Double, triple or worse why my contacts are multiplying on my smartphone

Why do we duplicate, triple or worse contacts in our smartphone? How to clear this list?

On our smartphones, contacts are a very important aspect. The applications that bring them together provide easy and quick access to our entire address book to get in touch with so-and-so in a few clicks, whether by phone, email or any other messaging service. Over time, the contact list may grow. And it’s not always easy to keep it clean. Especially when certain contacts are present in several copies.

Why do we duplicate, triple or worse contacts in our smartphone?

Before our smartphones, contacts only existed locally on our phones, in limited numbers, and even fewer could be stored directly on the SIM card. Since the advent of smartphones and advanced mobile operating systems, the number of our contacts and their sources has increased significantly. To make the user experience easier, the OS offers applications that bring them together. And often add backup and synchronization services.

Unfortunately, since contacts are identified using simple strings of characters, all it takes is a tiny difference in form for systems to see two different contacts. As a result of the operation, we get two different contacts, but identical, with a slight difference in such and such a line in the form.

To make matters worse, sync systems like iCloud, like any software, can have bugs. Some time ago iCloud error just duplicated your contacts. Without any unpleasant consequences – a duplicate contact takes up very little memory – seeing such duplicates in the list every day can be frustrating.

How to clear this list?

To remove duplicate solutions, unfortunately, not much. The first of these, the most tedious, is manual cleaning. For each recurring contact, you will have to decide which entry to keep and manually delete the rest. However, be careful when using this method, if the source of the duplication (for example, synchronization through another application) is still active, the duplication may appear again.

The OS, be it Android or iOS, offers solutions for merging duplicate contacts (Android) or identifying duplicates and removing them easily (iOS, but you have to go through the macOS Contacts app).

Choose the method that suits you best and spend the time it takes to clean up your contact list. Your smartphone will thank you!