Check out these 7 easy methods to share contacts from your iPhone with another iPhone user.
Some of these contact transfer methods also let you share contacts from your iPad and even work to send contacts to your Android friends.
Note that if you want to transfer contacts from your old iPhone to a new iPhone, just sign in with your Apple ID or Google account on the new phone, and the contacts will sync automatically.
Use NameDrop to exchange contact information
Simply hold two iPhones very close to each other to send your contact information and receive theirs. However, note that NameDrop doesn’t allow selecting a contact from your phone book to share. To do that, you’ll need to use the other methods explained below.
Copy contacts and send via Messages
You can use iMessage to send one or multiple contacts to other iMessage users.
1) Open the Phone app on your iPhone and tap Contacts.
2) To share one contact, touch and hold it, and tap Copy.
To share multiple contacts, swipe vertically with two fingers to select them. You can even lift your finger, scroll down carefully, and use the two-finger slide method again to select additional contacts. Then, touch and hold one of the selected contacts and tap Copy.
3) Open the Messages app and go to the chat with the person you want to send the selected contacts.
4) Paste the copied contacts in the message typing box and send it.
5) The person receiving this message can tap each contact and then tap ‘Create New Contact’ to save it on their iPhone or iPad. To make it easier for the receiver to save all multiple contacts at once, follow method 5 explained below.
Send contacts via AirDrop
In addition to sending photos, videos, PDFs, and other files, you can use AirDrop to send contact information from your iPhone to someone else’s Apple device. Just make sure you know the essentials of using AirDrop and follow these steps.
1) Open the Phone app on your iPhone and tap Contacts.
2) Touch and hold one or more contacts and tap Share. Choose what you’d like to share – contact photo, first name, last name, job title, mobile number, email address, home address, etc. – and tap Done.
3) Pick AirDrop from the Share Sheet and tap the person’s iPhone name when it appears.
4) Ask the person to accept your AirDrop request. Once the transfer is complete, ask them to tap ‘Add All N Contacts’ or ‘Save,’ and the contacts will be saved to their iPhone’s Contacts app.
Sending contacts is extremely easy if you and the receiver use a chat app like WhatsApp or Telegram. We’ll use WhatsApp in the steps below, but the process for Telegram is nearly identical.
1) Open WhatsApp and start a chat with the person to whom you want to send the contact details.
2) Tap the plus button and select Contact.
3) Pick one or more contacts and tap Next.
4) Now, uncheck any details you don’t want to send and then hit Send from the top right.
5) Once the person receives your message, they will tap it and hit Add next to individual contacts or use the ‘Add All N Contacts’ option to save everything in one swoop.
Send contacts via Mail, Slack, Messages, and other apps
You can just as easily share contacts using Messages, email, or business communication apps like Slack.
1) Go to your iPhone contacts.
2) If you have to send one contact’s details, tap it and choose Share Contact from the next screen.
To share multiple contacts, use the two-finger method to select them, and after selection, touch and hold one of the selected contacts to bring up a menu. From here, tap Share.
3) Uncheck anything you don’t want to share, select Messages, Mail, Slack, or another app, and send the contact.
4) The person who receives your message with contact details will have to tap it and then choose ‘Add All N Contacts’ or Save.
If you send it via apps like Slack, they’ll have to tap the share option to bring up the iOS Share Sheet. From here, they must tap the Contacts app and then hit Save. If they don’t see Contacts on their Share Sheet, ask them to tap More to add it.
Contact Groups is a free app (with an optional in-app purchase) developed by iDB that makes it effortless to select several contacts and send them to other users via Email, Messages, or one of the countless options shown on the iOS Share Sheet. Try it out, and we think you’ll love it.
You can also use our Export Contact app to save your iPhone contacts as an Excel Sheet, CSV file, or vCard file and then send it to another iPhone user via AirDrop, email, chat, etc. You can save the contacts file to your iCloud Drive, Dropbox, Google Drive, or local computer storage for future safekeeping.
Can I move iPhone contacts to the SIM card?
You can import contacts saved in your SIM card to your iPhone, but you cannot export iPhone contacts to the SIM card unless you’re using a jailbreak tweak.