Contact sharing on mobile: Is this another reason to hate Outlook?
April 19, 2023 6:50 AM Subscribe
A team of 3 (possibly expanding); locked into Microsoft Oulook needs to be able to share their contact info on their mobile devices (android).
Shared Microsoft contacts on PC seems clumsy but no problem.
How do you share all contacts on mobile phones /tablets for a Team in field to have contact info readily available as and when needed.
I've done this using a separate google account that "owns" the contacts and then using carddav on each of the phones hooked to that google account. Everyone used their phones to manage the contacts normally and it worked well for us.
posted by cmm at 7:36 AM on April 19, 2023
posted by cmm at 7:36 AM on April 19, 2023
Microsoft Outlook is a piece of software that access one or more mail/calendar/contacts accounts, e.g. Gmail, Yahoo, Outlook Live, etc.
Microsoft Outlook Live is a mail/calendar/contacts service that is disinct from Microsoft Outlook the desktop software.
There are many services that exist for exactly this purpose, but which one to use will depend on a bunch of things, not least of which why you are ‘locked’ into Microsoft Outlook, and whether you mean Outlook the desktop client or Outlook Live the web service.
Assuming you mean that
a) desktop client must be Microsoft Outlook, and ‘locked’ just means you can’t change desktop clients,
b) the email/calendar/contact service is something generic that works with standard syncing methods
c) you’re allowed to install apps on the Android phones
I would recommend Contacts+ (https://www.contactsplus.com/pricing/) which for $9.99/month will allow you to sync up to 25,000 contacts from 5 different ‘sources’. If each person has their own phone even if the ‘main’ account is seperate you should be able to make this work no problem.
For anyone who finds this question later but is using an iOS device, Contacts Sync for Gmail (https://contactssync.com/) is an excellent app with a one-time purcahse price that allows you to replicate contacts from multiple Gmail accounts, and also supports Outlook Live. I use this to keep my work phone and personal phone contacts list synced without actually having to sign into my personal email account on the work phone (so if corp IT got nosey they could see my personal contacts but not my personal email/files/etc).
posted by tiamat at 7:37 AM on April 19, 2023
Microsoft Outlook Live is a mail/calendar/contacts service that is disinct from Microsoft Outlook the desktop software.
There are many services that exist for exactly this purpose, but which one to use will depend on a bunch of things, not least of which why you are ‘locked’ into Microsoft Outlook, and whether you mean Outlook the desktop client or Outlook Live the web service.
Assuming you mean that
a) desktop client must be Microsoft Outlook, and ‘locked’ just means you can’t change desktop clients,
b) the email/calendar/contact service is something generic that works with standard syncing methods
c) you’re allowed to install apps on the Android phones
I would recommend Contacts+ (https://www.contactsplus.com/pricing/) which for $9.99/month will allow you to sync up to 25,000 contacts from 5 different ‘sources’. If each person has their own phone even if the ‘main’ account is seperate you should be able to make this work no problem.
For anyone who finds this question later but is using an iOS device, Contacts Sync for Gmail (https://contactssync.com/) is an excellent app with a one-time purcahse price that allows you to replicate contacts from multiple Gmail accounts, and also supports Outlook Live. I use this to keep my work phone and personal phone contacts list synced without actually having to sign into my personal email account on the work phone (so if corp IT got nosey they could see my personal contacts but not my personal email/files/etc).
posted by tiamat at 7:37 AM on April 19, 2023
I am asking, because it your Outlook is connected to Exchange or Microsoft 365 / Exchange Online, you can add external contacts to your "directory" and they will be shared with all users - this is part of the package you are already paying for, and available with no extra charge.
However - if your users each have Outlook pointed to whatever email service they normally use, then yes - you will likely need a service like tiamat is suggesting.
posted by rozcakj at 8:43 AM on April 19, 2023
However - if your users each have Outlook pointed to whatever email service they normally use, then yes - you will likely need a service like tiamat is suggesting.
posted by rozcakj at 8:43 AM on April 19, 2023
Response by poster: Thanks for info so far. I am not very tecnically literate and get easily confused.
Email and hence contacts for all is on Microsoft Exchange. This is a company setting over which I have no control but can give input.
I can access my mail and contacts on the web on outlookoffice365.com but I don't. I am presuming this is the same with the team. We do not share the same physical space. 2 do I don't.
The contacts I need to be shared by all, are external - technicians, suppliers, subcontractors etc
I need all the team contacts to be be shared, and updated when neccesary in one directory, and accessible to the team and not neccessarily the rest of the company. Mobile access is paramount
posted by adamvasco at 8:52 AM on April 19, 2023
Email and hence contacts for all is on Microsoft Exchange. This is a company setting over which I have no control but can give input.
I can access my mail and contacts on the web on outlookoffice365.com but I don't. I am presuming this is the same with the team. We do not share the same physical space. 2 do I don't.
The contacts I need to be shared by all, are external - technicians, suppliers, subcontractors etc
I need all the team contacts to be be shared, and updated when neccesary in one directory, and accessible to the team and not neccessarily the rest of the company. Mobile access is paramount
posted by adamvasco at 8:52 AM on April 19, 2023
Best answer: Thank-you for the follow-up - the other way to do this historically was to create a "Contacts" list, on a SharePoint Online site (which, if you have Teams and 365 - you definitely will have "SharePoint sites" available to you) - and then you could connect Outlook clients to that list - unfortunately, Microsoft considers this "Classic" and no longer really wants you to use it.
(Note - even though you do not access your email via a webbrowser, it is still "in-the-cloud" when you are using 365, you just prefer either an Outlook desktop or mobile client (myself, I hate webmail - so, do the same thing))
You may try instead a "shared mailbox" - then it will be available on your Outlook mobile clients - here are a few things;
- https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/outlook/troubleshoot/calendaring/how-to-share-calendar-and-contacts
- https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/outlook_com/forum/all/how-to-create-shared-contact-lists-in-office-365/074c4cd9-a843-46db-bfba-88027fbe1a4c
This is not something you can do yourself, you will need your Microsoft 365 / Exchange Online administrator to do the initial setup and configuration.
posted by rozcakj at 11:04 AM on April 19, 2023 [1 favorite]
(Note - even though you do not access your email via a webbrowser, it is still "in-the-cloud" when you are using 365, you just prefer either an Outlook desktop or mobile client (myself, I hate webmail - so, do the same thing))
You may try instead a "shared mailbox" - then it will be available on your Outlook mobile clients - here are a few things;
- https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/outlook/troubleshoot/calendaring/how-to-share-calendar-and-contacts
- https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/outlook_com/forum/all/how-to-create-shared-contact-lists-in-office-365/074c4cd9-a843-46db-bfba-88027fbe1a4c
This is not something you can do yourself, you will need your Microsoft 365 / Exchange Online administrator to do the initial setup and configuration.
posted by rozcakj at 11:04 AM on April 19, 2023 [1 favorite]
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by rozcakj at 6:54 AM on April 19, 2023 [1 favorite]