Importing Contacts
Bring contacts in from a spreadsheet, a phone, or pasted text, and check a preview before anything is saved.
What it does
The import wizard turns a list of people into customers you can message. It walks you through five steps (Source, Provide, Map, Review, Import), cleans up phone numbers, spots people you already have, and tells you exactly what happened to every row.
Open it from Manage Customers → Import Customers.
Step 1: Choose a source
| Source | Use it for |
|---|---|
| From CSV or Excel | A .csv, .xlsx or .ods file with a header row. You map the columns in the next step. |
| From VCF / vCard | Contacts exported from a phone or address book. One file can hold one contact or many. |
| From this device | Picking contacts straight from your phone's address book. Only the contacts you select are shared. |
| Paste manually | Typing or pasting a quick list, one contact per line: John Doe, +97455512345, john@example.com. A blank line between contact blocks also works. |
- Old Excel
.xlsfiles are not supported. Open the file in Excel and save it as.xlsxor CSV. - If your export has a title or a "generated on" line above the real header row, the wizard skips it for you.
- On iPhone or Safari, picking from the device is not available. Tap the card for quick steps to export a vCard instead, then upload it.
Step 2: Map your columns
This step appears for spreadsheets only. The wizard matches common headings (such as "Mobile", "WhatsApp number" or "E-mail") and shows a sample value from each column. For every column, pick what it holds or choose Don't import this column.
You can map Code (your reference), First name, Last name, Full name, Phone, Email, Company, Job title, Country, Address, Birthday, Notes, Tags, and WhatsApp / Email / SMS opt-in. You need at least a phone or an email column to continue.
Step 3: Review before importing
Set the options at the top. The figures and preview table refresh each time you change one.
- If a contact already exists: see the table below.
- Country for local numbers: the country code added to numbers written without one. Leave it on Workspace default unless the file is from another country.
- Segment: Just import, Add to an existing segment, or Create a new segment (named here, created on import).
- Tag imported contacts: type a tag and press Enter. Add as many as you need.
| Duplicate choice | What happens to a contact you already have |
|---|---|
| Skip duplicates | Left exactly as it is. |
| Update existing (fill blanks) | Empty fields are filled in from the file. Anything already saved is never overwritten. |
| Create anyway | A new contact is added when only the email matches. A phone number can belong to one contact only, so an exact phone match is still skipped. |
Contacts are matched by phone number first, then by email. The four tiles show how many rows were Found, how many are Ready to import, how many are Possible duplicates, and how many are Invalid / missing (no usable phone or email). When you are happy, click Import N contacts.
Step 4: Progress and results
A progress bar counts rows as they are Imported, Updated, Skipped or Failed. Large files are processed in the background, so you can keep working. When it finishes you get:
- View contacts to see them in your customer list.
- Download error CSV, listing each failed row with its row number and the reason, so you can fix and re-import just those.
- Import another file to start again.
Good to know
- With Skip duplicates or Update existing, re-importing the same file is safe: existing contacts are matched rather than doubled.
- Opt-in columns record consent. Only message people who have agreed to hear from you on WhatsApp.
- Adding contacts to a segment during import saves you a second step when you plan a broadcast to them.
Start with a small file the first time. Seeing how your columns map and how duplicates are handled takes a minute and saves a clean-up later.
