You can create groups of contacts on your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch - useful if you want to more easily find people, such as members of your football club, your colleagues or family, for example.
Create groups on iOS devices with iCloud
Some groups are created by default, such as the All Contacts group, which can't be deleted. Other groups could include Gmail contacts (created when you add your Gmail account in the Mail app) and Facebook.
Unfortunately, and this is probably the reason you're reading this, Apple doesn't provide a way to create new groups within iOS, so you can't do it directly on your iPhone or iPad.
The answer - one method, at least - is to use iCloud.
How to use iCloud to create contact groups
Step 1. Log into www.icloud.com using your Apple ID.
Step 2. Click on Contacts and then click the groups ribbon (the red icon with two people) which is on the left-hand page when viewing All Contacts.
Step 3. The left page changes to a list of Groups (only those groups stored in iCloud are shown). Click the + button at the bottom to add a new group.
Step 4. Type a name for the new group and press Enter to save it. To change it after this, double-click its entry in the groups list.
Step 5. To add contacts to the new group, click on the All Contacts group and locate the first person to be added (you can use the search bar to find them quickly).
Step 6. Drag their name on top of the new group and drop it to add it to that group.
Step 7. To add more contacts, repeat steps 5 and 6, but you can add multiple contacts at once by pressing Ctrl (on a PC) or Command (on a Mac) and clicking on each contact in the list that you wish to select. Then, drag one of the highlighted names to the new group and they will all be added.
It's possible to add names to more than one group, and you can create as many groups as you like.
Step 8. Launch the Contacts app on your device (iPhone, iPod touch or iPad) and you should see the new group appear almost immediately - as long as you have an internet connection.
Until Apple builds in a function to create groups directly within the Contacts app, this is the best way to do it.
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Comments
EasyGroupCommunity said: You can also use 3rd party apps Easy Group is the free one we created to solve this missing feaure httpsitunesapplecomusap
Nigel Farnfield said: As a relatively new convert to Apple the non functionality within their products staggers me I love the hardware whether it be iPhone iPad iMac but please hire some software developers that are interested in providing a meaningful solution The iPhone is a great gadget but its functionality as a phone is sadly lacking my Nokia 6310 from the 1990s had more phone functionality The same with Contacts for what must be 15 years I have been able to assign categories to my contacts in MS Outlook so if I am looking for a restaurant but cant remember its name I can simply look through restaurants rather than all 783 contacts I have a category called xmas card list enabling me to print address labels for the people I send cards to not within Apple I cant Come on guys stop playing at it and start producing software that satisfies peoples needs
thepan said: Ive created the groups And I see the group name in the Contact app But how do I see the list of names in each group on my iPhone
Jayne said: Yes thank you so much What a blessing it was to learn how to do this I am not really a computer savvy person and this was wonderful to find out to get my group Again thank you
Jim Martin said: Its a very good question and unfortunately one with an answer you wont want to hear you cant send emails to groups within the Mail app It sounds and is ridiculous but it isnt possible to type the name of a group to send an email to everyone A workaround is to create a list of email addresses separated by commas using the Notes app using the format Name1ltemail1gtName2ltemail2gt etc Then select them all and copy the selection Finally create a new contact entering the name of the group as the contact name and paste in the copied email addresses in the email field You can then type the group name when composing an email to send a mail to multiple people at once Apple should really sort this out Maybe in iOS 7ltemail2gtltemail1gt
Danielk464 said: I cant believe that apple at this time and age has not created a solution for contact grouping Is this a business phone or meant for what The simplest of Nokia phones have this feature Koech
Farizascariz said: I never google how to when using android Everything is there Simple Iphone Always have to Owh apple Who make this OS please fire him and hire developer from android I agree with wozniak
Rays Gonefishing said: So now that I have the new group and I can see it in contacts how do I use it to send an email Does notrecognizeit as a valid address
DouglasHM said: I am also wondering why Apple hasnt still implementing the ability to group iPhone contacts on the iPhoneitself This is a much needed business feature and not only businessI have so far used this in order to group contact within my iPhone Contacts app but it requires a PChttpwwwcopytransnetsuppoOtherwise indeed the only way to achieve contact groups on the iPhone is through using iCloud Shame on you Apple
Annoyed said: Thanks for this I use the Address Book app on my computer and transfer them across but Apple really needs to have the option to create groups within iOS My old Nokia had this feature in 2001 Also Apple really needs to add the ability to select a group to send messages to as opposed to having to input each respondent one by one