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GlossaryThe basics

What Is a Contact Card?

A contact card is a single entry in an address book holding one person’s details, such as name, phone numbers, email addresses and company. The same phrase is also used for a shareable card, whether paper, a file or a web page, that exists to put those details into someone else’s address book.

The Entry on the Other Phone

On a phone, a contact card is the screen you see when you open someone from your address book. It has fields for a name, as many phone numbers and emails as there are, a company, a job title, an address, a birthday and a note, plus a photo. Those fields are what phones sync between devices and what mail and messaging apps search. Getting a clean entry there is the point of handing someone your details.

Ways a Contact Card Gets Shared

Most phones can share a contact directly to another phone nearby, or send it as a file by message or email. That is a vCard under the surface. This works if the other person is in front of you, you are willing to hand over your own address book entry, and you have already kept it up to date. A card page does the same job without those conditions: you share a link, and the page offers the contact file to anyone who opens it.

Why Cards Arrive Incomplete

People often share the contact from their own phone, which may hold an old number, a missing company, or no photo. Typing details by hand is worse, since a digit swapped in a phone number leaves a contact that looks right and does not work. A card page keeps one tidy version in one place, so each person who saves you gets the same complete record.

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between a contact card and a business card?

A contact card is an address book entry on a phone. A business card is the thing you hand someone so they can make one. A digital business card can create the contact card in a tap.

How do I share my contact card from my phone?

Most phones let you open your own entry and share it as a contact file by message, email or a nearby share. A card page is an alternative that keeps a single editable version.

Can a contact card include a photo?

Yes. The contact file format can carry a photo, and phones show it on the entry once saved.

Keep reading

Related terms

vCardA vCard is a standard file format for contact details, usually saved with a .vcf extension, that phones and email clients can read directly into an address book. It stores structured fields such as name, organisation, several phone numbers, several email addresses, a postal address and a photo.vCard File (.vcf)A .vcf file is a vCard saved to disk: a plain-text file with the extension .vcf that holds one or more people’s contact details. Opening it on a phone or computer offers to add those contacts to the address book, which makes it the standard way to move contacts between devices and apps.Contact ManagementContact management is the practice of collecting, storing and keeping up to date the details of the people you deal with, so that you can find and reach them when needed. It ranges from a phone address book to a full CRM, and the common failure is not storage but stale or missing details.Digital Business CardA digital business card is a web page holding a person’s contact details, shared by a short link or a QR code instead of a printed card. Because the details live on the page rather than on paper, they can be changed at any time without reprinting or resending anything.

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Put this into practice with your own card

Put your details on one card page, share it by link or QR code, and change them whenever they change. The printed code keeps working. No credit card required to start.

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