iPhone Need help with contacts and favorites

[bvz]

Hi. I'm still getting used to iOS.

As far as I can tell, the contacts/favorites system is a hot mess. But I may also be missing something, so I am asking here.

I have multiple people that I want to set up as favorites. But I can't figure out how to make these *people* favorites. Instead I have to individually favorite their various forms of contact (email, cell phone, home phone, work phone, etc.) Since many of my favorites have multiple points of contact (multiple phone numbers, multiple emails) This leads to a LONG list of favorites in the phone app (and I can't find this favorites list anywhere in the contacts app or anywhere else).

Additionally, I would like to be able to quickly contact these people without having to dig through multiple layers (i.e. going home, swiping to the correct page, opening the phone app, then switching to the correct tab, then finding them and their specific contact medum in a long list). Ideally I would have a widget on my widgets page that let me directly contact someone (using any method - phone, whatsapp, email, text, etc.) - I did buy one widget that has issues... more on this below.

Finally, I can't seem to get the system to use gmail for email. It keeps dumping me into the Apple email app.

Here is what I am used to from my old Android phone: Hit home twice, tap on the icon of one of my favorites, tap on the contact point (cell, home, text, whatsapp, etc.) and I am off to the races.

I know iOS is different, and I am not expecting it to be as seamless as I had it on Android. But I would like to get it to be as close to that level of ease as possible. I purchased "Favorites Widget Pro" and it gets me kind of close with the exception that it only allows me to contact the first number or email listed for a person, and it defaults to the wrong email app. The developer does not respond to emails.

Can anyone identify an easier way to work with favorites and contacts? Can someone perhaps suggest a widget that identifies a favorite as a person with multiple contact points rather than being a single, specific device? Is there any way to get iOS to default to use gmail as my email app (I am used to it from Android, though I suppose I could switch to the built in mail app if that was my only option)?

All help greatly appreciated! Thanks!

 

[jpn]

Hi. I'm still getting used to iOS.

As far as I can tell, the contacts/favorites system is a hot mess. But I may also be missing something, so I am asking here.

I have multiple people that I want to set up as favorites. But I can't figure out how to make these *people* favorites. Instead I have to individually favorite their various forms of contact (email, cell phone, home phone, work phone, etc.) Since many of my favorites have multiple points of contact (multiple phone numbers, multiple emails) This leads to a LONG list of favorites in the phone app (and I can't find this favorites list anywhere in the contacts app or anywhere else).

Additionally, I would like to be able to quickly contact these people without having to dig through multiple layers (i.e. going home, swiping to the correct page, opening the phone app, then switching to the correct tab, then finding them and their specific contact medum in a long list). Ideally I would have a widget on my widgets page that let me directly contact someone (using any method - phone, whatsapp, email, text, etc.) - I did buy one widget that has issues... more on this below.

Finally, I can't seem to get the system to use gmail for email. It keeps dumping me into the Apple email app.

Here is what I am used to from my old Android phone: Hit home twice, tap on the icon of one of my favorites, tap on the contact point (cell, home, text, whatsapp, etc.) and I am off to the races.

I know iOS is different, and I am not expecting it to be as seamless as I had it on Android. But I would like to get it to be as close to that level of ease as possible. I purchased "Favorites Widget Pro" and it gets me kind of close with the exception that it only allows me to contact the first number or email listed for a person, and it defaults to the wrong email app. The developer does not respond to emails.

Can anyone identify an easier way to work with favorites and contacts? Can someone perhaps suggest a widget that identifies a favorite as a person with multiple contact points rather than being a single, specific device? Is there any way to get iOS to default to use gmail as my email app (I am used to it from Android, though I suppose I could switch to the built in mail app if that was my only option)?

All help greatly appreciated! Thanks!

although looking in the Contacts app might be more intuitive to merely get a list of Favorite contacts, i think apple's approach is to think about the context / mode for contacting frequently contacted persons.

but anyway, it seems to me that you can achieve exactly what you want by simply doing this:

1 go through yr contacts one by one that you want to Favorite. (this is not unreasonable).

2 chose the most frequently used method/contact number for that person by Favoriting that contact number. each Favorite has only one "one touch" contact number you selected.

3 in yr Phone app, these Favorited persons appear, with their "default" contact number you chose.

4 in the Favorites tab of Phone, if you want to contact any of these people using a different contact number than the one you have selected, all you need to do is click the i (info) icon at the right of each contact that gets you to that Favorited contact and you have immediate access to any of the contact numbers for that person, no matter if you want to contact that person by iMessage, or Phone, or Mail, or whatever.
for people with scores of or hundreds of Favorites, this is the best way, as it keeps the total Favorite list as short as possible.

you get a simple, streamlined contact for all Favorited contacts, in one place, and yet have access to any of their contact numbers. this does exactly what you want.

