Maybe my threshold for UI annoyance is just higher, or I don’t have that many contacts, but I have never really felt annoyed at the Contacts app. If I am trying to reach someone I text often I do...
Maybe my threshold for UI annoyance is just higher, or I don’t have that many contacts, but I have never really felt annoyed at the Contacts app. If I am trying to reach someone I text often I do default to iMessage, but if that’s not the case I search contacts. I just keep typing until the contact I want pops up. Never thought twice about it even if it takes more than one letter. I can hardly think of a situation in which the difference between typing one letter versus three or four is relevant — my whatever-flow is not nearly optimized enough for that difference to matter.
The Contacts app has been my long-standing gripe since switching from Android a few years ago. But to speculatively answer your question, I think two things are in play. One, it looks like the...
The Contacts app has been my long-standing gripe since switching from Android a few years ago. But to speculatively answer your question, I think two things are in play. One, it looks like the Contacts app is just matching whatever you type. When I enter a single letter, indeed the results are spread out. Entering the first two letters gets me a lot closer to what I want. To me, this design is completely neutral. It's not making a decision about whether you want to call up a recent contact, new contact, first name, last name, etc. It's just a basic match, for better or worse.
But this brings me to my second point. The Contacts app is bad on iOS, and I've never seen my friends or family use it directly. But why? To me, this becomes a question of "how do most people use their phone?" And the answer I see is almost always through text-based communication. The iMessage search is much better - typing "C" brings up my emergency contacts first, plus an active group chat. The random contacts are way lower down. I have pinned messages for iMessage, so it's a lot easier to just call from there than go to the Phone app and use my "Favorites" tab or search a name.
So, which issue comes first? Do iOS users avoid the Contacts app because it's bad, or because there's another more commonly accessed app that does the same thing?
This is something that I had a gripe with after moving from android to iOS as well, but I have found that entering the contacts app and searching from there is (intuitively) not the best way to...
This is something that I had a gripe with after moving from android to iOS as well, but I have found that entering the contacts app and searching from there is (intuitively) not the best way to navigate. Using spotlight search by pulling down on the home screen and searching their is not only faster, but gives the results that I am actually looking for. From that screen you can chose to text, call and (if available) facetime. If you need more information you can click on the profile photo and get their location (if shared), address, texts, emails, photos, etc. If you need to edit their contact card you can then click through to the contacts app and make changes there.
Typing this all out makes it sound more complicated than it is. It was a process adjustment as first, but I've found that I like it more than the android version of contacts. I can get more information in the same or less time with the same ease.
I believe that people generally speaking do not directly interact with the Contacts app often, even when adding new contacts since that’s more easily performed in the Messages, Mail, and Phone...
I believe that people generally speaking do not directly interact with the Contacts app often, even when adding new contacts since that’s more easily performed in the Messages, Mail, and Phone apps which offer options to create new contacts and merge info with existing contacts.
For work usage, most are going to be using GSuite or Office 365 which have their own dedicated apps.
That leaves just independent/autonomous businesspeople and exceptionally organized individuals who are using the Contacts app, but even they are somewhat likely to be doing the bulk of that management on a desktop/laptop rather than on their phone.
Generally speaking, Apple software is burdened with UX issues like this, and I say that as an Apple user of 35+ years and general fanboy. I really like their OSes, and I love their hardware. But...
Generally speaking, Apple software is crap burdened with UX issues like this, and I say that as an Apple user of 35+ years and general fanboy. I really like their OSes, and I love their hardware. But yeah, I avoid their apps wherever there's a better alternative. Contacts is one where there isn't, so, grin and bear it I guess.
There's no reason Apple shouldn't be making fantastic software, but as far as anyone can tell it's just not prioritized within the company. With all the resources at their disposal I'd love to see that change.
On an up to date iPhone as of the date of the comment: In Contacts you can also type a single letter, a space, and then another single letter. For example, B J will pull up Bob Johnson and Bill...
On an up to date iPhone as of the date of the comment:
In Contacts you can also type a single letter, a space, and then another single letter.
For example, B J will pull up Bob Johnson and Bill Johnson. Switching the order to J B pulls up the same. It doesn’t pull up every name with those letters. It only pulls contacts who have combinations of first and last names which begin with a B and J. Searching for J will pull up John but a search for O or Ohn will not.
I find searching in Contacts quite neutral and quite logical, though I very rarely have a need to do so.
WhatsApp, on the other hand, does pull contacts with the letter anywhere in the name when searching. Searching for B J in WhatsApp would find Bob and Bill Johnson, but also Abe Johnson.
