number until “Copy” appears and select it. To paste it in a text message, email or wherever you wish to share it, press and hold until “Paste” appears and select it.

Sharing iPhone contacts is just one way to take advantage of your phone’s integrated features. If you add a different contacts app, you may not have the benefit of integrated features like this.

Recommendation: Sync Outlook Contacts with iPhone’s Contacts app

Have you been looking for a way to automatically transfer Outlook Contacts on your computer to your iPhone and vice versa? You can do that with direct two-way Outlook sync software for Windows PC like AkrutoSync. Install it on your Windows computer, follow the online instructions and Akruto takes care of the rest. It’s like having an iPhone backup of your important data.

When you update your contacts on your phone, it appears in Outlook Contacts on your computer. When you make changes to Outlook Contacts, the changes sync with your iPhone and iPad. Because there is no cloud involved, all your information remains private. The whole process is wireless and automatic. Best of all, you sync iPhone and Outlook without iTunes. No more iTunes contact sync problems.

Did you know Apple no longer does iTunes sync with Outlook Notes? Akruto also can sync Calendar, Tasks (Reminders on iPhone and iPad), and Notes. It works with iPhone 6S Plus on down to iPhone 4 running iOS 9 and earlier. Akruto supports Windows 10, Windows 8, Windows 7, and Windows XP.

Try Akruto free or learn more about syncing Outlook with phones and tablets.

More iPhone tips

• How to do contacts backup.
• How to export iPhone calendar.
• Top 20 iPhone productivity apps.
• How to sync iPhone and iPad.