Importing contacts
We take a look at how contact importing to Skype works. This is especially useful if you are just starting on Skype and don’t yet have many friends on Skype, but have built up contact lists in your e-mail programs and Instant Messenger clients. The Skype Import Contacts feature lets you see if any of them can already be found on Skype — maybe they started using it and just forgot to tell you? 
— and if not, you can easily send an e-mail to let them know you’ve moved on to Skype.
]]>This discussion is based on the contact import functionality as seen in Skype for Windows 1.3. Earlier and later versions, as well as other platforms, may somewhat differ.
When registering a new Skype Name, you may start contact import automatically by checking the relevant checkbox. In this case, you are not asked for further confirmation to import contacts – it starts right away after you click Next.
If you have already signed in to Skype with your existing Skype Name, you may start the contact import by choosing *Import Contacts…* from the *Tools* menu.
If you manually started contact importing, you are asked to click *Next*. If you started contact importing when creating a new Skype Name, this step is skipped and import starts immediately.
The first step that Skype does is that it goes through your computer, looking for contacts in MSN Messenger, Opera, Outlook and Outlook Express. (If you don’t have some of these programs, they are of course just skipped. And we’re working on more importers.) When doing that, Skype informs you of the programs that it’s currently working on.
After this step, Skype merges the contacts found from your computer into one big list and starts searching for them in the Skype global user directory, to see if any of them already have Skype Names. It uses a number of parameters to perform the search mainly name and e-mail addresses. (Worth noting here that while you can’t see the e-mail addresses of other users in Skype global directory for various reasons, including privacy protection, you can search by e-mail address.) If you have many contacts, the search may take quite a while, so you may go on and do other things while it’s going on.
After the search is done, you are presented with the results. This is an interesting dialog because it comes to focus automatically even if the wizard was minimized or behind other windows previously. This is because you now need to actually do something about the results. However, feedback has shown this is not that great for everyone because remember above, when creating a Skype Name, you could select the option to start search automatically? Many novice users do that without going into too much detail reading the text. And then when the results dialog pops up a while later, they’re confused about what should they do now. So we’ve got some improvements to do here.
Anyway, you now have the list of search results found on the Skype network.
The search is inevitably somewhat error-prone, so you manually have to select if you want to add any of the found contacts to your contact list right away. You can click on the blue profile button to review full profiles. After you select some of them and click Next, they are added to your contacts and you request authorization from them as usual.
After clicking Next, you see the list of people who you didn’t add to your contact list. You can now send them an invitation by e-mail to use Skype. Again, to protect the innocent and not to spam unknown strangers, you should manually check the contacts that you are really sure you want to send the mail to.
You are presented with the default text for the e-mail and can modify it in any way you want — such as write in your own language, or write something completely different from the default. After done editing, click Send. The e-mail is then sent and you are taken to a page that confirms all ended well.
And just to prove that we’re not spamming your contacts to death, here’s an example e-mail they will receive.
Have you used the Import Contacts feature? Would it need changes to be more useful to you? Have you heard from someone who likes it a lot, or doesn’t like at all? Let us know.
I WANT TOO JOIN HOW DO I JOIN
What about compatibility with my BlackBerry?
i like skype i can contact my friends without any hazzle
I’m greatful of the skype.
slt ca va a tou les fille du monde
very nice and easy.
It’s a nice feature. What I really want is to be able to chat with people that use MSN Messenger or Yahoo! Messenger. As much as I promote Skype with friends and work, people still like to use their other chat programs. Please keep us posted when we can openly chat with with other programs (I’d like to make Skype my only chat tool someday). Thanks for the great work!
i don’t know what you said, please write clearly.
Its great to convene conferences, keep families happy and propagate the word of God.
selam
Its a very nice feature.
But it would be fine if we have an option also for yahoo contacts.
Surely it would be much better if the contacts imported based on email address, rather than just the person’s name? At least email addresses are unique! I get loads of duplicate names!
non capisco l’inglese
hi, this is my first time here…, i am a brazilian lady, living in sao paulo city. i would like to now and to talk in english with people of all the world…will be great! tanks to “skype”…i
My first time here……I’m in awe and don’t really understand ANYTHING that is being said as of yet. I am hearing a serious technical conversation between two men regarding Skype. They are speaking english but it is most boring; probably because I am out of my league here and it is too late for me to be able to concentrate entirely on whatever it is they are saying! I have no idea if their conversation is a live feed It’s definitely going over my head. Now a different man with a list of credentials was asked to speak. I guess he is a blogger. I’m falling asleep so will sign off now……..I mean thought I should explain that………cause I don’t know if this will turn up on their screens or not. My e-mail is sstewart@mchsi.com if I should have said anything. Thank you, Sherry
I am a new Skype user. I have no comment but a question, because the Skype FAQ’s don’t give me the info I am looking for. By accident I have subscribed twice. Can anyone tell me how to delete one of the two?
I am a new subscriber and have activated SkypeIn and Skype out. When placing a call to anyone they receive a caller ID phone number of “000012345″. This is obviously a bogus number being generated at your server. Since I have a registered SkypeOut phone number on your system, why can’t the caller ID show my Skype telephone number instead of the default sequence?
