Components
Simple Contacts provide and serve as an alternative to the default contacts application that allows for viewing, dialing and storing contact details. However, the feature that allows for screening contact details to check for similarities and also notify users of these similarities is missing.
Github: https://github.com/SimpleMobileTools/Simple-Contacts/
Proposal
I propose that when a user enters and attempts to save a number already stored on the phone, s/he should get a message or notification that says "number already exists" or ask "do you which to duplicate?"
Also when it stores the number again, it should assign a number to the name of the contact like this :
contact
contact(1)
That way it becomes obvious that the second stored number is a duplicate of the first.
Mockups / Examples
The image below shows an example of the proposed notification displayed as found in the default android contacts app.
The image below is also a sample from the default contacts app, showing how duplicate contact details can be stored and arranged.
Benefits
- This will greatly help users avoid the error of storing the same number twice
- It will allow for easy tracking of stored numbers, as a user can decide to delete or move duplicate copies to the sim for backup purposes.