We may earn a commission from links on this page.The Contacts app is the bedrock of all my communication on my iPhone, and to a large extent, also on my MacBook. On the surface, Contacts appears to be a basic app that stores names, numbers, and other things you want to remember about people or businesses. However, it has some great features hidden under the surface, such as the ability to quickly delete duplicate contacts, smart lists, and faster ways to bulk share or delete contacts. Here are the 10 best Contacts app hacks for iPhone, iPad, and Mac: iPhone 18 Pro $1,199.00 at Apple Shop Now Shop Now $1,199.00 at Apple iPhone Duo $1,999.00 at Apple Shop Now Shop Now $1,999.00 at Apple MacBook Pro with PROLED XDR Display $2,899.00 at Apple Pre-order Here Pre-order Here $2,899.00 at Apple 14-inch MacBook Pro with M6 Chip $1,999.00 at Apple Pre-order Here Pre-order Here $1,999.00 at Apple SEE 1 MORE Use this hidden search feature to delete duplicate contacts Credit: Pranay Parab If you have the same number or email address saved under multiple contacts, you can easily clear these from your iPhone. iOS shows you a prompt at the top of the list of contacts that lets you remove duplicate contacts easily. The same feature is hidden in the Mac version of Contacts. To try it, open Contacts on the Mac, and select the Card menu at the top of the screen. Then, click Look for Duplicates. This will identify duplicate contacts for you, and you can quickly merge or delete them.Try the two-finger swipe gesture to select multiple contactsIt's pretty easy to select multiple entries when you use the Contacts app on the Mac. You can hold the Shift or Ctrl buttons and use arrow keys or click multiple contacts to select them all. On your iPhone or iPad, this feature is available via a hidden gesture. You need to use two fingers and swipe upwards or downwards on the list of contacts. Once you get the gesture right, you'll be able to select multiple contacts quickly. After you select one batch of contacts, you can scroll up or down and use the same gesture to add more contacts to your selection. This is the fastest way to execute bulk actions in your iPhone's Contacts app.Copy a contact and paste it in Messages to share phone numbers quicklyWhen you share a contact, iOS shows you a prompt to select the fields you wish to send. This is great for privacy because you don't want to send your partner's home address, birthdate, your anniversary, nicknames, or other personal details by default. However, this extra step adds a little bit of friction while sharing contacts. If you want a faster way to send a contact on your iPhone, you can copy and paste it in the Messages app. To try it, open the Contacts app and scroll till you see the contact's name. Hold the contact's name and press Copy. Open Messages, paste it in any chat, and send it. Unfortunately, this doesn't work with third-party messaging apps like WhatsApp, but it's great for texts and iMessage.Hold the message button in a contact card to switch to a different messaging appOn your iPhone, you can use Contacts to message people on WhatsApp, Signal, Telegram, or other apps. Just open a contact and hold the messaging button. This will reveal a list of apps where you can ping that person. WhatsApp doesn't have access to my contacts, which makes it a bit annoying to message people I know. Since I started using the Contacts app to start chats on WhatsApp, the process of pinging new people has become a lot faster.Hold the call button to change the app used to call a personJust as you can use Contacts to message people on third-party apps, you can also use it to call them on those apps. Go to any contact in the Contacts app on your iPhone, and hold the call button. This will let you call them on WhatsApp, Signal, or any other apps where their phone number is linked.Delete a contact quickly by long-pressing its name Credit: Pranay Parab iOS makes it hard to delete contacts quickly. This prevents accidental deletions, but it can be annoying when you just want to remove people who you last spoke to in high school. To speed this up, open Contacts on your iPhone and hold any contact's name. In the popover menu, select Delete to remove the contact. To remove multiple contacts quickly, use the two-finger swipe gesture to select multiple contacts, and hold any of the selected contacts. In the popover menu, you can select Delete X Contacts, where X is the number of contacts you've selected.Use the Mac app to export your contacts and back them up offlineTo export your entire address book, you can use the Contacts app on your Mac. Once you have it open, go to File > Export > Export vCard. This will save all your contacts in a vcf file, and you can import that into Google Contacts or other apps or services. You also have the option to export contacts as a PDF file. Just select File > Export as PDF to get it done.Remove fields you don't use when adding new contacts on MacWhen you create a new contact on your Mac, the app shows multiple fields that you may never use. If you just need to save phone numbers and email addresses, you can delete all the other blank fields from the template. To do this, open Contacts on your Mac, and go to Card > Add Field > Edit Template to add or remove fields from the default contact template.Use smart lists to filter contacts on your Mac Credit: Pranay Parab If you added a number recently, such as a salesperson at a car dealership, but forgot their name, the Contacts app doesn't make it easy to find the contact. Instead of scrolling through the entire list of contacts and trying to guess which one could be the person you spoke to, you can use the Contacts app on your Mac to locate them quickly. It lets you create smart lists to sort contacts by recently added. Open Contacts on your Mac, and go to File > New Smart List. Now select Card in the first drop-down menu, followed by has changed in for the second one. You can then add the number of days, such as 10 days, in the final field, and click OK. Click the newly created smart list in the left pane, and you'll see all contacts that were either created or updated in the last 10 days, which will include the hypothetical car salesperson.Smart lists also allow you to quickly create groups of related contacts. For instance, I've saved all my former colleagues' details with the company name in the contact. To find them all quickly, I created a smart list that groups all contacts with that company's name.Optimize your contact card to avoid sharing unnecessary informationNameDrop is one of my favorite Apple features. It lets you bump two Apple devices together to exchange contact information quickly. Try holding your iPhone near another person's iPhone, and you'll see a full-screen pop-up asking if you want to share your contact with someone, or if you'd just like to receive their contact information. To protect your privacy, you should limit sending information to others. Updating your contact card is the best way to do this. Open the Contacts app on your iPhone, and tap your name up top. Hit the Edit button and remove information you don't wish to share. I recommend updating your profile picture too. Instead of sharing a candid photo, you can use an emoji or a professional headshot that you're comfortable sharing in public.