Contacts List vs People Hub

[Selfdestructo Bust]

You can skip this first part, but I just want to make a brief introduction:

A couple of days ago I bought a Lumia 820. This is my very first smartphone. I held on to slider cellphones for quite a while, trying to delay the inevitable dependency that I think smartphones will create (I didn't want to turn into a pseudo-cyborg) but it was time. Months ago while researching online which smartphone to buy, I stumbled unto Windows Phone (v7.5) and made my decision. Then WP8 came along and blew my away. It's slick, beautiful, with tons of personality. Android and iOS always seemed so boring. Windows Phone resonated more with me, so I choose to break into the smartphone world with one. And by the way, this site helped me a lot with WP info. Props!

---------------------------------------------------------------

I'm still loving WP, but there is one gripe that I'm finding very annoying...the People Hub is the phone's contacts list.

When I bought the Lumia 820, the AT&T employee transferred my old SIM contacts to the phone. He quickly showed me right then and there and in fact the contacts were transferred perfectly. When I get back home I start setting everything up, including Microsoft and Facebook accounts. Great! Now the People tile animation works with the pictures of my friends. But wait, I'm not recognizing some of the people in those little pictures. I go back to the People Hub and realize it's showing people from my Hotmail(MSN) contact list! (I have not used that in years, everyone I currently talk to just uses Facebook chat) Ok, no problem, since I see the filter option. I uncheck Hotmail and leave Facebook. Perfect.

I while later, while still exploring the OS, I press the little phonebook icon. I wanted to check out the contacts list that the guy at the store showed me. For some odd reason, I'm redirected to the People Hub (where I have my Facebook friends). Hmm...surely there's an option to toggle that button back to Contacts. Nope. There's nothing related in the Phone settings. After searching though all settings and on this forum, I found out that the People Hub IS the contact list now. A bit bummed, I go to the filter option and uncheck Facebook.

I expected to have the transferred contacts in the People Hub and nothing else. What I actually got was NOTHING. No contacts displayed. I remembered seeing my contacts at the store after the transfer, plus when people called/texted it displayed their contacts name (not their Facebook/MSN name) so my transferred contacts list was still in the phone! Why was it not displaying?? After some tinkering, I discovered that when I set up the Microsoft account, my phone contacts were merged with my Hotmail contacts. There was no way of unmerging them. I had to practically butcher my Hotmail contacts, one by one, until just my phone contacts were left.

Now the first screen in People Hub is kinda useless to me. It no longer works for communicating with a lot of people in different ways. Now it's just my phonebook. If I filter-in Facebook, it no longer works as a phonebook. I should be able to have both. Separate.


This is an issue I'd really like get addressed in an update. Please, if any editor from the blog reads this...can this problem be discussed in an article? Maybe contact Microsoft about it?

 

[PG2G]

The people filtered out will show up if you perform a search. That is how I do it. I don't think most people consider it a problem honestly.

 

[c8m6p]

If you search for someone in your phonebook (Facebook or otherwise), it will still show Facebook contacts. Even if Facebook contacts are filtered out.

Also, "what's new" will still show facebook/linkedin/twitter updates.

What I'd reccomend: Just add the most important people you want to talk to or "interact with" to your Hotmail list and make sure to link them to their FB profiles. Just keep your Hotmail contacts your "phonebook" with people you actually talk to often. Keep FB filtered out. If you have 100+ facebook friends like most people the Peoplehub/contact list can get cluttered you'll find.

Also, keep in mind you can create "groups" of people, facebook contacts or otherwise, and either have them show up in the People hub or even pin them to your start screen. It will allow you to get their updates, text/email the group, view photos of them.

I struggled with the people hub for a while like you when I was new to WP. You'll find it makes sense after you wrap your mind around it for a minute.

There's no sense just having an alphabetical list of FB friends in the people hub. Just use the FB app (admittedly crappy) if you want to scroll through a list of your FB friends. Or make a group.

Good luck. I think you'll like WP. It doesn't get old (I've had it for 1+ year)

 

[Fleon]

You can skip this first part, but I just want to make a brief introduction:

A couple of days ago I bought a Lumia 820. This is my very first smartphone. I held on to slider cellphones for quite a while, trying to delay the inevitable dependency that I think smartphones will create (I didn't want to turn into a pseudo-cyborg) but it was time. Months ago while researching online which smartphone to buy, I stumbled unto Windows Phone (v7.5) and made my decision. Then WP8 came along and blew my away. It's slick, beautiful, with tons of personality. Android and iOS always seemed so boring. Windows Phone resonated more with me, so I choose to break into the smartphone world with one. And by the way, this site helped me a lot with WP info. Props!

