How to Merge Shared Contacts In Google Contacts

Google users can merge duplicated contacts to streamline and organize their contact book! If users have duplicated contacts or would like to simply merge various contacts from shared labels, Shared Contacts for Gmail® has you covered.

Time needed: 2 minutes.

Follow the steps below for a seamless merge:

  1. Access your Google Contact interface and search the Google contacts you would like to merge into one.


    search the Google contacts you would like to merge into one

  2. Check that they either belong to no label or a label that is not shared, by clicking on the contact.

    If they belong to a shared label in which you have at least “Can Delete” permissions, which includes “Can Delete”, “Can Reshare” and “Is Owner”. If you don’t, ask the owner of the shared label to increase your permissions.
    Check that they either belong to no label or a label that is not shared

  3. Go back to the searched contacts, and select them.


    Go back to the searched contacts, and select them.

  4. Click on the merge icon


    Click on the merge icon to merge your duplicated google contacts

  5. Open Shared Contacts, and click on the “Sync” icon to accelerate the changes (if you don’t click, the changes will take between 15 and 30 minutes)


    Open Shared Contacts, click on the "Sync" icon to accelerate the changes

Troubleshooting

What to do if I merge my duplicated contacts, but they keep reappearing after a while?

Users may be receiving shared labels from numerous admins/owners, so it is possible for users to receive the same contact but containing different information. When you try to merge multiple contacts into one, the changes revert to their original contact. This is because the user does not have the correct permissions to make this edit, thus the changes don’t stick. Users must ask the owner of the shared label to increase their permission level (as stated in step 2). Users must ask the owner of the shared label to increase their permissions (as stated in step 2).

There you have it, merging made easy!