Wanted: recommendations for contact sharing app

StewartR

StewartR

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My wife and I both use Gmail and the Google address book, on both Android phones and Windows PCs. So we have an address book each, and obviously there's a certain degree of overlap between them.

I'm looking for a solution which will allow us to keep them in sync with one another. My key requirements are:
- must be able to sync with at least 3 Google accounts (I have two, home/work)
- must be capable of choosing which contacts to sync, based on membership of defined groups in Google Contacts
- shouldn't be too expensive (but doesn't have to be free)
- must run reliably, unattended, once it's been initially configured
- doesn't have to be instantaneous (for example a daily overnight sync would be fine)
- must play nicely if there is any data which it doesn't understand

There must be people out there with similar needs. So how have you met them?
 
Why do you need an app? I think it can be done within your Gmail a/c. I know you can share calendars with others (even non Gmail accounts) and you used to be able to share Contacts but I haven't done it recently.
 
sphexx said:
Why do you need an app?
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It doesn't have to be an app in the sense of a program installed on my phone. Obviously it has to have some sort of Internet based functionality, but I don't care whether that's accessed via Android or Windows, via a browser or an app or a desktop program.
sphexx said:
I think it can be done within your Gmail a/c.
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I don't. Care to show/tell me how?
 
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Apparently you now have to a user of GoogleApps for Work now which is a paid service (£3.30 per user per month) though no doubt you get more than contact sharing.
 
sphexx said:
Apparently you now have to a user of GoogleApps for Work now which is a paid service (£3.30 per user per month) though no doubt you get more than contact sharing.
Click to expand...
I am a paid user of GoogleApps for Work. I'm not aware of that functionality. Can you show or tell me how it works?
 
dejongj said:
Not sure how well this works with mobile devices

http://www.flashissue.com/blog/how-to-share-google-contacts-with-other-gmail-users/
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Thanks for the suggestion. (For other people reading this thread, the linked page discusses "contact delegation".) It doesn't meet two of my requirements however: Firstly it only works with a domain - so I can share work contacts with other people at work, but not with my personal Gmail account or with my wife. Secondly it's not selective - you have to share your whole address book. (Not always appropriate for work, I'd have thought Though I guess for one-way delegation as opposed to two-way sharing it makes more sense..)


dejongj said:
I just use my own carddav server that is running on our network on a Mac mini.
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Hmmm. That word "just".... How easy is that for a person of limited technical capability? Would it meet my requirements, especially noting our focus on the Windows/Android platforms rather than OSX/iOS?
 
To me it was really easy :) starting the server requires a tick.

The carddav protocol is standard on Windows phone, as such easy to enable on those devices. On android you have to buy an app that makes it work and integrate. I bought both the carddav and caldav protocols for my devices such that I can do both calendaring and contact sharing.

I've got to reread your op as I may not have appreciated the level of separation for some but not all? Of address books.

Mine are simple. I basically have here address books;
Personal - Syncs across all my devices but just me
Family - syncs across all my devices but is read/write for myself and my wife, read only to the children
Business - syncs across all my devices and is read write to me, and my partners. Actually there are several for different ventures.

There are other server based solutions as well, but as it came out of the box with my Mac Mini Server I just use that.

Pretty sure you can do it with a business office 365 subscription as well on the exchange server that comes with it. Well it does for me, but I like keeping mine local.
 
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