Google is fundamentally changing how saved contacts sync across your Android devices, and you may not like it. If you turn off Contacts sync in the settings, all of your previously synced contacts will disappear. This change is rolling out with a new update for Play Services.
For years, transferring contacts between two Android devices has been a seamless experience. All you have to do is sign in with the same Google account on both devices and ensure that you have enabled Contacts sync.
Your saved contacts will automatically show up on every new Android device you sign into with that Google account. All future contacts you save will also automatically sync across all devices as long as you don’t disable sync.
Even if you disable Contacts sync, your saved contacts won’t go anywhere. Just that new contacts won’t show up on other devices. However, with the latest change, that won’t be the case.
If you disable sync, your Android phone will stop showing contacts that were already synced. Google’s idea is likely to make it easier for users to remove their contacts list from a device. Earlier, you needed to remove the Google account for that. And it’s not possible if you have only one Google account logged in.
However, this change may cause unintentional problems for less tech-savvy people. If they accidentally turn off Contacts sync, all of their saved contacts will disappear.
Of course, Google won’t delete your contacts. They will remain accessible on the web (contacts.google.com) and will be back on your device as soon as you enable sync again.
But, this can still cause some inconvenience. We hope that Google won’t mess things up and remove your contact list in the case of a failed sync due to a poor network connection.
You can sync contacts across your Android devices quite easily
Thankfully, it’s relatively easy to enable Contacts syncing for your Google account. Open the Settings app on your phone and go to account settings. Here, find your primary Google account and tap on it. You should see toggles to enable or disable sync for contacts, calendars, Gmail, and more. Make sure that those toggles are turned on, and avoid disabling them in the future. As far as the rollout of this change is concerned, it’s coming to Android users as part of Play Services version 23.20 released a few days back.
2023-05-30 15:07:20