Google Contacts tests new changes to improve syncing experience (APK teardown)

Adamya Sharma / Android Authority

Google Contacts is getting a couple of quality-of-life upgrades for contact syncing. Evidence spotted in a teardown of version 4.37.39 of the app suggests that the app could soon get a new section in the settings menu to help users easily sync contacts. In addition, the app could also start showing synced Google account details in contact cards with a future update.

An APK teardown helps predict features that may arrive on a service in the future based on work-in-progress code. However, it is possible that such predicted features may not make it to a public release.

We’ve enabled both the upcoming changes ahead of the rollout to give you an early look. As you can see in the following screenshots, the new contact sync section will appear at the top of the app settings and show the linked account with the number of synced contacts.

The new section will also show when the app last synced contacts and provide a shortcut to the sync settings. The synced account details, on the other hand, will appear at the bottom of the contact details page within a new section titled “Contact info from.”

This section will either show the linked email ID for the contact or show a “Device” tag in case the contact is saved on the device. If the contact is synced from an account, the contact page will also show a new “Report illegal profile content” button to report contacts that include something that goes against Google’s policies. The button will redirect to a Legal Help support page where you’ll be able to submit additional details before filing a report.

Although minor, these changes should improve the contact syncing experience in Google Contacts, and we can’t wait for them to roll out with a future update.

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