Contacts
Contacts are the people you talk to on WhatsApp. Each contact has a phone number, and optionally a name, email, company, tags and custom fields. When a new customer messages you, Relay creates the contact automatically. You can also add contacts by hand or import them from a CSV file.
When to use it
Use the Contacts page to:
- find someone quickly by name, phone or email;
- tidy up details, tags and notes;
- bring in a list of existing customers before your first campaign;
- see everything about one person, including their deals, in one place.
Find contacts
- Search: type in Search by name, phone, or email...
- Filter by tags: choose one or more tags. A contact is shown if it has any of the selected tags. Click Clear all to remove the filter.
The table shows Name, Phone, Email, Company, Tags and Created. On narrow screens some columns are hidden. The table shows 25 contacts per page, with "Showing {start}-{end} of {total}" at the bottom. On very large lists, the total is an estimate.
Add a contact Agent+
- Click Add Contact.
- Fill in the form:
- Phone Number (required). Include country code, e.g. +1 for US.
- Name, Email and Company (optional).
- Tags: click existing tags to apply them. Tags are created in Settings → Fields & tags. If you don't have any yet, the form says "No tags available. Create tags in Settings."
- Save the contact.
Duplicate numbers
When you leave the phone field, Relay checks for an existing contact with the same number:
- "A contact with this phone number already exists." The number is the same, digit for digit. You can't save a second contact with it.
- "A contact with a very similar number already exists." The last eight digits match, for example the same number written with and without a leading 0. This is a warning: you can still save.
Both messages include a View {name} link that opens the existing contact.
Import contacts from a CSV Agent+
-
Click Import.
-
Choose your CSV file.
Upload a CSV with a required
phonecolumn. Optional:name,email,company,tags(comma-separated; quote multi-tag cells).Header names are not case-sensitive. In the
tagscolumn, separate tags with commas or semicolons. -
Check the preview.
Relay shows the first five rows, and tells you how many more rows there are.
-
Start the import.
When the import finishes, a summary shows how many contacts were imported, how many tag(s) assigned, how many skipped and how many failed.
- Duplicates are skipped. A row is skipped if its phone number already belongs to a contact, or appears earlier in the same file.
- Existing tags are matched by name, ignoring upper and lower case.
- Unknown tags depend on your role:
- Owners and admins: unknown tags are created during the import.
- Agents: unknown tags are skipped, and a message lists them: "Unknown tags skipped (create them in Settings first)". The contacts themselves are still imported.
Custom fields Admin+
Custom fields hold extra details, such as a ZIP code or lead source. They appear on every contact. You can also use them in campaign audiences and personalisation, and in the "Update Contact Field" automation action.
- On the Contacts page, click Custom fields.
- Type a field name and click Add. Two fields can't have the same name.
- To rename a field, edit its name in place.
- To delete a field, click its delete icon and confirm.
For more, see Custom fields.
The contact detail view
Click any row to open the contact in a side panel. It has these tabs:
| Tab | What you can do |
|---|---|
| Details | Edit the name, phone, email and company, then click Save Changes. |
| Tags | Click a tag to add or remove it from this contact. Each click is saved straight away. |
| Notes | Write an internal note and click Add Note. Notes are for your team only, and you can delete them. |
| Custom Fields | Fill in this contact's custom field values, then click Save Custom Fields. |
| Deals | See this contact's deals from Pipelines. |
Send a template from a contact
Click Send template to message this contact with an approved template, without opening the Inbox first. Relay finds or starts the conversation for you. If you have several WhatsApp numbers, you can choose which number to send from.
Templates are the only kind of message you can send when the customer hasn't written to you in the last 24 hours. To learn how that window works, see the 24-hour window.
To delete a contact, use the row menu on the Contacts list. There's no delete button in the detail panel.
Delete contacts Agent+
- One contact: open the row menu (⋯) and choose Delete.
- Several contacts: tick their checkboxes, then click Delete selected. A selection covers the current page only, and it clears when you change page, search or filter.
Deleting contacts cannot be undone.
Roles
| Action | Who can do it |
|---|---|
| View, search and filter contacts | Everyone, including viewers |
| Add, import and delete contacts | Agents, admins and owners |
| Manage custom fields, and create tags during an import | Admins and owners |
Viewers still see the Add, Import and Delete buttons, but they're disabled.
Troubleshooting
"No valid rows found. Ensure CSV has a "phone" column header." Your file has no phone column, or has no data rows. Add a header row with a column named phone.
"A contact with this phone number already exists." The number is already in your contacts. Use the View link to open the existing contact.
Some rows were skipped during import. They were duplicates, either of existing contacts or of rows earlier in the file.
Tags from my CSV were not applied. If you're an agent, unknown tags are skipped. Ask an admin to create them in Settings → Fields & tags, then import again. Duplicate contacts are skipped, so re-importing the same file adds only the missing contacts. It doesn't re-tag contacts that already exist, so tag those from the detail panel instead.
I can't find the Custom fields button. It's only shown to owners and admins.
The Details tab has two fields labelled "Company". That's a known labelling bug — the first one is actually the name field. Edit it to change the contact's name.