May 6, 2011
If you start using Android with Exchange you will notice that the Contacts list gets very confusing.
Well, Bob Thordarson, the CEO of BluCapp, Inc. helps explain how it works—it helped me figure it out. Here is his note to me:
As for Android. The way the Android Address Book manages contacts is troublesome for so many people. The device keeps each contact list as separate tables or Contact Type. So, in your case, you will see the native Android Contacts, Gmail Contacts and Outlook Exchange contacts lumped together in one list view where in actuality the device keeps each as separate tables based upon Contact Type and does not merge them together. The All tab on the People screen combines all contacts into a single view. You can filter the lists to only display one Contact Type, but you sacrifice seeing all of your contacts in one location. To view only contacts of a particular type, for example Gmail and Facebook contacts, press MENU, tap View, and then select a contact account type to display.
He wrote up a more complete explanation and I have attached it as a file: Android Contacts for Outlook Users 101 – Bob Thordarson
Bob’s company makes a product that resolves duplicates across all your contacts, by the way. It is called Scrubly and it looks like a great product, so check it out.
Michael