My preference is for the behavior of Contacts search, but until now I’d never given this much thought because I don’t find typing an extra letter or two terribly inconvenient.
On fresh installs, I delete the contacts app and manage contacts through Phone. Unless someone can point out functionality present in Contacts that Phone doesn't do, I will continue to do so. I...
On fresh installs, I delete the contacts app and manage contacts through Phone. Unless someone can point out functionality present in Contacts that Phone doesn't do, I will continue to do so.
I use spotlight to search contacts by name. You can even do this from the lock screen without swiping up to go home.
That style of search is pretty intelligent and Siri will even occasionally (5-10% of the time) suggest someone I actually want to text or call next.
My current native Apple native app peeve is Music on iPad. Swiping from the left edge of the screen should (IMO) always take you to the previous page. In Music, it opens the sidebar. Sigh.
Organizing contacts in groups is a feature they finally made work on iOS after years of only being able to show or hide individual groups of the categories created and managed on a real computer...
Unless someone can point out functionality present in Contacts that Phone doesn't do, I will continue to do so.
Organizing contacts in groups is a feature they finally made work on iOS after years of only being able to show or hide individual groups of the categories created and managed on a real computer (i.e. macOS)… and then in the same update (I can’t recall which it was, 1-2 major versions ago IIRC) they go ahead and completely butcher the usefulness of having that, by making the lists, which were always meant to be used complementarily ONLY BE ABLE TO SHOW ONE AT A TIME.
So you have groups for, say “colleagues”, “old school friends”, “extended family”.
In the past, I’d select colleagues and extended family and be happy with retaining old contacts if I ever want to reconnect with them once every other year or so, but not having them clutter my contacts in everyday use.
Now, I get to pick and choose between a single of my 5+ categories to display… which is something I’m not even gonna bother doing, so of course I’ll just end up displaying “all iCloud contacts” – which renders the feature utterly useless.
To reiterate: they added the “ability” to perform group management on an iPhone, and in doing so, made the experience of actually using these lists objectively worse, not to say actively annoying up to unusable.
As you can tell, my blood starts to boil a little even talking about it. It’s like nobody there uses the feature or has it tested, and if they do, they had to have said “sure, it might work the exact opposite of how it has been done on Mac for the past 10+ years, but you know, users can always just redo their contacts grouping entirely, right?”
I mean suuurely, it won’t be the case that I have ~400 contacts saved in there and zero time or willingness to re-do their tested, tried-and-true organization at Apple’s whim…
I use spotlight to search contacts by name. You can even do this from the lock screen without swiping up to go home.
Until reading through the responses I didn't even realize there was a "Contacts" app. If I'm adding someone I usually do the ritual text to send them my number and then add them as a contact from...
Until reading through the responses I didn't even realize there was a "Contacts" app. If I'm adding someone I usually do the ritual text to send them my number and then add them as a contact from Messages. If I'm calling someone I usually have a text indicating that I will be calling them and just click their icon and call from there.
The rare cases where the above doesn't apply I just use the contact list within the phone app.
I expect contacts is not used because it seems like an extra step. The communication apps have contacts built in.
Maybe my threshold for UI annoyance is just higher, or I don’t have that many contacts, but I have never really felt annoyed at the Contacts app. If I am trying to reach someone I text often I do default to iMessage, but if that’s not the case I search contacts. I just keep typing until the contact I want pops up. Never thought twice about it even if it takes more than one letter. I can hardly think of a situation in which the difference between typing one letter versus three or four is relevant — my whatever-flow is not nearly optimized enough for that difference to matter.
The Contacts app has been my long-standing gripe since switching from Android a few years ago. But to speculatively answer your question, I think two things are in play. One, it looks like the Contacts app is just matching whatever you type. When I enter a single letter, indeed the results are spread out. Entering the first two letters gets me a lot closer to what I want. To me, this design is completely neutral. It's not making a decision about whether you want to call up a recent contact, new contact, first name, last name, etc. It's just a basic match, for better or worse.
But this brings me to my second point. The Contacts app is bad on iOS, and I've never seen my friends or family use it directly. But why? To me, this becomes a question of "how do most people use their phone?" And the answer I see is almost always through text-based communication. The iMessage search is much better - typing "C" brings up my emergency contacts first, plus an active group chat. The random contacts are way lower down. I have pinned messages for iMessage, so it's a lot easier to just call from there than go to the Phone app and use my "Favorites" tab or search a name.
So, which issue comes first? Do iOS users avoid the Contacts app because it's bad, or because there's another more commonly accessed app that does the same thing?
