How to Remove & Merge Duplicate Contacts on Android Phone

Duplicate contacts can be very annoying, which takes us more time to sort out the contacts we really want. People may encounter this kind of problems when switching to a new phone, syncing contacts from other accounts, or using social apps, like WhatsApp, Facebook, etc. When you have thousands of contacts, it will be painful to remove the duplicate contacts manually. Fortunately, there are some easy solutions to do it fast.   

Option 1. Select Which Contacts to Display

Nowadays, social messaging apps are popular. Most of these apps require phone number to log in, add friends, or chat. As a result, you may find that there are two or more duplicate phone numbers on your contact list. Thankfully, it is easy to make it right.

Step 1. Open your Contacts app.

Step 2. Go to Menus, and find Settings option.

Step 3. Find Contacts to display on Settings. You might find many options, including Device, SIM, Gmail, WhatsApp, Facebook, etc.

Step 4. If it is set as displaying All contacts, then choose only the source you need, Device for example.

Option 2. Merge duplicate contacts with Android built-in Contacts app

Some brand smart phones, like Samsung and HTC, allow users to merge duplicate contacts. Here we take HTC one M8 as an example. The operation of other devices should be similar.

Step 1. Open "People" app.

Step 2. Tap menu button on the top-right corner.

Step 3. Choose “Manage contacts”.

Step 4. Tap “Remove duplicates”.

Step 5. It will detect all the duplicate contacts automatically.

Step 6. A pop-up message will ask you to confirm. You can tap “OK” to proceed, or tap “CANCEL” to preview the duplicate contacts first.

Note: If two contacts with same information are saved under different accounts, like SIM and phone, they may not be seen as duplicate contacts.

Option 3. Remove duplicate contacts with a third-party tool

For Android devices that don’t support contacts merging, third-party tools are needed. You can find many similar apps in Google Play store. Here we recommend Duplicate Contacts.

Step 1. Install and run this app on your Android.

Step 2. The app will automatically detect all the duplicate contacts on your phone. After that, you can also tick or untick contacts manually.

Step 3. Tap “DELETE SELECTED”. It will ask you to confirm the operation, tap “Yes” to proceed. 

Step 4. The program will delete duplicate contacts from the list and save them as vcf file in case of future use.