The contacts screen works more or less as the Apple Contacts App. With the default settings you will see the groups list. You can change a setting to open in the last used position, or to open on "All Contacts" with the keyboard open ready to search. Check ABContacts->Contacts->Startup settings: Startup screen). The groups can be native groups, i.e. groups that are synced with your computer or smart groups that are used only by ABContacts and are automatically created using rules. Native groups are shown in black. Smart groups are shown in black or blue depending on the settings (ABContacts->Contacts->Group Information : Smart groups in blue).

When looking at the groups list you can Tap two buttons. The Edit button at top left corner can be used to modify a group name or to remove a group. If you tap it the list will show the red minus button and the blue disclosure button on every row except "All contacts" and "Unfiled". By tapping the red minus button a delete button appears. By tapping delete you will delete that group. The contained contacts will not be deleted. To edit a group name, tap the blue disclosure button. To add a group tap the Plus button.

When adding a group, the app asks you to choose between "Native Group", "Smart Group", "Private Group". Native Groups are groups that are saved into your device shared address book and contacts are manually added or removed. Native Groups are synced to your contact source. Not all sources support Native Groups (for example Exchange does not support them). Smart Groups are private of ABContacts and contacts are added or removed automatically using rules (see the specific guide sections). Private Groups are similar to Native Groups but they are not synced and they are private of ABContacts.

By tapping the blue disclosure button or the plus button you'll open the group name screen. You can insert or change the name and tap Done to save changes. Tap Cancel instead to cancel any editing you may have done.

To show the quick actions for the group just tap & hold on its name. You'll see a few actions. Tap an SMS action to open the configured SMS app with the recipient's field filled with the phone numbers of the contacts in the selected group. The first action will use all phone numbers. The second will use only mobile numbers. Tap a Mail action to open the configured mail app with the recipient's field filled with the email addresses of the contacts in the selected group. The first action will use all email addresses. The second will use only work addresses. The third will use only home addresses. The last will use only the addresses labeled with "abcontacts" (case insensitive). You can use this last option if your contacts have many email addresses and you want to choose which one to use when sending to groups. iPhone can't read the "distribution list" flag that's available in the Mac address book yet. The app will ask you which method to use (TO or BCC). You can also set your preferred choice in the settings (ABContacts->General->Email to groups). When the new email window opens you can use copy-paste to attach one or more photos or copied text. Tap on close to close the Quick Actions.

To see the contacts that belongs to a group just Tap its name. The contacts screen will appear. Here you'll find all the contacts that belong to the selected group. You will see the first and last name on a row and the company, job title and department on another row. You can change the order (i.e. first name first or last name first) in the phone settings. You can also change the sorting preference. There is also an option to show the company name with the big font and the name with small fonts (ABContacts -> General -> Contact lists : Show company first). Job title and department will appear only if you have enabled the search on this fields or the load ext. info at startup setting. Otherwise they will appear only after you have tapped a contact. This is done to maximize performance.

You can search for contacts with the search bar. The search is done on first name, last name and company. You can also enable the search on job title, department, notes and other fields on the settings (ABContacts -> Contacts -> Search bar). Use a space to search for multiple words. For example if you type in "a" space "v" ABContacts will show all contacts that has words that starts with a and v (both must be present). You can also turn on "Full search" on the settings (ABContacts -> Contacts -> Search bar options: Search type). In this setting ABContacts will search your text even in the middle of words.

To remove a contact or edit its groups membership tap the lightning button and choose Edit. You'll see the red minus button on the left and a group icon on the right of every row. Tap the red minus button to show the delete button. If you are in any native group except "All contacts" tapping delete will only remove the contact from the group. If you are in "All contacts" or in a smart group tapping delete will remove the contact from your address book. The app will ask for confirmation in this case.

Tapping the groups icon on the right will show a screen with the native group names and some checkmarks on the right. If the checkmark appears on a group then the contact is a member of that group. You can edit the checkmarks as you like and tap Done to save your changes. Tap Cancel to cancel any editing you may have done. You can assign a contact to as many native groups as you want.

To add a contact you have to tap the ligthning button. The app will show some buttons depending on the current screen. You can use "Add New Contact" to add a contact using the standard contact screen. If you are showing a native group the contact will be added to the group automatically.

Choose the "Add Contacts" button to add existing contacts to the current group; the app opens a screen where you'll find all the contacts that are not already assigned to the selected group. You can search them with the search bar. To add a contact just add a tick next to it. You can check off as many contacts as you want. If you use the search function some checked contacts can disappear but they will be added when Tapping Done. You can also clear the search to see all the contacts with their checkmarks. Tap Done to add the contacts to the group or Cancel to cancel the operation.

Choose the "Fast New Contact" button to add a new contact to the current group with a compact screen; The app will show a screen with the most used contact fields and the groups list. Fill in the information you need and check off the groups you want this contact be a member and Tap "Done". The contact will be created and assigned to the selected groups in one step.

When showing the contact list you can Tap the contact name to show the quick actions screen. Tap "Details" to see the standard contact sheet. You can show the standard sheet with a single tap as an option (ABContacts->General->Single tap shows edit). In this case you tap & hold on a contact name to see the Quick Actions for that contact. Quick Actions shows the telephone numbers with their labels. Tapping a number will call that number. The email addresses with their labels are also shown. Tapping an address will open the Mail app with that address as the recipient. You'll see also the mobile numbers with the sms icon. Tapping one such number will open the SMS app with that number as the recipient. There is an option on the device settings to show the SMS action also for numbers that does not have a mobile label (ABContacts -> General -> SMS to All Labels) To close the Quick Actions tap close.

You can see a contact's address in the maps tapping the address quick action. Tap "Send Contact Info" to send this contact information by email in text and/or vcard format. Tap "Print Contact Info" to print this contact information (requires an AirPrint compatible printer). Tap "Groups Membership" to adjust this contact groups membership. To close the Quick Actions tap close.

When looking at a contacts list you can tap the funnel button to show a list of filtering options. You can filter your contacts, see the upcoming birthdays or events and list companies. If you choose one of the various filtering options you can come back to the contact list using the funnel button again.

Choose "Filter contacts" to start filtering. You will be able to filter your contacts by: company, city, state, country and notes. To activate a filter just Tap the field. The company, city, state and country fields will show you a list of available values. Tap one to filter by that value. Note that if a filter is already active the company, city state or country list will be filtered by the active filter. You can filter by more than one field at a time. The note field will show the keyboard. You can type in some letters or words that will be searched in the notes field. To clear the filter Tap the button at the top right of the screen. The first time you use a filter the app will load all the extended information from your address book that are used by filters. This can take a few seconds if you have a lot of contacts.

When a filter is active, ABContacts will show you only the contacts that matches your filter. So using a filter you can "reduce" the contacts number. This can be extremely useful for business users that use mostly contacts of a specific city or state or with a specific note. To remind you that a filter is active, the title bar becomes orange. For performance reasons when a filter is active the groups do not show the number of members to the right of the group name. In the settings you can choose if filters should be retained when the app is closed (ABContacts -> Contacts -> Contact filters).

If you choose "Upcoming birthdays" from the funnel button menu you'll see the upcoming birthdays of contacts of the current group. The app will show you the birthday date, the number of days from today and how old the contact will be on his birthday. You can choose how many days you want to analyze in the device settings.

Events works the same way as birthdays but you'll see the event name instead of the age of the contact. Business users can use the events to store business related events and ABContacts will show which one is due.

With company view you can see the contacts grouped by company name. Tapping on the company name you'll see all the contacts for that company.

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