---------------------------------------------------------------

I'm still loving WP, but there is one gripe that I'm finding very annoying...the People Hub is the phone's contacts list.

When I bought the Lumia 820, the AT&T employee transferred my old SIM contacts to the phone. He quickly showed me right then and there and in fact the contacts were transferred perfectly. When I get back home I start setting everything up, including Microsoft and Facebook accounts. Great! Now the People tile animation works with the pictures of my friends. But wait, I'm not recognizing some of the people in those little pictures. I go back to the People Hub and realize it's showing people from my Hotmail(MSN) contact list! (I have not used that in years, everyone I currently talk to just uses Facebook chat) Ok, no problem, since I see the filter option. I uncheck Hotmail and leave Facebook. Perfect.

I while later, while still exploring the OS, I press the little phonebook icon. I wanted to check out the contacts list that the guy at the store showed me. For some odd reason, I'm redirected to the People Hub (where I have my Facebook friends). Hmm...surely there's an option to toggle that button back to Contacts. Nope. There's nothing related in the Phone settings. After searching though all settings and on this forum, I found out that the People Hub IS the contact list now. A bit bummed, I go to the filter option and uncheck Facebook.

I expected to have the transferred contacts in the People Hub and nothing else. What I actually got was NOTHING. No contacts displayed. I remembered seeing my contacts at the store after the transfer, plus when people called/texted it displayed their contacts name (not their Facebook/MSN name) so my transferred contacts list was still in the phone! Why was it not displaying?? After some tinkering, I discovered that when I set up the Microsoft account, my phone contacts were merged with my Hotmail contacts. There was no way of unmerging them. I had to practically butcher my Hotmail contacts, one by one, until just my phone contacts were left.

Now the first screen in People Hub is kinda useless to me. It no longer works for communicating with a lot of people in different ways. Now it's just my phonebook. If I filter-in Facebook, it no longer works as a phonebook. I should be able to have both. Separate.


This is an issue I'd really like get addressed in an update. Please, if any editor from the blog reads this...can this problem be discussed in an article? Maybe contact Microsoft about it?

You aren't the first person to mention this, but there are some solutions.

1) The built in solution: groups. Pick the people you'd want in your "contact list" and put them in a group called "Contacts." Pin that to the home screen. The disadvantage is you are limited to how many people you can have in that list. The big advantage is that you have instant access to one or multiple contact lists from your home screen. Example: I have two contact lists (groups) pinned to my home screen: one for friends and one for work.

2) The third party solution. I'll admit, I haven't used any of these in about two years, so my knowledge is a bit rusty about which would be the best. Hopefully someone can chime in here. Third party apps can make custom contact lists. Example (not endorsing this one, it's just from a Windowsphone.com search) Speed Dial | Windows Phone Apps+Games Store (United States)
Disadvantage here is that you'll have to hit the confirm popup to dial when you hit a name.

Does that help at all?

 

[Selfdestructo Bust]

(how do I quote properly?)

"If you search for someone in your phonebook (Facebook or otherwise), it will still show Facebook contacts. Even if Facebook contacts are filtered out."
Sure but I want the Facebook friends to be actually listed in the People Hub so I can scroll through them. Not every time you're looking for someone specific and not every time you remember their Facebook name.

"Also, "what's new" will still show facebook/linkedin/twitter updates."
Yeah I like that. At least that still works.

"Also, keep in mind you can create "groups" of people, facebook contacts or otherwise, and either have them show up in the People hub or even pin them to your start screen. It will allow you to get their updates, text/email the group, view photos of them."
That's nice. I haven't played around with groups. But it's a work-around. I should be able to have all my networking contacts listed the main page of the People Hub. It's made for that. The live tile showing their Facebook pictures (now I have to manually add pics to every phone contact so that pictures show up in the live tile) It even shows my Facebook profile pic at the top of that list with my last post. Why should that be at the top of my phonebook taking up space?

"I struggled with the people hub for a while like you when I was new to WP. You'll find it makes sense after you wrap your mind around it for a minute."
I love the idea of People Hub for networking. But currently, I'm not able to use it as that. Not if I want to have a phonebook.

"There's no sense just having an alphabetical list of FB friends in the people hub. Just use the FB app (admittedly crappy) if you want to scroll through a list of your FB friends. Or make a group."
Yeah but isn't the point of People Hub not having to go into a separate app? Plus you just admitted that the FB app is crappy. Another reason to use the hub as a place to have the Facebook (and any other networking) contacts.


