Admittedly, I am an organized person purely out of laziness. I absolutely loathe having to spend time searching for something, especially when it should be handy / easy for me to find!
My friends and family often come to me when they need a phone number or address because I always have them readily available! I was recently chatting with my sister-in-law (the conversation started because she was looking for an address) and she was lamenting how she always ends up needing the same ~15 addresses, but can rarely find them when she needs them (I mean, it’s not like anyone uses Rolodexes any more… hands up if you even know wtf that is! 😂) so I suggested that she add them to the contact details in her phone like I do. She was like 🤯 WHY DIDN’T I THINK OF THAT!?! I also like to add other key info that I often wish to have when the situation arises. I just assumed that everyone does the same thing that I do, but now I’m thinking that it might be helpful if I shared my “Hacks for iPhone Contacts” with you!
– Add An Address: I know that mailing things is becoming more and more antiquated these days, but it’s never a bad idea to keep peoples’ addresses saved because you never know when you may need them for items such as: thank you cards, mailing surprise gifts, etc. I also update them as soon as I find out that someone has moved to avoid the risk of mailing something to the wrong address! You can also add multiple addresses within each person’s contact info! As an example, my in-laws have a physical address and then a Post Office Box that they use for mailing… I like to keep both in my phone just in case I need to reference their physical address for the GPS (you never know!). You can also create custom labels for the addresses by tapping on the blue auto-generated label on the left side of the address input field (they will typically come up as either “home” or “work”). After tapping the label to modify it a list of suggested commonly used labels will appear, but below that there is a “Custom” option where you can type in your own descriptions like “mailing”, “cabin”, “lake house”, etc.
– Add Names and Dates: It’s tough to keep up with everyone in your life, I get it; no judgement here! As a cheat sheet for myself, I often add the names of my friends / family’s children and significant others under the “Add Related Name” section as well as any significant dates, such as birthdays and wedding anniversaries. The birthday option is already provided, but the additional date labels can be customized the same way as the address labels (detailed above). I can hardly keep track of my own birthday, much less everyone else’s. Thank goodness for Contact Lists and automated Calendar Reminders, amirite?
– Denote Emergency Contacts: Yes, you can do the “ICE” thing if you really want to, but now iPhones have gotten so smart and you can actually just check a box in a Contact’s details to signify them as your Emergency Contact. *NOTE: you can have multiple Emergency Contacts! I have my husband as my Emergency Contact, but I have also noted my mom and my younger brother as Emergency Contacts (my husband travels enough that I want to make sure that the authorities can get ahold of *someone* in case calls can’t get through to him or in the event that something happens to both of us). You can make this election when you are viewing their contact profile (not while editing their details).
– Share my Location: Another safety (and convenience) feature that I love is being able to share my location directly with someone. You can choose to share your location for a selected period of time (maybe for a girls’ weekend in a new city or during a family vacation) OR you can choose to share your location indefinitely. My husband and I share our locations indefinitely with each other mostly so that he can always know where I am if my phone is on… just in case something happens to me, he can “track” me; it just makes me feel better as a woman living in a fairly large city. I find this feature to be super convenient in instances when I want to know if he’s still at the store and I need him to add something to the cart, I can just check to see his location and whether he is already on his way home or not.
– Add Memos: This may be my favorite “hack” of all. In the Notes area, I include peoples’ favorite items such as beverage flavors / coffee orders / birthday cake flavor preferences / food allergies / etc. This comes in particularly handy when you’re trying to surprise someone!
Lastly, and slightly off-topic, but I wanted to share that I LOVE my Loopy phone case! Highly recommend.
I feel like most of us just don’t have the time to spend exploring the various (and extensive!) convenience features of our phones, but I have found these “hacks” to all be very useful in my daily life and I hope that they can help you too! 😊 It only take a few seconds to add information to your Contacts when details are provided to you (such as coffee / tea orders or an anniversary date).
If there’s another “hack” that you frequently use with your iPhone Contacts App, I’d love it if you shared it with me and other readers in the comments!
xx, Natalie
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