When you first activated your phone, you either signed into an existing Google account or created a new one. If you've used Gmail, Google Voice, Google Talk, or any other Google service to send or receive messages, you've already got a list of Google Contacts. As you make and receive calls and SMS messages on your phone, you're adding to those Google Contacts. Even if you don't care a lick about having your contacts connected to Google, it's an automatic backup service—and that's never a bad thing.
Contacts Screen
You get to your contacts by opening the Contacts shortcut from your application tray or by clicking over to the Contacts tab from the Phone shortcut. It's alphabetical by first name, and you can scroll through it with your finger to cover a few contacts at a time. As you start scrolling, you'll see a tab appear on the far right, which you can then grab with your finger and scroll much faster through the list. Even faster? Hit the Menu button and choose search, then start typing the first or last name of the person you're trying to call, text, email, or otherwise reach. If you've got a hardware keyboard, you can flip it out and start typing to get there without having to press Search.
What you see in Contacts, by default, is everybody in your "My Contacts" section of your Google Contacts. If you haven't used Google's online services that much, you pretty much see a list of everybody you've called, emailed, or sent an SMS. That can be a bit
overwhelming, for sure, given Google's tenacity at remembering three other people named Pete you emailed during an apartment search five years ago.
Want to limit and edit your Contacts list? Hit the Menu key with your Contacts open, and select "Display Options."
Editing Your Contacts
The first option, "Only contacts with phones," will cut a lot of the fluff out of a meaty contact list. You'll still see your email contacts, and Facebook or Twitter friends, when you're using those applications, but your Contacts list itself will be strictly a phone list. Below that, you can click on your main Google/Gmail account to fine-tune both the Google Contacts that are shown, and fine-grain control which contacts from other apps are shown.
What is "System Group: My Contacts," and how did it and its other "System Group" cousins get here? They're groups from your Google Contacts. It's not an elegant system, exactly, but to make Gmail a different kind of email provider, Google semi-automated the management of contacts. Once you've sent any kind of email back and forth with somebody, they end up as a Contact. If you've traded a few emails back and forth, and Google's mathematical formula deems you to be fairly copacetic, that other person gets copied into "My Contacts." In theory, this should save you headaches. In practice, it is its own unique kind of migraine.
Almost as if to confess to its confusion, Google's Contacts on Android lets you choose which Google Contacts groups to sync, so that you can have your whole Google-y world linked up by checking each group, along with "All Other Contacts," or just sync up "My Contacts," or whatever other group you've chosen. We'll make our own syncing group in just a bit—for now, let's finish up with what we have in the "Display Options."
Syncing Twitter, Facebook, e-mail etc. with contacts
Just below your main Google account listing you'll see the syncing options for any other email accounts you've set up on your phone, along with social networks like Facebook or Twitter, and any other application where you'd build your own contact list. Click on these accounts, and you'll see an option to sync "All Contacts." Check it and you'll be able to call Facebook friends and their profile pictures with their phone numbers listed, view Twitter profiles by searching for users' real names, and otherwise augment your contact list.
Favorites/"Starred" Contacts
Most people have a small circle of friends, family, and close co-workers that they frequently call, text, email, and otherwise contact. From your Android Contacts, you can single out these frequent contacts by "Starring" them, and making them part of your Favorites group.
A "Starred" Contact
You can add that "star" by clicking on any contact name in your list, then tapping the star that appears in the upper-right corner of their contact details. As you might have guessed, you can also press and hold on a contact name to pop up an options menu, then select "Add to favorites."
Favorite Contacts List
As you do that, you'll start seeing your chosen contacts in the Favorites list. You can quickly call their default number, most likely a cellphone, by touching the green phone icon on the right-hand side or by clicking their name for other numbers and contact means. Want to change the primary calling number? Click the contact name, press and hold on
generated list of frequently called (and text-messaged) contacts. Convenient enough, but you can't, unfortunately, change this list or clear it out for a reset.