Contacts Plus is an app that is designed to replace the Apple-created Contacts app that comes standard with your iPhone. Contacts Plus is everything the standard Apple app isn ‘t: it ‘s customizable, colorful, and feature-rich.
The question you have to ask yourself when considering a switch from a standard to an App Store app is this: is it worth it?
When you open Contacts Plus, you ‘ll immediately notice that all of your contacts are already in the app. There ‘s no need to manually add them all in. At the top of the app, you ‘ll notice three icons: settings, search, and a plus sign to create a new contact. Down at the bottom, you ‘ll see five icons: Favorites, Contacts, Groups, Birthdays, and Categories.
Contacts is obviously the meat-and-potatoes of this app. This is where you see all of your contacts. What sets this app apart from Apple ‘s is the variety of options that are at your fingertips. You can change the color of the bars in the app, change the background color, change the text color and size, display the contact ‘s photo to the left of their information, display their number or E-mail below their name, and more.
There ‘s also an option for cover flow. Just like how you can flip your iPhone sideways and view your album art on your iPod in cover flow, Contacts Plus does the same for contacts. You ‘ll see the contact ‘s picture, or a gray square if you have no picture for them. Tap on the photo to see a list of their numbers and E-mail addresses. Then, tap to either call or E-mail that person. You can even set cover flow to only show you the contacts you designated as favorites.
In the main contact list itself, it functions the same way as Apple ‘s app. Tap on a name to see the contact ‘s information. Well, actually, you only see their phone numbers and E-mail addresses. At the bottom, you ‘ll see an option to view or edit the full profile. I ‘m not sure why this extra step was added as it seems unnecessary. I ‘m also not a fan of the icons next to the pieces of information that enable you to perform your desired action. For example, next to a phone number, you ‘ll see a phone icon and an SMS icon. Tap either one to perform that action. I like the idea behind it, but aesthetically, it ‘s an eye sore as the icons are big and cartoonish. The phone is blue, the SMS is green, and the E-mail is yellow. It just looks tacky.
Adding favorites couldn ‘t be easier. In fact, it works exactly the same as the Apple app, so I won ‘t spend any more time discussing it.
Groups adds a little more functionality than we ‘re used to seeing on the iPhone. With the Apple app, you cannot create or edit groups. You can only view them. Contacts Plus, however, allows you to do it all. You can create and edit groups at will. If you have a lot of contacts, you ‘ll find this feature useful, even if the flipping isn ‘t as smooth as it is in the iPod. A big drawback to this feature, however, is cover flow. If you ‘re viewing a group and want to turn it to cover flow, you can, but it will show you all of your contacts instead of only the ones in that group. It ‘s a minor annoyance that I ‘m sure could be corrected by a software update.
Birthdays shows you a list of all the upcoming birthdays of your contacts. In the app ‘s settings, you can set alerts to be reminded of upcoming birthdays. It ‘s a pretty cool feature if you are like me and have a hard time remembering birthdays of friends and co-workers.
Categories lets you sort your entire contacts list by 13 different categories: first, middle, and last name; prefix and suffix; nickname, company, job title, department, city, state, postal code, and country. I don ‘t see myself using this feature too often, but it did provide me with some novelty use. I quickly found out that I had no middle names entered for any of my contacts.
Contacts Plus is a solid app. It ‘s fairly priced for what it does. It doesn ‘t go far beyond what Apple already provides, but it does go beyond at least a little. My biggest gripe with the app is with its aesthetics. When you are viewing a contact, the bubbly icons take away from the look of the app. But if you are looking for a customizable Contacts app and can look past its visual imperfections, then Contacts Plus is worth a purchase.
Contacts Plus is available now in the App Store for a sale price of $0.99.
*** Contacts Plus provided a promo code to Just Another iPhone Blog for the review of Contacts Plus. For more information regarding our site ‘s review policies, please see the ‘About ‘ page. ***
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