Merge duplicate contacts

Sometimes one person ends up as two or more contacts. Merging combines them into one contact that keeps every conversation and all their history.

When contacts end up duplicated

• They messaged you on two of your WhatsApp numbers before Cloodot linked conversations by number.
• You imported them, and then they messaged you.
• They chatted on Instagram or Messenger before Cloodot started recognizing their account.
• They used website chat. Anyone can type any name, email, or phone into the chat form, so website chats are never linked automatically. You can still merge them by hand.

The Duplicates page

On the Contacts page, click Customers at the top and choose Duplicates to see groups of contacts that look like the same person. Contacts show up together when they share:

• A phone number, however it was typed. +1 503-555-0142, (503) 555-0142, and 5035550142 all count as the same number.
• An email address. Upper and lower case don't matter.
• A WhatsApp account, including people who hide their number behind a WhatsApp username.
• An Instagram or Messenger account.

Each group shows the contacts, when each was added, how many conversations they have, and what they share. Hover over Same phone or Same email to see the shared number or address.

Cloodot looks for duplicates again every 10 minutes, so a contact added a moment ago can take up to 10 minutes to show up. The page says when it last looked. Merges and Not duplicates show right away.

• Review opens the merge dialog for the group.
• Not duplicates tells Cloodot they are different people, for example two coworkers who share a store's front-desk number. That group won't be suggested again.

Cloodot leaves out numbers shared by a large group of contacts, like a store landline. It also leaves out a shared phone number when the two contacts use different WhatsApp accounts, because that usually means the number was given to someone new.

In a very large workspace, the page shows the most recently active matches first and says when there are more. Merging a group or marking it Not duplicates makes room for the next ones.

Merge from a contact

Open a contact and click ⋯ → Merge with…. Search by name, phone, or email, or pick one of the suggested matches.

If Cloodot finds a likely duplicate, the contact shows a Possible duplicate notice, for example "Megan Whitaker has the same phone number." Click Review to merge, or Not the same person to stop suggesting that pair.

Merge from the contacts list

In Contacts, select 2 to 10 contacts and click Merge in the action bar.

Choose what to keep

The merge dialog shows every contact side by side.

1. Under Keep, pick the contact to keep. The oldest contact is picked for you. The others are merged into it and then deleted.
2. Under Choose what to keep, pick the value you want wherever the contacts differ: name, email, phone, photo, stage, owner, and custom fields. The kept contact's values are selected at first. Where it has no value, the value from the most recently updated contact is selected. The Owner row appears where contact owners are turned on (rolling out gradually); without it the same rule picks the owner, and the owner keeps the date they took that contact. If a teammate owns any of these contacts and the merged contact wouldn't keep them as its owner, only admins and owners can merge them, the same as assigning it. The dialog tells you when that's the case.
3. Click Merge.

The dialog warns you before two risky merges. Merge only if they really are the same person:

• The contacts use different WhatsApp accounts.
• A contact came only from website chat. Its phone number and email were typed into the chat form by the visitor, so a match on them isn't proof it's the same person.

What always carries over

Some settings aren't a choice, so a merge can't undo a customer's request:

• Opted out stays opted out. If any of the contacts opted out of campaigns, the merged contact is opted out.
• Blocked stays blocked. If any of the contacts is blocked, the merged contact is blocked.
• No voice notes stays on. If any of them asked not to get voice notes, the merged contact won't get them.

To change any of these, edit the contact after merging.

What moves to the kept contact

• Conversations. Two conversations on the same channel stay two separate conversations.
• Channels: WhatsApp numbers and accounts, Instagram, Messenger, and email addresses. Every WhatsApp account of the merged contacts stays linked, so messages from any of them reach the kept contact.
• Stage history.
• Owner history.
• Notes, pinned ones staying pinned. If that leaves the kept contact with more than 3 pinned notes, they all stay pinned; unpin some before pinning another.
• Tasks, open and done, with their due times, reminders and assignees.
• Logged calls, with their follow-up tasks.
• Deals, open, won and lost, with their stage history and the tasks linked to them.
• CSAT responses.
• Button clicks.
• Click-to-WhatsApp ad clicks. The kept contact is credited to the most recent ad any of them tapped.
• WhatsApp opt-in history.

The merged contact is dated from the earliest of the contacts, and its last activity is the most recent of them.

Automations

Merging runs your workflows the same way edits and deletes do:

• Contact Deleted runs for each contact that was merged away. Its {{trigger.mergedIntoContactId}} is the contact that was kept.
• Contact Updated runs for the kept contact, even when none of its details changed. Its {{trigger.mergedContactIds}} lists the contacts merged into it.
• Contact Stage Changed runs when the kept contact takes another contact's stage. Its {{trigger.mergedContactIds}} lists the contacts merged into it too, so a workflow can skip a stage one of them already reached.
• Contact Owner Changed runs when the kept contact takes another contact's owner. Its {{trigger.reason}} is merged, so a workflow can tell it from a claim or an assignment.

Merging can't be undone

Check the preview before you merge. Cloodot keeps a record of what each merged-away contact said, but a merge can't be reversed. The record is deleted if you delete the kept contact.

Who can merge

People whose role can both edit and delete contacts can merge them, mark contacts as not duplicates, and see the Possible duplicate notice on a contact. Everyone who can view contacts can see the Duplicates page.

Related guides

• All Contacts — The full table view
• Contacts Overview — How Cloodot keeps one person as one contact