Last September, Microsoft announced a new Contact categories feature for Outlook for Android and iOS that should help users keep their contacts organized on mobile devices. The feature is now rolling out to Microsoft Outlook users, and it should be generally available by the end of April, according to the Microsoft 365 Admin center.
Outlook on the desktop and the web has long allowed users to manage their contacts into folders or categories or in their Microsoft account, making it easier to organize their contact lists. Based on user feedback, the company is now expanding the categories feature to Outlook for Android and iOS. Thanks for this update; users will now be able to synchronize their contact subfolders to their mobile devices, too.
Microsoft says that users who have already set up additional contact folders in Outlook on the web, or desktop, will see those folders as categories in the mobile app.
- If a user has created a single additional contact folder, we will create a category and assign it a category color.
- If a user has created multiple folders, we will create a category for each folder and assign it to the associated contacts. Users will have the option to upgrade those categories and assign them a color if needed.
In addition, Outlook users will be able to manually assign existing categories to any contact by swiping and selecting from the list. The app has also added an option to filter contacts by category, and this should help users find and select specific contacts quickly.
Keep in mind that any changes made to the category labels on mobile devices will not affect folders in Outlook on the web or Outlook for desktop. However, if the same contact is saved in more than one folder, users may see duplicate contacts, but this issue can be resolved by merging them into a single contacts folder.
