Linked contacts on iPhone meaning – Fully Explained

Linking contacts is a great feature of iPhones that was added to newer versions of iOS.

This can be a great way to deal with things if you have duplicate contacts that actually represent the same problem.

Unfortunately, link contacts are probably one of the most misunderstood things about your iPhone. Here’s what they are, and how you can use them to make your experience better.

What are Linked Contacts on my iPhone?

In your contacts list, you will usually find several similar contacts, some of them may be displaying incomplete or partial contact details.

This information can be taken from a varied of different sourced like social media, email or synced with another app. Often people see the same message multiple times on their phone, which can be annoying.

Your iPhone will pop up with an “Linked contact” option, which allows the user to connect with contacts with corresponding data from the contact app.

Basically, all the Linked Contacts does is link your contacts together – this doesn’t mean it linked two separate contacts for two completely different people together.

It is intended to merge and connect different contacts for the same person together. So, it will connect an iPhone number with an email, an alternative number or something else.

Connected contacts provide a unified contact that contains all information about multiple contacts combined in a single database for unified communications.

And, merged Facebook contacts allow you to maintain only the one contact, instead of having many for the same person.

How to Link Contacts on iPhone

The thing is that in theory, this should happen for you automatically. Your iPhone is designed to link all of these contacts together, so you shouldn’t have to do it yourself.

However, this may not happen automatically if there’s any discrepancies between contacts – one may have the users full name, whilst another uses a nickname.

These contacts may not be linked together automatically on your iPhone contacts app. How can you combine different contact information into a single database? You can do this by;

  1. Scroll down to the contact you want to select.
  2. Click into the Contact and select Edit.
  3. Then, select the Link Contacts option when it appears.
  4. Find the contact you want to link your contact to from the contact list and connect them together.

After you’ve done this, you will see that the contacts in your contact lists should all be linked together.

How do I link unlink them on iOS?

Sometimes, you may have the opposite issue – two different accounts that have automatically linked themselves together, even though they’re not the same person.

You can do this by going into the Contacts list and finding the merged contact you want to split.

  1. First, go into your Phone app.
  2. Then, scroll down to the Contacts section of your app.
  3. Use the Edit button, which should be at the top right hand corner of your screen.
  4. If you scroll down to the bottom of the page, you’ll see a small red circle that you can use to un-merge the two accounts from each other.
  5. An “Unlink” button should pop up – press this and you’re done.

Unlinking two contacts can be as important as linking contacts if you have contacts coming from a lot of different sources – you can also block unwanted callers from within your phonebook too.

Conclusion

Some iPhone owners may have seen contact link features, and even though this tool is helpful, not everyone uses it correctly.

The process entails combining the contacts that have been duplicated, and it’s not linking two different accounts for two different people together – something most people misunderstand.

The system enables the user to create multiple entry lists for each user’s phonebook. Having fewer contacts is important, as it can help you organise your contact list properly.

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Author

Edward

Edward brings years of experience in a variety of different fields including online marketing & No-code app development, and he's been investing in stocks and cryptocurrency since 2016. Outside of work you'll usually find him watching movies at the local cinema or playing games in the Apple Arcade.

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