What is Google Contacts? Contact management and Workspace integration

About this article

This article was generated using an automated workflow powered by generative AI.

This guide frames Google Contacts not merely as an email address book, but as a service that distinguishes between personal contacts and Google Workspace directory information. Based on official Google Contacts Help, People API, and Domain Shared Contacts API documentation, this is summarized from the perspectives of end users, administrators, and developers.

Information Verification Date: 2026-09-19

Conclusion first: What is Google Contacts?

Google Contacts is a Google service for storing and organizing contact information such as names, email addresses, and phone numbers.

It is also relevant when searching for recipients in Google services such as Gmail. However, in Google Workspace organizations, it is important not to confuse "personal contacts registered by yourself" with "user information in the organizational directory."

Where does it fit within Google overall?

flowchart TB
  User[利用者] --> Contacts[Google Contacts]
  Contacts --> Personal[自分の連絡先]
  Contacts --> Other[Other contacts]
  Workspace[Google Workspace] --> Directory[組織Directory]
  Developer[開発者] --> People[People API]
  People --> Personal
  People --> Other
  People --> Directory
  Admin[管理者] --> Shared[Domain Shared Contacts]

"Contacts" and "Organization Directory" are different

This is important for understanding Google Contacts.

The People API allows authenticated users to read and write their own contacts, and Google Workspace users can search domain profiles and domain contacts according to their permissions.

On the other hand, internal user information is a separate data source from personal contacts. Google officially explains that the People API integrates multiple data sources to return person information.

How should general users and administrative staff use this?

For example, when registering a client contact:

• Name

• Company name

• Email address

• Phone number

• Supplementary information

These can be organized as contact details.

By using labels, you can also categorize them such as "Clients" or "Project A".

However, when registering personal information for business use, follow the organization's information governance rules. Do not use the notes field to store sensitive information that is not contact details, such as passwords or API keys.

What changes in Google Workspace?

In Workspace, not only personal contacts but also the organization's Directory are involved.

Therefore, when you enter a name in Gmail or similar apps, the suggested recipient is not necessarily someone you manually added to your Contacts.

In Google Workspace, domain profiles and contact information can be used according to administrator settings and permissions.

Furthermore, Workspace includes a feature to delegate contact management to other users within the same organization. According to official Google documentation, contact delegation is available within the same domain or organization, and contact sharing must be enabled by the Directory administrator.

For developers: What is the People API?

The core API for programmatically handling Google Contacts data is the People API.

The People API allows you to list, search, create, update, and delete contacts for the authenticated user. In Google Workspace, you can also search domain profiles and directory contacts based on permissions.

Typical examples are as follows.

The service endpoint for the People API is people.googleapis.com.

Start with read operations when testing securely with the API

Instead of creating and deleting a large number of contacts from the start, begin with read operations using a test Google account or an authorized environment.

For example, the basic approach to retrieving your own contact list is as follows.

GET /v1/people/me/connections
  ?personFields=names,emailAddresses
Host: people.googleapis.com

What to verify: Whether only the expected contacts are returned.

Success condition: Retrieving contact information for authorized fields rather than receiving an HTTP error.

personFields Changing allows you to narrow down the target fields to retrieve. Designing systems not to retrieve unnecessary information is also important from a privacy perspective.

Pay attention to OAuth scopes

When creating contacts using the People API, the official Google people.createContact requests OAuth permissions for contacts.

OAuth scopes represent the level of access granted to the application.

Avoid excessive permission designs, such as granting write permissions for processes that only require reading.

Additionally, do not store OAuth tokens, client secrets, actual email addresses, or actual user IDs on GitHub.

What is the Domain Shared Contacts API?

Workspace includes organization-wide sharedExternal contactsThere is also a Domain Shared Contacts API for handling these.

Google officially describes this API as being used to retrieve and update "external contacts shared with all users in the Google Workspace domain."

The important point is that this isfor external contactsonly.

Google officially advises using the Directory API to manage internal user information, as creating internal users or groups with this API can lead to duplication or unexpected behavior.

flowchart LR
  A[人物情報を管理したい] --> B{誰の情報?}
  B -->|自分の私的な連絡先| C[Google Contacts / People API]
  B -->|組織内部ユーザー| D[Workspace Directory / Directory API]
  B -->|全社共有する外部連絡先| E[Domain Shared Contacts API]

Understanding this distinction makes the Contacts-related APIs much easier to comprehend.

How does this map to Microsoft 365?

If you have experience with Microsoft 365, rather than mapping Google Contacts one-to-one with Outlook "Contacts," it is safer to understand them by separating them into:

• Personal Contacts

• Organizational Directory

• Organization-shared external contacts

.

Product structures and APIs are not identical. Beyond just the address book screen,whose managed contact information it isis the key aspect to review.

Key considerations for IT administrators

Administrators specifically separate and consider the following.

1. Internal organization users

2. Personal Contacts owned by individuals

3. Organization-wide external contacts

4. Contact delegation

5. API access permissions

Before designing an approach such as copying the same data to each user's Contacts to make it visible to all employees, verify the use cases for Directory and Domain Shared Contacts.

Security and personal information

Contact data tends to contain personal information such as names, email addresses, phone numbers, and affiliations.

• Do not register unnecessary information

• Use the minimum required scopes and fields in APIs

• Do not embed real personal information in sample code

• Do not store OAuth tokens or client secrets.

• Verify backups, test, and check permissions before performing bulk updates.

• Process API mutation requests for the same user sequentially.

Google officially recommends using the People API to send change requests for the same user sequentially. Avoid designs that perform parallel bulk updates.

Test safely via the GUI.

1. Open Google Contacts.

2. Create one dummy test contact instead of using a real person.

3. Apply a single label.

4. Verify that it can be found via search.

5. Delete the unnecessary dummy contact after testing.

Success criteria: The created dummy contact can be searched and organized by label.

If you want to make changes first, it is safer to modify only the labels and verify the difference between person data and classification.

Official Resources

• Google Contacts Help

• People API Introduction

• People API REST reference

• Read and manage contacts with the People API

• Domain Shared Contacts API overview

What should you do next?

For general users and administrative staff, first create a single dummy contact and test labels and search.

For IT administrators, divide contacts into three types: Personal Contacts, Internal Directory, and Organization-wide Shared External Contacts, and organize who manages which information within your organization.

For developers, in a test environment with the People API enabled, start by reading contacts rather than writing, and minimize the necessary OAuth scopes and retrieved fields.

Papanda TRY: Visualize Contacts through CSV comparison

Use only three fictional people for a demo lining up the CSV columns to import into Google Contacts with those of Outlook, etc. When developing, check the People API. For email, useexample.comdummy values like these. Daily Code candidate:google-contacts-csv-sample。

What kind of service is this anyway?

Google Contacts isa personal entry point for managing contact information in Google.

In Google Workspace, this is supplemented by additional people information such as organization directories and shared external contacts. Developers using the People API, and administrators managing directories and domain-shared contacts, can more easily understand the overall picture by distinguishing contacts based on "whose information is managed by whom."