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Contacts list - using "Categories"

TxFig

TxFig

Newbie
I have not yet bought my Android phone (going to upgrade to the EVO 3D here very soon) - but I want to ask a question that has plagued me on my old WM6 phone.

I keep my contacts in Outlook on my PC - I have ~500 contacts. I keep them organized by having a dozen or so categories. There are some contacts that are in multiple categories. Note that this is actually quite normal - for example, let's say I have a category for "MyOffice" for folks I work with and another category for "Church" (folks I go to church with). There are 2 people I work with who attend the same church I do - ergo, their contact entry has both categories "checked".


Now on my old WM phone, when I used ActiveSync, the contacts list on the phone got really confused - thinking that these were 2 separate entries. So I ended up with a duplicate. ARG!!!



Question: how will the contacts list on the EVO 3d handle this? I looked at the contacts on my gmail account and was dismayed to find that Google doesn't seem to have any concept of categories. :eek:
 
I am not aware of a way of syncing catergories between Outlook and Android. Like you I wish there was.
 
This is one of my biggest peeves with Android - why on earth no one has come up with a good contact manager that allows you to use categories is beyond me. You can categorize them in Google contacts but you can't use them in Android - utterly ridiculous. :rolleyes:
 
reinbeau said:
This is one of my biggest peeves with Android - why on earth no one has come up with a good contact manager that allows you to use categories is beyond me. You can categorize them in Google contacts but you can't use them in Android - utterly ridiculous. :rolleyes:
Click to expand...


To be fair, my old WindowsMobile phone handled categories really poorly (see my op).


I have seen other threads about a replacement app for the Android contacts that uses the Google Contacts db directly. Once my Evo 3d gets here (ordered yesterday), it might be one of the first apps I try out.
 
I'd be lost without my Contact categories. I have been successfully syncing my Outlook contacts with my android phone for a while now. I only have about 350 contacts but about 20 categories. I use Go Contact Sync Mod which maps Outlooks categories on to Google's groups. I can then see all my categories/groups on my phone using the various contact apps I have installed such a Go Contacts Ex. This works well and even syncs my contacts photos.
 
TeresaTT said:
I'd be lost without my Contact categories. I have been successfully syncing my Outlook contacts with my android phone for a while now. I only have about 350 contacts but about 20 categories. I use Go Contact Sync Mod which maps Outlooks categories on to Google's groups. I can then see all my categories/groups on my phone using the various contact apps I have installed such a Go Contacts Ex. This works well and even syncs my contacts photos.
Click to expand...


OUTSTANDING!!! I have been searching for a way to do this FOR YEARS. :D
 
Well, I don't use Outlook, nor am I going to, so I'm going to continue to not understand why Android developers don't use categories properly. I'm from the Palm world (never used Windows anything from the handheld world), categories are a fundamental part of organizing things.
 
BB organized things that way. Then you could check which category you wished to see and the others were hidden.

I had spammers all marked with obscene names and silent ring. Even though I never kept anything backed up on TMO, asshole spammer1,2, etc. kinda gave TM fits.
On the BB, I never saw the spammers. Once I switched to Android, they all showed up.
 
reinbeau said:
Well, I don't use Outlook, nor am I going to, so I'm going to continue to not understand why Android developers don't use categories properly. I'm from the Palm world (never used Windows anything from the handheld world), categories are a fundamental part of organizing things.
Click to expand...

I'm an ex-Palm user too. Still have my beloved Sony TH-55 (the concept was later stolen by Apple). Also still have my Palm Treo 680...

I've always wondered why Google did not integrate all the good things that have been around for many years on other platforms, like categories.
 
vosg said:
I've always wondered why Google did not integrate all the good things that have been around for many years on other platforms, like categories.
Click to expand...

As someone else pointed out, Google does have categories for the contacts.


TeresaTT said:
I'd be lost without my Contact categories. I have been successfully syncing my Outlook contacts with my android phone for a while now. I only have about 350 contacts but about 20 categories. I use Go Contact Sync Mod which maps Outlooks categories on to Google's groups. I can then see all my categories/groups on my phone using the various contact apps I have installed such a Go Contacts Ex. This works well and even syncs my contacts photos.
Click to expand...

I tried to download this yesterday and install it. But it could not "connect" to outlook running on my computer. I filed a bug report with them - it's at:
https://sourceforge.net/tracker/?func=detail&aid=3389120&group_id=369321&atid=1539126
 
TxFig said:
As someone else pointed out, Google does have categories for the contacts.
Click to expand...
Yes I know, as I said, I use categories in Gmail, but so far no program for Android uses them. Really, they don't. Try to categorize your contacts in your contact program on your phone. You can't, and that is what I find odd.
 
reinbeau said:
Yes I know, as I said, I use categories in Gmail, but so far no program for Android uses them. Really, they don't. Try to categorize your contacts in your contact program on your phone. You can't, and that is what I find odd.
Click to expand...

Try Go Contacts Ex. It uses Gmail's groups quite nicely. The HTC stock People app also uses groups.
 
I switched from OE to Gmail about 2 years ago, it's so nice having everything accessible from "everywhere". I use K9 mail on my Optimus and it syncs to any "category" you tell it to. I have 15 category's on my work PC, but I only use 6 on my phone. I can view all 15 if I choose, but I have it set to only view, poll and sync to 6.
 
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