With modern smartphones, the phone number directory no longer has to be stored on the SIM card, but we can synchronize it in the "cloud", that is, on the personal account corresponding to an external service. For example, Apple prepares its iCloud for those who own an iPhone (see the guide to synchronize the iPhone address book) while Google provides free space for the Gmail account registered on Android smartphones.
Thanks to this synchronization, even if we lose the mobile phone or if we change the mobile phone, the address book with all the phone numbers will not be lost.
In this guide we see how to synchronize the contacts of an Android phone, to save them in the Google address book, to pass and transfer numbers to or from another smartphone .
READ ALSO: Recover contacts and contacts on Android iPhone and Samsung mobile phones
1) Synchronize contacts via Google account
By adding a Google account to our Android smartphone, we will allow the phone to automatically synchronize all the contacts already in the address book on the cloud account, so that we can easily transfer or recover them in any scenario.
We then turn on our Android smartphone and, if we have not added a Google account during the first start, we open the Settings app and go to the Account menu (on some phones it may be called Synchronization, Google or Google Account ).
Open this menu we click the Add account button, usually present at the bottom of the window.
As soon as the new window opens, we click on the Google button among the various accounts available.
We will now be asked to enter the email address and password of our Google account (also a Gmail or YouTube account is fine) or to create one (excellent if we were new to the technological world and wanted to create a new personal one).
As soon as we added the Google account to the phone, we go back to the Account screen and click on the Google account added a little while ago; among the various synchronization items, make sure that the Contacts item is checked, then click on Sync now at the bottom.
Now all the contacts in the address book will be saved in the cloud.
When we go to create new contacts in the address book, we make sure to select the available Google account as one, so as to make the contact immediately available in the cloud.
We can view the contacts saved in the Google account from the dedicated Web page available here -> Google Contacts .
If you switch from an iPhone to an Android smartphone (and vice versa) we can use the Google account to carry our contacts with us, without having to do anything else (very convenient since the two operating systems are profoundly different).
In another article we have already explained how to use the Google address book on an iPhone or save contacts in Gmail .
Once the phone number directory is in Gmail, it will also be automatically present on the new Android phone, using the same Google account.
2) Transfer contacts via CSV or VCard
To synchronize the contacts of an Android smartphone we can use a Gmail e-mail address and import the contacts of the old phone using CSV or VCard formats.
From the computer we open Gmail, click on the top right corner of our account symbol, then click on Google Account and finally select the item Contacts .
We expand the menu More present in the left sidebar and use the Export and Import keys to move the contacts to other mail accounts, to Apple accounts or to any app or service capable of managing contacts saved in the formats indicated.
Of course, we can also receive other contacts, so that we can bring them together under a single account and synchronize them anywhere quickly and easily.
3) Transfer contacts via SIM
If you start from scratch and have an old mobile phone, you can import contacts from an old phone using the SIM card as a means of transportation.
On Android we can use a specific app like Copy to SIM Card, available for download from here -> Copy to SIM Card .
Just open it and select all the contacts for copying, so that you can take the phonebook with you on the SIM, ready to be copied to the new phone.
The app is very useful for copying numbers to a new Android phone too, although usually the app included in the phone for managing the address book has import capabilities (just find the entry Set / Export or Import from SIM ) .
Once the contacts are copied from the SIM to the memory, we use the Google account for synchronization.
4) Transfer phonebook via wireless or Bluetooth
Another very effective method to transfer Android contacts is to use the Move Contacts Transfer / Backup app, available for free download from here -> Move Contacts Transfer / Backup .
With this practical app we can find all the devices nearby (via Bluetooth and WiFi) and, once selected, we can choose whether to take his address book or to transfer our current address book to his memory.
It is currently one of the fastest and most effective methods for transferring contacts, since it does not require any type of account or special procedures.
5) Conclusions
If you switch from one Android phone to another, the Gmail address book remains the same and there will be no need to do anything other than use the same account.
There are also many options that we can take advantage of: on the old phone just activate the automatic backup function in the system settings and then, on the new one, from the same option, restore.
We can use the app that uses WiFi or Bluetooth to exchange the directories and the (more classic) system based on transferring contacts to the SIM and then copying them to the new phone.
Finally, remember that on Android you can change the Phonebook and Phone app, perhaps choosing a much more functional and effective app for our purposes.
READ ALSO: How to backup your Smartphone to save data (iPhone and Android)
