Product guides
Contacts
The Contacts page lists the phone numbers and WhatsApp groups your workspace has sent messages to. Use it to look up a number, check whether it's a group or a WhatsApp Business account, and see when it was first added.
Before you start#
- You must be an owner or editor of the workspace. Contacts appears in everyone's sidebar, but Analysts can't open it.
- Contacts are shared by everyone in the workspace. Switching workspace shows that workspace's contacts.
Where contacts come from#
You don't add contacts by hand. A contact is created automatically the first time you message a number or group that isn't in the list yet, from any of these:
- A quick send from the dashboard.
- A campaign sent from a spreadsheet, or a template message.
- The Send message API and the other messaging APIs.
- A reminder when it runs.
- A Google Sheets trigger or another integration that sends a message.
- A reply you send from the Unibox inbox.
A new contact is saved under its phone number, so the number is also used as its name at first. When a connected WhatsApp number syncs its WhatsApp contacts, contacts that are already in the list get the name saved in WhatsApp and the WhatsApp Business flag. The sync only updates existing contacts; it never adds new ones.
Find a contact#
Open Contacts
Click Contacts in the sidebar, or go to /contacts/.
Search
Type in Search contacts.... Results update as you type once you've entered at least 2 characters, or straight away when you press Enter. The search matches any part of the contact's name or phone number.
Browse the list
Contacts are listed newest first. Choose how many to show per page (10, 20, 50 or 100) and use the arrows to move between pages. While the search box is empty, the list refreshes itself every minute.
What the page shows#
The cards at the top show:
| Card | What it counts |
|---|---|
| Total Contacts | All contacts in the workspace. |
| Groups | Contacts that are WhatsApp groups. |
| WhatsApp Accounts | WhatsApp numbers currently connected to the workspace. |
Total Contacts and Groups also count removed contacts, so they can be higher than the number of rows in the table.
The All Contacts table has these columns:
| Column | What it shows |
|---|---|
| Contact | The name, the WhatsApp ID (when a contact sync has found one) and one or two badges: Group, Business or Contact (a business group shows both Group and Business). Contacts without a name show Unknown. |
| Phone Number | The number with country code, or the group name for groups. |
| Added | When the contact was created, as YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM in UTC. |
Exporting contacts#
The Contacts page doesn't have an export button. To get a list of the numbers you've messaged, export your message history from Reports instead: the file includes each message's recipient number.
Troubleshooting#
| Problem | What to check |
|---|---|
The page shows raw text like {"status_code": 403, "message": "Access denied"} | Your role in this workspace is Analyst. Ask the owner to make you an editor. |
| A number is missing | Contacts are only created when you message a number. Check you're in the right workspace. |
| The name is just the phone number | No WhatsApp name has been synced for it yet. Names come from the WhatsApp contacts of a connected number. |
| Search finds nothing | Type at least 2 characters, or press Enter. Search the digits of the number without + or spaces. |