 

[bvz]

although looking in the Contacts app might be more intuitive to merely get a list of Favorite contacts, i think apple's approach is to think about the context / mode for contacting frequently contacted persons.

but anyway, it seems to me that you can achieve exactly what you want by simply doing this:

1 go through yr contacts one by one that you want to Favorite. (this is not unreasonable).

2 chose the most frequently used method/contact number for that person by Favoriting that contact number. each Favorite has only one "one touch" contact number you selected.

3 in yr Phone app, these Favorited persons appear, with their "default" contact number you chose.

4 in the Favorites tab of Phone, if you want to contact any of these people using a different contact number than the one you have selected, all you need to do is click the i (info) icon at the right of each contact that gets you to that Favorited contact and you have immediate access to any of the contact numbers for that person, no matter if you want to contact that person by iMessage, or Phone, or Mail, or whatever.
for people with scores of or hundreds of Favorites, this is the best way, as it keeps the total Favorite list as short as possible.

you get a simple, streamlined contact for all Favorited contacts, in one place, and yet have access to any of their contact numbers. this does exactly what you want.

Thanks for the tip. The “I” icon helps a bit.

What I was hoping for was more of a one stop shop to contact someone. Basically get to that “I” page directly by tapping on their name, but also have it include things like WhatsApp, etc.

Does anyone know if there is maybe an app out there that does this, even if there isn't a widget?

thanks again for the quick reply.

 

[teeshot44]

I assign nicknames to my favorite contacts and just use "Siri". Quicker than looking for someone.

 

[bvz]

I assign nicknames to my favorite contacts and just use "Siri". Quicker than looking for someone.

Thanks. Siri is actually one of the things I like about iOS. I use it to do texting and so on when I’m alone and someplace quiet.

But I’m often out in places where I don’t want to be muttering into my phone.

I’m trying to find a reasonable app or widget for dealing with contacts, and if I find one I’ll post here.

But until then I’m just going to have to put quick access to favorites into the growing list of “can’t do that either” in iOS. I’m not regretting the switch really (and there are some things I do like a lot), but that list of small irritations seems to be persistent and growing.

sigh. And they got so close with the favorites widget.

Thanks to everyone who answered. This community is one of the tangible benefits of iOS.

 

[bvz]

There is an app called “CallRight” that seems to have the functionality I’m looking for, albeit somewhat clunky and terribly ugly.

I’ll start with that for now and maybe I’ll find a better one in time.

 

[13paul13]

In regards to your email query, there is no way to choose a different default application, so clicking on an email address will always bring up Apple’s Mail app.

 

[mrochester]

I wouldn’t bother using gmail as google does not support exchange active sync (unless you pay). Switch to outlook and you get EAS included as standard so you can plug your email into the mail app and aren’t forced to use an alternative app.

 

[bvz]

In regards to your email query, there is no way to choose a different default application, so clicking on an email address will always bring up Apple’s Mail app.

This is one of the more frustrating aspects of having switched to iOS. I knew that it would be the case before I switched, so it doesn’t come as a complete surprise. But it is annoying.

Fortunately in this specific case, I don’t see much advantage to using Gmail as my primary mail application. So I’m probably just gonna switch to the built-in mail app. It seems to have all the features I need, so luckily in this specific case it isn’t that big of a problem.

I wouldn’t bother using gmail as google does not support exchange active sync (unless you pay). Switch to outlook and you get EAS included as standard so you can plug your email into the mail app and aren’t forced to use an alternative app.

Gmail is primarily used by my office, so I’m forced to use it for that. My own personal email runs on a private domain, and therefore is simply an IMAP account. (I do have a few throw away Gmail accounts).

So far the built in mail app appears to have no problem with accessing Gmail, and I imagine it will have no problem accessing my IMAP account. I’ve only looked at it briefly, but it appears to respect all of my labels. I’m a frequent but not heavy email user. So the built in email app interacting with Gmail (which is a paid plan with my office) seems to be able to do the job.

Thanks for the recommendation though, I’ll do some research.

 

[danmart]

Ideally I would have a widget on my widgets page that let me directly contact someone (using any method - phone, whatsapp, email, text, etc.)

You could probably build that in Shortcuts, as long as each method of communication made a Shortcut action available.

It would require time and effort, but you could build it to precise specifications. And put a Siri trigger on it to use voice control if that was desirable.

Are you comfortable with workflow-style programming?

 

[bvz]

You could probably build that in Shortcuts, as long as each method of communication made a Shortcut action available.

It would require time and effort, but you could build it to precise specifications. And put a Siri trigger on it to use voice control if that was desirable.

Are you comfortable with workflow-style programming?

thanks for the suggestion. I am comfortable with programming. I’ll give that a shot!