Another thing:
The People Hub does not include a quick call button beside each contact. You know, like the History list. So to call someone from People Hub you have to first enter their profile and THEN you can call...It just isn't made to be the phonebook. Am I really the only one seeing a problem here? :S

 

[rdubmu]

(how do I quote properly?)

"If you search for someone in your phonebook (Facebook or otherwise), it will still show Facebook contacts. Even if Facebook contacts are filtered out."
Sure but I want the Facebook friends to be actually listed in the People Hub so I can scroll through them. Not every time you're looking for someone specific and not every time you remember their Facebook name.

Most people use their real name for Facebook

"Also, keep in mind you can create "groups" of people, facebook contacts or otherwise, and either have them show up in the People hub or even pin them to your start screen. It will allow you to get their updates, text/email the group, view photos of them."
That's nice. I haven't played around with groups. But it's a work-around. I should be able to have all my networking contacts listed the main page of the People Hub. It's made for that. The live tile showing their Facebook pictures (now I have to manually add pics to every phone contact so that pictures show up in the live tile) It even shows my Facebook profile pic at the top of that list with my last post. Why should that be at the top of my phonebook taking up space?

I just type in the name of the person you are trying to get a hold of. Go to your people hub, then click search then type in the name. Its pretty easy.

"I struggled with the people hub for a while like you when I was new to WP. You'll find it makes sense after you wrap your mind around it for a minute."
I love the idea of People Hub for networking. But currently, I'm not able to use it as that. Not if I want to have a phonebook.

The people hub is an enhanced "phonebook" :smile:

"There's no sense just having an alphabetical list of FB friends in the people hub. Just use the FB app (admittedly crappy) if you want to scroll through a list of your FB friends. Or make a group."
Yeah but isn't the point of People Hub not having to go into a separate app? Plus you just admitted that the FB app is crappy. Another reason to use the hub as a place to have the Facebook (and any other networking) contacts.

I also find that the facebook app sucks for looking for contacts. People hub works great, make sure you link any contacts, it makes life much easier.

Another thing:
The People Hub does not include a quick call button beside each contact. You know, like the History list. So to call someone from People Hub you have to first enter their profile and THEN you can call...It just isn't made to be the phonebook. Am I really the only one seeing a problem here? :S

Unfortunately it isn't a feature. My understanding is that many people have multiple contacts. iPhone doesn't have this as well. In the contact area thou, Mobile usually is first. The OS is very fluid so going from one screen to the next isn't so cumbersome.

 

[Kebero]

The fastest way to call someone is to use Tell Me: long press on the Windows button, then say "call so and so."

 

[sym1a1a]

Go into your peoples hub and hit the 3 dots at bottom of screen, click settings, click filter contacts, deselect facebook click check mark, what this does is remove all face book contacts from contact list, if you want your facebook feeds just swipe left from peoples hub and there all still there, hope this helps

 

[blehblehbleh]

I expected to have the transferred contacts in the People Hub and nothing else. What I actually got was NOTHING. No contacts displayed. I remembered seeing my contacts at the store after the transfer, plus when people called/texted it displayed their contacts name (not their Facebook/MSN name) so my transferred contacts list was still in the phone! Why was it not displaying?? After some tinkering, I discovered that when I set up the Microsoft account, my phone contacts were merged with my Hotmail contacts. There was no way of unmerging them. I had to practically butcher my Hotmail contacts, one by one, until just my phone contacts were left.

Now the first screen in People Hub is kinda useless to me. It no longer works for communicating with a lot of people in different ways. Now it's just my phonebook. If I filter-in Facebook, it no longer works as a phonebook. I should be able to have both. Separate.

Is there a particular reason why you don't want the contact numbers associated with their facebook profiles? When I first jumped into Windows Phone it was and still is because the fact that contacts are integrated. The fact that everything is cloud supported and associated means that I just have one master list out there that I can easily manage and transfer between phones (webOS did this cool thing first).

If you just want separate numbers that you can recognize then the easiest thing to do is to log into your Live account and create new contacts with the name and number you want. Then just leave them unlinked. They will add extra entries but at least you can locate them.

 

[Selfdestructo Bust]

Is there a particular reason why you don't want the contact numbers associated with their facebook profiles? When I first jumped into Windows Phone it was and still is because the fact that contacts are integrated. The fact that everything is cloud supported and associated means that I just have one master list out there that I can easily manage and transfer between phones (webOS did this cool thing first).

