Google contacts are updated with a function that can empty the address book: how to avoid it

Despite being one of the most important, Google’s ‘Contacts’ application – considered the vault where all the data of friends, acquaintances and family is stored on Android – was long overdue. That’s why the company decided to give a drastic turn.

The latest change allowed the entry of birthdays (with the ability to add annual alerts) or physical addresses of those who appear in the calendar to link that information to the Google Maps and Calendar apps.

In this sense, Google Play Service is software used to update Google Play applications. After its latest version (v23.20), the company introduced a change requiring urgent action.

This is Google Contacts, which has just introduced a feature that can empty the calendar in one fell swoop. Next, it explains what this new feature is all about and how to prevent the information from being lose your cell phone.

Until now, if you synced your contacts and disabled this feature, they remained on your smartphone, as only cloud backup was disabled. But, from now on, when you do, they will disappear from the terminal.

To avoid the terror that there are no contacts to call, there are two ways: either that the synchronization of contacts is always active in the floating bar or make a local backup of the contacts.

To check that it is activated, you will have to access the Settings panel, look for the Passwords and accounts section and check that the option Automatically sync app data is enabled.

However, if a failure occurred, the contacts would still remain in the cloud, and backups to local storage could also be restored – unless, of course, for space reasons it was disabled.

More changes ahead

On the other hand, a redesign of the home screen is being worked on to show birthdays and also the weather of the contact’s location.

In Contacts there will be other significant changes, especially in the way of interacting with the application, through a new function that will allow users to know the exact location of their contacts in real time, which can be very useful for coordinating meetings or making sure that a friend or family member has arrived safely after a trip.

Mobile tracking was already built into Google Maps, but it’s not a well-known feature, the use of this feature is more common in WhatsApp. Either way, the need for constant calls or texts to ask where someone is is eliminated.

This tracking can be particularly valuable in emergency situations or when someone wants to know if the other has arrived at a place, or simply to be able to check if a person with whom they have an appointment will arrive shortly after. Clicking on that area will open Google Maps.

Although its implementation is in the testing phase, since it will be included with the launch of Android 14, which would allow millions of people to have this feature active without having to completely update the operating system.