iOS 16 has been in the market for over a year and has handy features. Among them, fixing duplicate contacts and getting rid of them is one of the best decluttering ways for your iPhone. After all, keeping your iPhone clean helps organize your daily interactions with the iOS device.
Moreover, you won’t be any longer confused because of duplicate contacts. How do you merge duplicate contacts on iPhone in iOS 16, by the way? The guide has everything you need to find and merge duplicate contacts.
Your contact list should be optimized since you communicate with new people every day and part with others. So, let’s check out how you can fix your iPhone’s duplicate contacts with iOS 16.
Steps to Discard Duplicate Contacts on Your iPhone in iOS 16
How can you find and merge duplicate contacts on an iPhone in iOS 16? Your iPhone’s Contact has every element to find and merge duplicate contacts if it runs on iOS 16 or later. Now, you link contact cards for the same individual using different accounts.
However, the Contact app can detect multiple sources for the same contact. To reduce the redundancy of contacts under your All Contacts list, the app links those contacts from different sources based on the same first and last names. Thus, several contacts from different sources for the same person can be shown as a single unified contact.
How can you identify that your iPhone has duplicate contacts? To determine this fact, go to your Contacts app on your iPhone in iOS 16. Next, tap All Contacts and check if you can see a grey box with a specific message underneath your contact card.
The message might mention the statement, ‘Duplicates Found’. Now, you can eliminate those duplicate contacts with a few taps on your iPhone on iOS 16. Here’s what you have to follow:
- Under your contact card, tap on the message ‘Duplicates Found’. Or, the message might say, ‘View Duplicates’.
- After that, the app will take you to a page where you can see all duplicate entries in your contact list.
- Now, you can tap every duplicate contact to review them and decide whether you want to merge them.
Moreover…
If you want to merge duplicate contacts on your iPhone in a single chance, then tap on the Merge All option. Otherwise, you can hit the Ignore All option to withdraw the contact merging. Moreover, you should review every contact one by one and then decide whether you should merge them. iOS 16 lets you take particular actions for every duplicate account, indeed.
On the other hand, you can link multiple accounts or contact sources for the same person. For example, you may have added a contact through his or her Yahoo and Google accounts. You can merge the 2 accounts or contacts into a single contact card. Yet, you won’t lose any information from the merged contact.
How to Link 2 Contacts for the Same Person on your iPhone
In addition, you might find that 2 entries for the same individual aren’t linked even after merging them automatically on your iOS 16 device. Then, you have to link them manually. Go through the following steps to link 2 different accounts for the same person on the iPhone’s Contacts app:
- Tap any contact from the Duplicate Contacts list.
- Next, tap on Edit, followed by Libk Contacts.
- Now, select another entry that you want to link to the previously chosen contact.
- Finally, tap on Link.
That’s how to link duplicate contacts on an iPhone when you have 2 entries for the same individual. Well, does the first or last name of the contact get lost when you link 2 entries? The names on the individual contact cards don’t change or disappear.
However, only a single name appears on the unified or linked contact card. You can even select the name that should appear on the card. Just tap one of the linked contact cards. Then, tap the name of the contact card.
Next, hit the ‘Use This Name’ option to get a name for the Unified Contact Card. Remember, linking 2 contacts doesn’t imply that they are merged. If you make changes to a unified contact, changes are applied to every source account.
Manually Prune Excessive Contacts on iPhone in iOS 16
Your iPhone might not have any duplicate contacts, but there may be some cards you no longer require. Hence, it’s best to comb through your contact list on your iPhone and remove those contacts or merge them manually.
How can you manually merge and manage your contacts on iPhone in iOS 16? The process is quite straightforward, and here’s what you need to follow:
- Go to the Contacts app on your iOS 16 device.
- Check contacts and find out which you need to optimize.
- Now, tap and long-press the first contact with your 2 fingers if you find multiple same entries.
- Then, drag the selected contact card across the contact cards you want to manage.
- As long as you drag, more contacts will be highlighted in grey. After you are done selecting all the contacts that you need to fix, press and hold the screen until a menu pops up.
- Now, you can select the appropriate task for the contacts, such as ‘Delete Contacts, ‘Merge Cards’, and so on.
Try this solution when you have contacts with names quite similar.
Manage Contacts on iCloud
Merging or managing multiple contacts on your iPhone can be hectic. Hence, you can use iCloud to access your contacts and manage them accordingly easily. In addition, iCloud allows you to select contacts no matter how distant they are from each other.
On the other hand, you can use your Mac computer to manage multiple contacts on your iCloud account. Here’s how to manage contacts on iCloud:
- Sign into your iCloud account using your Mac device.
- Next, navigate to your iCloud dashboard and locate the Contacts app.
- Click the first contact you want to manage.
- Hold the Command button while clicking the contacts you want to merge with the first selected contact or manage them to select them simultaneously.
- Now, release the Command button once you have selected all the required contacts.
- Then, hit the gear-shaped icon from the bottom-left corner to check available options.
You can click the Delete button if you no longer need the selected contacts.
In Conclusion…
Hopefully, the guide helped you with how to merge duplicate contacts on iPhone in iOS 16. Before rolling out iOS 16, the same contact-merging option for duplicate cards existed for Mac devices only. So, you can use your Mac device to optimize the contact list even if your iPhone doesn’t support iOS 16.