Both on Android smartphones and on iPhone it is possible to synchronize the phone book with the Facebook contact and friends list but the result is not always perfect. On Android, for example, photos are not updated by taking high-quality images from the Facebook profile. To make a better integration, have all the photos, birthdays, email addresses and Facebook cards complete with friends both on the address book of an iPhone and an Android smartphone and keep them synchronized automatically even when they change, you have to install the great app Sync.me.
First let's see how to synchronize contacts on iPhone and Android without additional app, in a simple but truly inglorious way.
On an iPhone, without using external apps, you can synchronize the address book with Facebook from your mobile settings.
Having installed the official Facebook app for iOS, on an iPhone go to settings> Facebook, log in with your account, make sure that the " Allow these applications to use your account " switch is set to ON and touch " Update all contacts ". The iPhone address book now remains in sync with Facebook friends' data.
If you open the Contacts application, you should now see your Facebook friends in the list, complete with profile photos and other data.
Unfortunately there is no way to avoid duplication of contacts so if Facebook friends were already in the address book, they will be listed twice and will be united. To merge two contacts, open one, touch Edit, scroll down and connect it with another contact.
The information is unified for that contact.
On Android the same thing can be done from the settings of the mobile phone, in the Account section.
Press on Facebook (the official Facebook app must already be installed) and then on Contacts to start synchronization. Unfortunately, on Android the photos are not changed and the synchronization does nothing but add the names and numbers, if indicated, of Facebook friends to the mobile phone book, without however modifying the existing cards.
To make an automatic synchronization of the address book so that photos and other information such as emails and birthdays are also updated for existing contacts, we can install the free Sync.me app.
This app, tested on an Android smartphone, is phenomenal and works wonderfully to integrate the address book with the Facebook or Linkedin friends list . After installing Sync.me, you need to log in with your Facebook (or Linkedin) account and authorize the application that will immediately begin a scan.
Once the scan is finished, the results will be displayed in a list of contacts that correspond between the two lists, that of the mobile phone and that of Facebook friends. Sync.Me uses a proprietary algorithm capable of identifying and matching contacts in spite of any spelling errors or slight variations between the user's address book and the way the name appears on Facebook. You can still check the names and verify that they are correct. For those not associated, for names such as "Mamma" or friends called by nicknames, the manual association of the contact in the address book with the corresponding Facebook contact must be made.
The association of contacts remains synchronized by Sync.Me which will update the photos and other info immediately, when that friend changes profile photos or other account information. For each address book, a card accessible from the Sync.Me app will be created which will list the various contacts better than the official Facebook app does. The address book will be the one shared by other applications so the photos will also change on Whatsapp. When you call someone or if you receive a call, their large, high-quality profile picture will appear. You will also notice the facet of that person in a dot which, if touched, allows you to see the latest updates made by this on Facebook, including the latest published photos. You can then talk to a person through a headset and, in the meantime, look at what he recently published on Facebook. Sync.me is one of the best apps to install on a smartphone, for all those who have friends on Facebook or Linkedin.
For Android, similar apps and alternatives to Sync.me are:
- Cozy, simple and minimal, to synchronize high resolution photos (but there is no possibility of a manual pairing).
Other similar apps are listed in the post on how to associate the phone book with Facebook contacts