This is something that I had a gripe with after moving from android to iOS as well, but I have found that entering the contacts app and searching from there is (intuitively) not the best way to navigate. Using spotlight search by pulling down on the home screen and searching their is not only faster, but gives the results that I am actually looking for. From that screen you can chose to text, call and (if available) facetime. If you need more information you can click on the profile photo and get their location (if shared), address, texts, emails, photos, etc. If you need to edit their contact card you can then click through to the contacts app and make changes there.
Typing this all out makes it sound more complicated than it is. It was a process adjustment as first, but I've found that I like it more than the android version of contacts. I can get more information in the same or less time with the same ease.
I believe that people generally speaking do not directly interact with the Contacts app often, even when adding new contacts since that’s more easily performed in the Messages, Mail, and Phone apps which offer options to create new contacts and merge info with existing contacts.
For work usage, most are going to be using GSuite or Office 365 which have their own dedicated apps.
That leaves just independent/autonomous businesspeople and exceptionally organized individuals who are using the Contacts app, but even they are somewhat likely to be doing the bulk of that management on a desktop/laptop rather than on their phone.
Generally speaking, Apple software is
crapburdened with UX issues like this, and I say that as an Apple user of 35+ years and general fanboy. I really like their OSes, and I love their hardware. But yeah, I avoid their apps wherever there's a better alternative. Contacts is one where there isn't, so, grin and bear it I guess.There's no reason Apple shouldn't be making fantastic software, but as far as anyone can tell it's just not prioritized within the company. With all the resources at their disposal I'd love to see that change.
On an up to date iPhone as of the date of the comment:
In Contacts you can also type a single letter, a space, and then another single letter.
For example,
B Jwill pull up Bob Johnson and Bill Johnson. Switching the order toJ Bpulls up the same. It doesn’t pull up every name with those letters. It only pulls contacts who have combinations of first and last names which begin with a B and J. Searching forJwill pull up John but a search forOorOhnwill not.I find searching in Contacts quite neutral and quite logical, though I very rarely have a need to do so.
WhatsApp, on the other hand, does pull contacts with the letter anywhere in the name when searching. Searching for
B Jin WhatsApp would find Bob and Bill Johnson, but also Abe Johnson.My preference is for the behavior of Contacts search, but until now I’d never given this much thought because I don’t find typing an extra letter or two terribly inconvenient.
On fresh installs, I delete the contacts app and manage contacts through Phone. Unless someone can point out functionality present in Contacts that Phone doesn't do, I will continue to do so.
I use spotlight to search contacts by name. You can even do this from the lock screen without swiping up to go home.
That style of search is pretty intelligent and Siri will even occasionally (5-10% of the time) suggest someone I actually want to text or call next.
My current native Apple native app peeve is Music on iPad. Swiping from the left edge of the screen should (IMO) always take you to the previous page. In Music, it opens the sidebar. Sigh.
Organizing contacts in groups is a feature they finally made work on iOS after years of only being able to show or hide individual groups of the categories created and managed on a real computer (i.e. macOS)… and then in the same update (I can’t recall which it was, 1-2 major versions ago IIRC) they go ahead and completely butcher the usefulness of having that, by making the lists, which were always meant to be used complementarily ONLY BE ABLE TO SHOW ONE AT A TIME.
So you have groups for, say “colleagues”, “old school friends”, “extended family”.
In the past, I’d select colleagues and extended family and be happy with retaining old contacts if I ever want to reconnect with them once every other year or so, but not having them clutter my contacts in everyday use.
Now, I get to pick and choose between a single of my 5+ categories to display… which is something I’m not even gonna bother doing, so of course I’ll just end up displaying “all iCloud contacts” – which renders the feature utterly useless.
To reiterate: they added the “ability” to perform group management on an iPhone, and in doing so, made the experience of actually using these lists objectively worse, not to say actively annoying up to unusable.
As you can tell, my blood starts to boil a little even talking about it. It’s like nobody there uses the feature or has it tested, and if they do, they had to have said “sure, it might work the exact opposite of how it has been done on Mac for the past 10+ years, but you know, users can always just redo their contacts grouping entirely, right?”
I mean suuurely, it won’t be the case that I have ~400 contacts saved in there and zero time or willingness to re-do their tested, tried-and-true organization at Apple’s whim…
On a lighter note, this is pretty clever.
Edit: one word typo
Until reading through the responses I didn't even realize there was a "Contacts" app. If I'm adding someone I usually do the ritual text to send them my number and then add them as a contact from Messages. If I'm calling someone I usually have a text indicating that I will be calling them and just click their icon and call from there.
The rare cases where the above doesn't apply I just use the contact list within the phone app.
I expect contacts is not used because it seems like an extra step. The communication apps have contacts built in.