Import Features

Importing from Google

Connecting Gmail does not bring your existing contacts across. The connection is forward looking. It starts tracking the people you email and meet from that point on, and it leaves the address book you already have where it is. If you connected Gmail and your contact count barely moved, that is expected. The import below is the separate step that pulls people in.

Importing your Google Contacts

The web app doesn't import your Google address book itself. The Google Contacts entry on the Import tab of Settings → Workflow → Sync & Import/Export points you to the Dex mobile app. There are two ways to bring your Google Contacts in:

From your phone. If your Google account syncs contacts to your phone, open the Dex mobile app, tap More → Import contacts, and pick the people you want. Dex reads your phone's address book, so a contact only comes across once Google has synced it to the phone. See Importing Phone Contacts.
From a CSV. Export your contacts from Google Contacts as a CSV file, then upload it under CSV files on the same Import tab. See Importing from a CSV.

Neither one keeps running in the background. A contact you add in Google later shows up in Dex only after you import again.

After importing, you can head to our Merge and Fix page to tidy up any duplicates or view these imported contacts as a group to take action all at once.

Who Dex adds from email

Adding contacts from email is off for new accounts. To turn it on, go to Settings → Workflow → Sync & Import/Export, click the link next to Add new contacts from under Contacts, and switch on Email. The same setting appears under Settings → Workflow → General as Automatically add contacts from email.

Once it's on, Dex adds the people on emails you send. Emails you only receive don't add anyone. Everyone on a message you send counts, Cc included, so a reply-all to a long thread can add the whole Cc list. There is no setting to leave Cc recipients out.

To stop one person from coming back, archive them. Dex skips archived contacts when it adds people from email.

Contacts that arrive with no name

Dex adds people you email from then on, if the Add new contacts from control is switched on under Settings → Workflow → Sync & Import/Export. It takes the name from the display name on the message, and plenty of senders do not set one: newsletters, receipts, no-reply addresses, support desks. Those arrive with the email address filled in and the name blank.

If a work account is bringing in more noise than people, switch the auto-add off under Settings → Workflow → Sync & Import/Export.

To clear out what is already there, select the contacts on the Contacts page and archive or delete them from the toolbar. Archiving is reversible and deleting is not, so archive if you might want them back.

Importing from Facebook

Start importing your Facebook contacts with Dex, complete with birthdays!

Importing from Outlook