If you lose your phone you needn’t lose your friends too. Here’s how to access your phone contacts on a PC, laptop or tablet signed into your Google account, plus how to export those contacts for use with another application. Also see: How to transfer contacts from Android to iPhone, and how to transfer contacts from iPhone to Android.
If saved correctly, any contacts saved on your Android phone are also available to you through a web browser on any PC, laptop, phone or tablet on which you are logged into your Google account. So if you lose or break your phone, you won’t lose your friends too. Here’s how to access your phone contacts on a PC.
When you save contacts to an Android phone, you get the choice of saving them to your SIM card, your phone or to your Google account. With Android it makes sense to save them to your Google account, since you’ll otherwise need to transfer them next time you upgrade your phone or get a new SIM.
To add new contacts to your Google account, open Settings and choose the People app, then click the Plus sign. Under Contact type choose Google, then fill in the remaining details and click Done.
It’s also possible to back up contacts you’ve already saved to your phone or SIM to your Google account. To do so, open Settings, People and click on the three dots to access more options and choose Manage contacts.
On our HTC Desire Eye the top option is to Copy contacts. Tap this, then choose to copy contacts from Phone. You’ll then be asked where you’d like to copy the contacts from, so select your Google account.
Now that your contacts are saved to your Google account you can access them on a PC or laptop browser. Head to https://www.google.com/contacts and sign in.
You can click on any contact to manage their information, adding a photo, address, birthday, website address and notes, as well as phone numbers and email addresses.
Google Contacts also lets you export any or all of your contacts, either in Google CSV format for importing into another Google account, Outlook CSV format for importing into Outlook or another application, or vCard format for importing into Apple Address Book. To do so simply select the contacts you want to export and choose More, Export contacts. Now choose a format and click Export.
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Author: Marie Black, Editorial Director, International
Marie is Editorial Director at Foundry. A Journalism graduate from the London College of Printing, she's worked in tech media for almost 20 years, covering all types of consumer tech from smartphones and their accessories to smart home gear. These days she manages our international editorial teams and leads on content strategy, having witnessed first-hand Foundry's transition from print, to digital, to online - and beyond.