Google has done a great job of making Gmail an easy-to-use email service, but one thing that has always bothered me is the fact that they automatically add people you email to your contact list. It might not be such a bad thing for your personal email accounts because the chances are pretty good that you’re only emailing people who you contact often, but when it comes to business accounts this kind of behavior can get rather annoying.
Luckily Google has finally come up with a solution that will please both those who like the behavior and those that don’t. What they do now is move everyone that you email or reply to into a “Suggested Contacts” group, which you can view in the contacts manager. From there you can move any contacts to your more permanent contact list.
Don’t worry, any contacts that show up under the Suggested Contacts will still be accessible by typing any part of their name or email address in the “to” field of a new email. That means you’ll never really notice a difference in the behavior unless you are managing your contacts.
By default Google will move frequently emailed contacts into your “My Contacts,” but this too can be disabled. To change this preference click on the “My Contacts” section in the contact manager, and you should see the setting appear where your contact details are normally shown. Unchecking the “Automatically move suggested contacts…” box prevents Gmail from ever adding contacts without your consent.
It’s about time. I was tired of Gmail automatically adding to my contacts. I only want people in my contacts I regularly email. If I email someone once or twice, I don’t need them in there.
It’s too bad there isn’t an option to turn the suggested contacts off. I don’t even want those email addresses popping up when I type. Oh well. I guess this is a start.
cool!
but why can’t I edit a “suggested contact” BEFORE moving it to “my contacts”?
I’m with ya David. I just went to checkout my list of contacts to see how big it had gotten, and it’s out of hand! i used to be good about deleting the addresses I really didn’t want to keep, but I let it go for the last year or two. It’ll definitely be nice to not have to worry about “cleaning-up” my contacts.
I want to be sure suggested contacts aren’t being automatically moved to my contacts, but i don’t have this “Automatically move suggested contacts…” box when I click on My Contacts .. I see:
My Contacts is a place to import, store and view all of the contact information that’s important to you. You can also create your own groups of contacts to easily email many people at once.
Missing someone?
It’s easy to add frequently emailed people to My Contacts using our suggestions.
View Suggestions Learn more
Any suggestions? Why am I not seeing this box?