Contacts

Using both MobileMe and Gmail, or Google Accounts and Exchange, or any mix of multiple accounts on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch and curious how to reduce the clutter by linking them into a single, unified entry? It's easy to do, provided the contacts meet a few simple formatting criteria. We'll show you how, after the break!

Have multiple email accounts set up on your iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad and not sure how to set the right one up as your default? If you're replying, it should behave and reply from whatever email the person contacted you through. But what about when you compose a new email? Having to toggle between mail accounts can be annoying if you have to do it constantly.

If you typically send most of your emails through one mail account, click through to see how to make that account your default one.

Want to know how to add an additional phone number to an existing contact? Ever run across a situation where someone texts or calls you from a new or second number and you want to save it? Why bother trying to remember the number, or manually trying to add it to the existing contact, when there's a much easier way to do it. We'll show it to you after the break!

When you sync contacts from more than one source (i.e. Exchange and MobileMe, on-device and Google Sync, etc.), and there are duplicates, rather than showing the same contact twice iOS 4 will instead create a single, linked contact. This works on any iOS 4 device, including iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS, recent iPod touch, etc.

When you look at a linked contact, the header will show Unified Info at the top so you know it's linked. At the very bottom of the contact it will show you the source of the links (i.e MobileMe, Google). Tapping on the source lets you see the original, non-unfied info from just that source.

If you don't like the idea of your contacts being linked, you can tap edit and hit Unlink. If iOS 4 missed linking a contact that ought be linked, tap edit, scroll down to the bottom, tap Link Contact and choose the contact you want linked.