Because I don't have the phone numbers of a lot of people in my Facebook. Therefore, my phone number contact list gets lost in the sea of Facebook friends. The optimal way would be to have the little phonebook icon in the Phone tile be an actual phonebook and just that. If I'm at the Phone tile, I'm there to just make a call. No need for Facebook to also be there. Allow the merging of phone numbers with networking contacts, but just show the ones with actual phone numbers in the phonebook. Then if I want to browse all networking contacts, I go to the People Hub. That would be effective organization.

If you just want separate numbers that you can recognize then the easiest thing to do is to log into your Live account and create new contacts with the name and number you want. Then just leave them unlinked. They will add extra entries but at least you can locate them.

The phonebook icon in the Phone tile will still show me contacts with no phone numbers (the Facebook ones). That is a problem.

Sometimes I want to look for phone number contacts. Other times I want to browse my Facebook/networking contacts (what the People Hub's first screen was made for). Having them mixed creates the problem of having to remember which Facebook friends I can actually call. Instead of just having a list of the people I CAN call when I'm in the Phone tile...AKA a phonebook.


Don't anyone agree this should be fixed with an update? Wouldn't any of you prefer having the phonebook icon in the Phone tile be a separate Phonebook/Contacts list JUST for the people with phone numbers attached to them? It could even be optional, so people that like it as a People Hub link can keep it like that.

 

[fusioncept]

I LOVE the People Hub. I have all of my contacts from my old phone imported into my Gmail (which has all their emails, so now its their phone+email), plus my FB friends, plus Skype, plus Twitter. All the people that overlap are all linked. I can either send a FB message or a text from basically the same screen. Do I want to call or video chat? All right there. Oh, they are leaving their computer and getting off facebook? Switch to texting in the same breath. Same thing with groups. I pin PEOPLE or GROUPS of people I want on my home screen, and I see what they say, regardless of the social media, all in one spot. AND even still, the people that I only usually interact with in one type of social media I can isolate there if I want to.

So yes, it might take on extra click to get to the call button (call them once, and from then on use the phone app for the one click convenience), but all the enhancements of the phonebook turned People Hub make it worth it. I get to talk to PEOPLE, and not be limited by the MEDIA through which it happens. It really is a sweet concept MS implemented.

I may like it more than most, but I hope you can see it's benefits. It really makes it easy.

 

[philpeeps]

Sometimes I want to look for phone number contacts. Other times I want to browse my Facebook/networking contacts (what the People Hub's first screen was made for). Having them mixed creates the problem of having to remember which Facebook friends I can actually call. Instead of just having a list of the people I CAN call when I'm in the Phone tile...AKA a phonebook.

Do you just go browsing through your contacts looking for someone to call? Or do you have someone in mind when looking to make a call? Most people are the latter and just use TellMe for voice commanded calling or hit the magnifying glass to type the persons name they have in mind.

 

[blehblehbleh]

Because I don't have the phone numbers of a lot of people in my Facebook. Therefore, my phone number contact list gets lost in the sea of Facebook friends. The optimal way would be to have the little phonebook icon in the Phone tile be an actual phonebook and just that. If I'm at the Phone tile, I'm there to just make a call. No need for Facebook to also be there. Allow the merging of phone numbers with networking contacts, but just show the ones with actual phone numbers in the phonebook. Then if I want to browse all networking contacts, I go to the People Hub. That would be effective organization.

Ah, I can see how that makes some sense. It definitely would be more streamlined.

The phonebook icon in the Phone tile will still show me contacts with no phone numbers (the Facebook ones). That is a problem.

Sometimes I want to look for phone number contacts. Other times I want to browse my Facebook/networking contacts (what the People Hub's first screen was made for). Having them mixed creates the problem of having to remember which Facebook friends I can actually call. Instead of just having a list of the people I CAN call when I'm in the Phone tile...AKA a phonebook.


Don't anyone agree this should be fixed with an update? Wouldn't any of you prefer having the phonebook icon in the Phone tile be a separate Phonebook/Contacts list JUST for the people with phone numbers attached to them? It could even be optional, so people that like it as a People Hub link can keep it like that.

At the same time I have to agree with Philpeeps to an extent. I mean usually one has an idea of who they want to call before making the call, unless I'm misunderstanding you. I'm not against the more streamlined organization, but what you describe in the last part sounds a bit funny. Though, I'm starting to think you're a person with an overly enormous amount of contacts in your social media profiles and phone list?

If that's true, absent getting an app to do the separation you want, I would say the easiest would be to edit the Name of the contact with some kind of icon/emoticon/emoji that tells you who you can call. Either way it'd be alot of upfront work but it'd get you to where you want to be.

