Why Contacts +
For starters, Contacts + is not just a replacement app for the default Contacts app. What you’ll see right away is Contacts + is a combination app. You’ll be able to send text messages, see their updates on any or all of the 4 social network feeds and more.
Using Contacts +
When starting out, you will be walked through a short tutorial. In the contact list, pinch to change the number of rows and columns in the grid. Also swipe left or right to see either the call log or your SMS threads.
When you click on an individual contact, you’ll see you have a lot more options than the standard Android contact manager. At the top, there are tabs for you to call, compose a SMS, send an email and contact them through IM. The middle of the page is filled with the usual info (i.e. phone number, email address, any notes and so on). The bottom of the page is a dock with all of your new options. Down here, you’ll have a tab for their contact info, SMS history, Facebook, Twitter feed, Linkedin, FourSquare, Map link and an all-in-one social feed window. I thought it made a lot of sense for Contacts + to automatically make itself the default SMS app. However, it you are using an app like GO SMS Pro, you may want to head into the settings and shut that off.
Other features of interest
Birthdays reminders are part of Contact +. Sure you may have Facebook reminders, but what if you aren’t on Facebook that day? Or your friends are not in your Facebook’s Friend list? Well, as long as you have their birthday in your phone’s contact list, you’re all set.
Gesture-based search is a really fast way to find your favorite contact in the long list of people. When the gesture feature is on, you can draw the letters in the person’s name to search for them. If you draw a “B” and it’s not recognized, you can add it to the list of gestures for later.
When using the SMS feature, there is an option for a pop-up window displaying the incoming text. If you are concerned with people seeing what your incoming messages will say, you can turn this feature off.
Final thought
I like how Contact+ lets you have full control of everything you would need to access your contact list for. Instead of going into 1 of 8 different apps to find a contact, everything is in one place. I think later upgrades would be great if they had a Skype and Google+ login option. How many Android apps do you use to manage your contact lists?
