Copy2Contact for Google Apps Update

google_appsFor some time now we’ve been working behind the scenes on adding features to Copy2Contact for Google Apps. We recently sent a survey to users of the product and we got great feedback!

Thanks to your great ideas, Copy2Contact for Google Apps 2.0 is almost here!

We’ve got a beta release ready for just a few select testers (sorry, not publicly available right now), so please leave a comment here if you’d like to participate. Details on the new features are below.

Also, if you submitted comments or questions in response to our survey, we’ve addressed many of them below. Read on!

Duplicate Checking and Updating Is Here! (this feature is included in the beta)

Ever want to add contact details from someone’s signature using Copy2Contact, but already have their email address in your contacts? Copy2Contact would normally create a duplicate contact in that case, but not any more! Now you can update existing contacts with Duplicate Checking (in beta now).

Multiple Contact Groups (this feature is included in the beta)

Copy2Contact now includes the ability to add a new contact to more than one group at one time. No more going back to update contact groups after saving.

User Preferences (this feature is included in the beta)

  • Default address, email, and phone types – Now you can tell Copy2Contact to make untagged phone numbers go to “Work” instead of “Home”.
  • User interface settings – Configure how the enter key works, whether to view an event after saving, and clearing the paste box.
  • Capitalization settings – Choose how Copy2Contact capitalizes scanned data
  • Phone/email formatting – Choose how Copy2Contact formats phone numbers and email addresses

Other Requested Features: (not included in the beta release)

Auto-detection of contacts and appointments in emails – This feature is planned when Google Contextual Gadgets allow automatic scanning of the entire email body. Hopefully Google will release this feature soon!

Add a global shortcut key like the Copy2Contact desktop program – Unfortunately, due to limitations in the security model of modern web browsers, this is not possible. You’ll have to copy and paste contact info. We are considering an integration with the desktop app or even a browser extension that would add this functionality.

Grab email address from message if not in signature – The Copy2Contact desktop program does this with Outlook and it’s a great feature. We’re planning to add this to the future Google Contextual Gadget.

Lastly, please feel free to leave comments here if you think we missed something! And don’t forget to leave a comment if you’d like to be a beta tester.