We’ve seen a ton of address book apps for the iPhone, but most have struggled because they rely on social network integration that tends to break after a few months. Because of that, we like Simpler Contacts, which keeps things simple, but has enough features to set it apart from the default app.
Simpler Contacts
Platform: iPhone/iPad
Price: $4.99/Free
Download Page
Features
Easy contact merge for duplicate contacts
Various search parameters
Quick contact group creation
Group texting and email for groups
Contact backup with Dropbox, Google Drive, or Email
Filter options to find people by job title or company
Filter contacts by birthdays
Favorites menu for quick access
Search for contacts without names, phone, or email
Smart dialer
Where It Excels
Simpler lives up to its name in that it’s a simple address book that’s easy to use. Once you get your contacts imported into it, you can quickly start searching through them, creating groups, and removing duplicates. The best feature is the groups management, which allows you to create groups of people to send group texts or emails to. Beyond that, Simpler’s filters are handy when you’re trying to find a contact with a certain job title, or your just want to take a quick look at upcoming birthdays. It’s also nice that you can backup and export your contacts to a variety of services, so if you decide to stop using the app (or leave iOS altogether), it’s easy to import your contacts elsewhere.
Where It Falls Short
Simpler Contacts doesn’t do the social network integration that a lot of other address book apps do. But it’s better for it because those apps rarely keep up with the changing API settings on social networks. Simpler also doesn’t feature any fancier features like adding contacts from business cards or organizing contacts with tags, so if you’re trying to manage thousands of contacts, Simpler’s not going to make your life much easier than the default app.
The Competition
FullContact (Free) is a bit more feature-rich than Simpler, but not nearly as elegant to use. The big pitch is adding “context to contacts,” where you can see recent tweets or Facebook updates as well as add tags to keep contacts organized into different groups. It also syncs across Google, iOS, and FullContact itself, which is handy if you have a lot of contacts in different places.
Connect (Free) is a simple contact manager, but that’s also what makes it one of the best. Unlike other apps that integrate a ton of social media profiles into your address book, Connect simply uses the iPhone address book and makes it better. From the app you can instantly call, message, tweet, or email a contact. You can also easily create custom groups to make connecting to people easier (and make group messaging a tad simpler as well). If you don’t care about social features, then Connect’s the address book you’re looking for.