How to Add Contacts to Gmail With Photos

Gmail is so much more than a communication channel. In addition to being a secure and easy way to send and receive emails, Gmail enables you to save contacts, similar to what you do on your phone. 

When you add contacts to Gmail, you add them to Google Contacts. This channel enables you to save phone numbers, email addresses, and names. Saving contacts makes sending emails easier since Gmail autocompletes the email address after you enter the first few letters. Additionally, saved contacts are automatically whitelisted, meaning their messages never end up in the spam inbox. 

Below are comprehensive steps on how to add contacts to Gmail. Read on. 

Method 1: Adding Contacts from Received Email

If you received an email from someone that’s not on your contact list, it is easy to add them to contacts through the email they sent. Here are the steps: 

Step 1: Open your browser and then your Gmail account 

Step 2: Open the email of the person you want to add to your contact list 

Step 3: Click on the contact’s name or photo 

Step 4: Click on the icon next to the name 

You will have successfully added this sender to your contacts. 

Method 2: Manually Adding Contacts to Gmail

Manually adding contacts means adding somebody who has not sent you an email to your contacts list. Here are the steps to follow:

Step 1: On your email page, click on the dots at the top right corner to open the Google menu 

Step 2: Scroll down in the Google menu and click on contacts 

Step 3: On the Google contacts page, click on create contact 

Step 4: Select create a contact 

Step 5: Enter the details of the new contact 

Step 6: Click save 

Step 7: Google informs you that you have successfully added the new contact 

Here is a quick reference YouTube video we recommend to see a live demonstration of one of the methods for adding contacts to your Gmail.

Method 3: Adding Contacts to Gmail Using a Phone

Although you can access your Gmail account on your Android or iOS device, you can’t add contacts through Gmail. Instead, you will need the Google contacts app to add the contacts. 

Unfortunately, this option is only available for Android devices. If you have an iOS device, you can only access Google Contacts by opening it via your web browser. If your Google account is logged in to that device, you won’t need to give your Google login details.

 The process of adding contacts to your phone via the Google contacts app on Android or the Google contacts mobile web version on iOS is similar. 

Here are the steps you follow:

Step 1: Open Google contacts on your iOS phone browser or the Google Contacts app on Android 

Step 2: Click on the plus (+) at the bottom of the screen to add contacts

Step 3: Enter details on the new contact 

Step 4: Click save 

Method 4: Automatically Adding Contacts to Gmail

Google automatically saves the contacts of people you have interacted with in Google services. This is why you see an email of somebody you haven’t saved in your contacts list autofill when entering their address. 

These contacts are saved in the ‘other contacts’ section. You can turn off this feature if you don’t want Google to automatically save your contacts. Here are the steps to stop automatically saving contacts to Gmail:

Step 1: Open Gmail and click on settings at the top right corner 

Step 2: Select see all settings 

Step 3: Scroll down to create contacts for auto-complete 

Step 4: Select I’ll add contacts myself 

Step 5: Click on save changes at the bottom 

Method 5: Creating Group Contacts in Gmail

Grouping contacts helps you send emails to your family, friends, or colleagues without manually entering their contacts. Here are the steps to creating a group in Google contacts 

Step 1: Open your browser and navigate to Google Contacts

Step 2: Select the contacts you want to include in the group 

Step 3: Scroll down to Labels, then click Create label on the left-side menu 

Step 4: Enter the name of the group and click save 

After clicking save, you will have created a new group. You can also add more contacts to the group. Here are the steps you follow:

i) Open Google contacts and select the contact you want to add 

ii) Click the third icon at the top to open a menu 

iii) Select Manage labels and click the group you want to add it to 

iv) Click apply

The contact you selected will be added to that group. Only the default address is added to the group if a contact in the group has several addresses. 

Method 6: Importing Contacts to Gmail

If the contacts you want to add to Gmail are already saved somewhere else, you can import them to Gmail instead of saving them one by one. You can import contacts either from a file or another Gmail account. 

Importing Contacts from a File

Step 1: Open Google contacts in your browser 

Step 2: Click import

Step 3: Click Select file 

Step 4: Select the file with the contacts and click open 

Step 5: Click Import to import the file. You get a notification after they have imported

Method 7: Importing from Another Gmail Account

To import contacts from another Gmail account, you will need to first export these contacts to a file, then import the file using the method above. Here are the steps to follow:

Step 1: Open Google contacts of the account and click export 

Step 2: Select the contacts you want to export 

Step 3: Select Google CSV

Step 4: Click export 

Step 5: Sign out and open the other account where you want to import the contacts 

Step 6: Click import

Step 7: Select the file to import and click open 

Step 8: Click import 

If you try to import contacts either from a file or another Gmail account and it fails, there are several possible reasons for the failure:

• You are trying to import more than 3000 contacts at a time. If you have more than 3000 contacts to import, split them into several CSVs and import one at a time. 
• The contacts you are trying to import are not formatted in vCard or CSV form. The file you import to Google contacts needs to be in either of these forms for it to work. 
• You have attained the maximum number of contacts your Google contacts account can hold. Google contacts have a maximum of 25,000 contacts. Therefore, if you are likely to exceed this mark after you import, the import might fail. 

Method 8: Syncing Google Contacts

When you sync contacts on your Gmail, you can access them on any device as long as you have the same Gmail account. This means you don’t have to save contacts on your computer and again on your phone. 

Additionally, if you may edit a contact on a device, they are automatically updated on all devices with that account. 

Syncing Google Contacts on a Phone

Step 1: Open the Settings app and go to Google

Step 2: Scroll down to settings for Google apps

Step 3: Select Google contacts sync 

Step 4: Select Also sync device contacts 

Step 5: Turn on Automatically backup and sync device contacts 

Your contacts will be automatically saved and synced to your selected backup account. Here are some points to remember when syncing google contacts. 

• Some phone models do not support contact syncing. If you do not have the option on your phone, it is possible that this feature is not supported on that model. 
• When you sign out of your account on that device, you remove all contacts saved on the Google account. This helps prevent other people using your device from accessing your contacts. 
• You cannot sync your contacts to a child’s account or an account you use for work or school (G suite account). 

Conclusion 

Adding contacts to Gmail means adding contacts to your Google account. You can add the contacts from a received email through Gmail or manually through Google contacts. 

If you have contacts saved in another file or Gmail account, you can export them to your preferred account instead of saving them manually. Additionally, you can sync your contacts so that it is easy to access them across all your devices where you use that Gmail account. 

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