 

[Daniel Ratcliffe]

Because I don't have the phone numbers of a lot of people in my Facebook. Therefore, my phone number contact list gets lost in the sea of Facebook friends. The optimal way would be to have the little phonebook icon in the Phone tile be an actual phonebook and just that. If I'm at the Phone tile, I'm there to just make a call. No need for Facebook to also be there. Allow the merging of phone numbers with networking contacts, but just show the ones with actual phone numbers in the phonebook. Then if I want to browse all networking contacts, I go to the People Hub. That would be effective organization.

Can I just ask? What about people who have their number visible to you on their Facebook so it syncs with your phone giving them your number (I have friends globally so I've got a couple of non-UK numbers in my contacts... scared to dial them in case I get stung by huge international calling charges).

The phonebook icon in the Phone tile will still show me contacts with no phone numbers (the Facebook ones). That is a problem.

Sometimes I want to look for phone number contacts. Other times I want to browse my Facebook/networking contacts (what the People Hub's first screen was made for). Having them mixed creates the problem of having to remember which Facebook friends I can actually call. Instead of just having a list of the people I CAN call when I'm in the Phone tile...AKA a phonebook.


Don't anyone agree this should be fixed with an update? Wouldn't any of you prefer having the phonebook icon in the Phone tile be a separate Phonebook/Contacts list JUST for the people with phone numbers attached to them? It could even be optional, so people that like it as a People Hub link can keep it like that.

I will agree, this should be fixed. I would certainly use it. Then the phone tile's phonebook would make more sense. Messaging can stay as is though, I like the cross-platform messengers with that. Be even better if Skype was in there though!

 

[Selfdestructo Bust]

At the same time I have to agree with Philpeeps to an extent. I mean usually one has an idea of who they want to call before making the call, unless I'm misunderstanding you. I'm not against the more streamlined organization, but what you describe in the last part sounds a bit funny.

You're right, but I'm used to just going to the contacts first letter and scrolling a bit.

Though, I'm starting to think you're a person with an overly enormous amount of contacts in your social media profiles and phone list?

haha Not really, I don't have an enormous amount of phone contacts. But I do have a lot of Facebook ones, like everyone else. However, if they get mixed the numbers pile up.

If that's true, absent getting an app to do the separation you want,

I'll get to that in a sec.

Can I just ask? What about people who have their number visible to you on their Facebook so it syncs with your phone giving them your number (I have friends globally so I've got a couple of non-UK numbers in my contacts... scared to dial them in case I get stung by huge international calling charges).

That can happen?? Anyway, I don't think that would be a problem, don't have anyone international.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Allright, guys. I think I found the solution. There's an app called RapDialer that actually fixes the problem beautifully and more. I'm surprised no one suggested it since it's like the third best rated app in the marketplace right now. I had seen it before but ignored it thinking it just was an instant dialpad and nothing else. Well it does exactly what I described I wanted. If you press the asterisk, it brings up only the contacts that have a phone number attached. If you press the number sign, it even brings up favorites. It also has a lot of swipe features to make things easier (ex. swipe right across a contact to send SMS). Oh and tons of customization too! Sorry if this sounds like an ad but I'm just happy I found that app. haha

 

[Daniel Ratcliffe]

Though, I'm starting to think you're a person with an overly enormous amount of contacts in your social media profiles and phone list?

This is my problem right here. 1300+ Facebook contacts, 300+ Twitter contacts, god knows how many defunct Windows Live contacts, and then my Live contacts that I use to store numbers etc. My Windows Live is a mess!

 

[blehblehbleh]

This is my problem right here. 1300+ Facebook contacts, 300+ Twitter contacts, god knows how many defunct Windows Live contacts, and then my Live contacts that I use to store numbers etc. My Windows Live is a mess!

That's an insane number. You the local rockstar of your town or something? Well look on the plus side, at least merging those entries and not making duplicate entries of those contacts like the Droid X does/used to (or at least what my friend told me).

 

[Daniel Ratcliffe]

That's an insane number. You the local rockstar of your town or something? Well look on the plus side, at least merging those entries and not making duplicate entries of those contacts like the Droid X does/used to (or at least what my friend told me).

Ha! No, not even close. I am however extremely well known from the schools I went to, and got quite a name at uni too. Plus there's my radio colleagues.

 

[Coffee]

Nothing wrong with wanting an option to have a separate phone list from a contact list. the People hub works a little differently, but an additional filter might be nice for a lot of people. I'm one of those that leaves facebook contacts off my phone. If a facebook friend calls, I'll add them manually after the call.

 

[Selfdestructo Bust]

So did anyone try the RapDialer app I mentioned at the end of my previous post?

http://forums.windowscentral.com/windows-phone-8/206825-contacts-list-vs-people-hub.html#post1802047