New iPhone owner: I have a contacts app???

[jlamb0]

So, I've had an iPod touch for almost a year, and I got tired of carrying around both my iPod and my cell phone. This morning I purchased and activated a brand new iPhone 3G.

I thought I had heard that the contacts app on the iPhone was integrated within the phone app, with no standalone icon on the home screen. I had gotten used to the separate app on the iPod touch, but I deemed it a worthy sacrifice, and I figured I could download one of the many 3rd party contacts management applications.

HOWEVER, when I plugged the iPhone into my macbook to sync for the first time, iTunes asked me if I wanted to restore the iPhone from the backup of my iPod touch that it still had on file. I figured, sure, why not? If it corrupts something, I'll just restore it again.

After the restore was complete, this is what I saw:
http://img.skitch.com/20090512-xpjn95u9rg827hhbphn2en36aw.preview.jpg (http://skitch.com/jasonlambert/bxdrw/photo)
Click for full size (http://skitch.com/jasonlambert/bxdrw/photo) - Uploaded with plasq (http://plasq.com)'s Skitch (http://skitch.com)

Now I'm doing a double take! Was I mistaken? Is the contacts app included on the iPhone, same as the iPod touch? Or did I just figure out a workaround for us iPod touch owners?

Or is this old news? I googled really quick, but I couldn't find anything recent.

[r6girl]

This isn't new - the iPhone got a separate icon to access contacts directly with a firmware update some time ago.

[SilentPanda]

It's been on the iPhone for a while. I never use it though since it's pretty much the same as pressing the phone button.

[jlamb0]

Well I guess I should have paid better attention when I first turned it on.

Thanks for setting me straight!

[Ding.Dong]

It's been there since the 2.0 firmware upgrade. The default position is on page 2 of apps, all by itself. That's probably why you didn't notice it at first.

[RedTomato]

I use it all the time. Very useful for adding new contacts or tidying up stuff (changes of number etc).

Also if you enter people's birthdays in there and tick the right box in iCal (on your main computer) you will get birthdays marked on the right date in iCal.

Loving that as finally I can buy pressies in time for family/ my girlfriend. (who gets very upset when I forget her birthday...).

Useful in the shops too as a quick look at iCal in my phone tells me who's birthday is coming up.

[iFerd]

If you want an really nice enhancement to the native Contacts app, run, don't walk, to the App Store and get a copy of ABContacts. A much more flexible and useful version that lets you manage many things on the phone that you can ordinarily only manage through Mac Address Book. It also displays a lot of extra information automatically without cluttering the screen. It makes having a separate icon for contacts worthwhile. Otherwise, the phone app does everything.

I have no connection to the developer of ABContacts, other than being an enthusiastically satisfied user.

[tayshon]

Not really it was on the second page of the phone that is why you missed it.