iOS 16 Lets You Easily Fix Duplicate Contacts

Tuesday June 7, 2022 10:42 am PDT by Juli Clover

If your Contacts app is riddled with duplicates that you haven't been able to fix, iOS 16 has a solution. The update includes a dedicated feature for merging duplicate contacts, solving problems with multiple contacts once and for all.

ios 16 contacts merge duplicates
In the ‌iOS 16‌ Contacts app, if you have more than one contact card for the same person, the app will automatically detect the duplicate and let you know that duplicates were found.

The "Duplicates Found" interface is at the top of the app, and if you tap it, the Contacts app is able to merge all of the duplicate contact cards into one.

Prior to now, there was no built-in way to quickly manage duplicate contacts in the iOS Contacts app, so the new ‌iOS 16‌ feature should be a relief for those dealing with Contacts issues. This feature did previously exist on the Mac, but it was not available on iOS devices.

Related Roundups: iOS 16, iPadOS 16

Related Forum: iOS 16

Top Rated Comments

No5tromo

17 months ago

Feels like they're finally focusing on needed refinements with iOS 16, let's hope it won't turn out to be another bug fest.

Score: 15 Votes (Like | Disagree)

sahni130

I hope I don't regret my words later but all these little improvements might just make it the best iOS release in recent memory.

Score: 11 Votes (Like | Disagree)

robertpetry

This is awesome. I have a bunch of duplicates because of previous intentions with LinkedIn, Facebook, multiple Outlook databases, 2 different personal email contact lists, etc.

Score: 10 Votes (Like | Disagree)

thadoggfather

it is curious how I have accumulated 1-2 duplicated contacts for almost every contact on average in my phone list at some point in time. iCloud bug?

Score: 8 Votes (Like | Disagree)

Andres Cantu

Anyone could explain why iPhone 7plus (A10 chip) won’t be upgraded to iOS16 while iPad 5gen (A9) will to iPadOS 16?
They have limit even more devices in macOS Ventura…

I suspect it’s because of the headline feature (new Lock Screen) probably needing the neural processor from the A11 and newer chips (to get that blurred background right). Since the iPads didn’t get this feature, they got away with it. That, and there are probably lots of A9/A10 iPads being used in schools.

Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)