Those receiving calls from me are ignoring the call because they do not recognize the number. What is going on here?
thanks,
Robert Blumenkranz
radiobob1582
I´d liked that skype could give me the oportunity
to talk calling ordinary phone numbers for free about 15 days
I am new today how do I get a phone number ?
can I import from my yahoo address book? it doesnt look like it…
Definitely need a way to import phone numbers from address books to use with SkypeOut. If there is a way, I could not find it! Guys, your business model is at stake!
I agree with Lescoro – there must be 100′s of thousands of users who would make more use of Skype if we were able to import our contacts.
http://vcard4outlook.4team.biz/default.asp?pcode=406090035y7utld&gclid=CKGe1NGD_IECFUJMEgodKHrzbg
Will this do the job to get contacts into Skype?
This is the ONLY tool that was specifically created to allow you to import Yahoo address book into Skype. Yahoo contacts are converted to SkypeOut contacts, then simply import the new vCard into Skype. http://getinfo.us/skype/cvr/index.html
I love Skype and use SkypeOUT regularly. It is a reliable and great service.
BUT the IMPORT function, as implemented and described above, is NOT an “import” feature but rather an “invitation” feature. It will only “import” your numbers IF they have already signed up as Skype members. This would be like only being able to add email contacts to your Yahoo or Gmail address book/contact list if they had Yahoo or Gmail accounts. Imagine how tedious it would be to manage your email addresses if this were the case, having to manually enter every email address character by character in order to have it on hand in your email program.
While I can understand Skype may be doing this to hopefully increase the numbers of signed up Skype users, it is limiting and hindering the thousands of us that have purchased and are trying to use our SkypeOut accounts.
Come on guys, it would seem a much easier task to simply make a straight forward import utility (as every other online email provider has) that can pull the data in a CSV file into your address book/contact list. This would be much less complicated that having to try to parse the list and match existing contacts with existing Skype members and then generating email to the “non-members” asking them to consider joining Skype.
Request for Enhancement: Implementation of a simple CSV import tool to transfer names and phone numbers from a correctly formatted CSV file to the contacts list of existing Skype members. Having to manually enter “non-Skype” telephone numbers is only limiting the usefulness of SkypeOut accounts and why would I want to sign up for other Skype accounts or services if the most basic service has such a obvious and easily resolved limitation. If you can’t get the IMPORT feature right, why should I think to invest in more elaborate and expensive Skype services and features?
Please give us a proper import feature so that we can use our outlook contacts for skype out… your current “import” feature isn’t an import feature at all. It’s an invite feature.
Import SkypeOut contacts from CSV file.
download it here:
Skype Menu->Tools->Do More->Organize your extras->Miscellaneous->Contacts Manager
or
https://extras.skype.com/1371/view
You can try SkypeSync (http://skypesync.com) extras to import your mobile contacts into skype.
how to import contacts from GMAIL, but not from OUTLOOK?
you must have mistaken me wanting to import my contacts from outlook into skype with spamming my entire address book with skype offers. I have a list of several hundred contacts in my outlook address book. I want to call their phone numbers. I want to import the outlook contacts into skype so i can call their phone numbers. Your solution does not do this.
Also, your website is a cluster#@!$, try spending some money on a web developer and get some organizational skills.
Other that than, love the service!
Dear Jaanus, great idea forcing users proselytize skype to all of their contacts. Great idea from a corporate perspective. Once my Skype account runs out I will never to busines with Skype in anyway. I should have know how awful the customer service is when I learned that Skype is an ebay company.
My issue with this is that I have a number of government and military contacts that I don’t want to send a stupid Skype email to. So now I have to retype all of my contacts in the 100′s + or I can by a program which I won’t mention because I want to shill for them either.
Thanks for the information
John.C.Boscia
Can anyone at Skype comment why the import feature represents a service from 7 years ago? Are they even aware this is a huge blunder?
It would make sense, that with an intuitive import wizard, allowing you to import contacts from multiple sources, would make it “very easy” to call contacts (landlines, mobiles) using skype. Wait a second, that would actually result in revenue…or maybe they don’t care about that???
Seriously, does skype even use their own product internally?
I see support for the most obscure email contacts/address books (using the Skype Beta), yet there is no option for the (widely used) Mozilla Thunderbird.
Could you please add a feature that will allow importing Thunderbird contacts?
Possibility to import csv-files would be appreciated.
That would allow simple import of adressbooks.
I can’t figure out how to add contacts through yahoo mail. all the search and help pages seem to be outdated. when I click on import contacts, Yahoo is not listed. How do I do this? thanks.
First of all, Skype is an awesome service but if they really want to keep customers signing up for new supscriptions why not provide a simple import feature, so that one can synchronize contacts or at a minimum, import contacts from a csv file? I’m sure there is a business concern that Skype has for preventing this capability (they might have similar concerns with regards to their lack of support for other features… voip over 3g, etc.). It’s rather frustrating that I can only invite my contacts to sign up for Skype accounts rather than just import their existing numbers into my Skype address book so I can see who is actually calling me. The “Contacts Manager” application alluded to above and available as an extra through Skype does not work very well – I installed it, attempted to use it, and then promptly uninstalled it. The SkyTool also does not do what I’m describing here. I guess this is just another hoop the user has to jump through to get the most out of their Skype application. I won’t complain too much because the price for Skype (both an online number and unlimited calling plan) is amazingly low and I hope it stays that way. Nonetheless, anyone else frustrated with this lack-of-a-Skype-feature?
Excuse my previous post about Skype not allowing one to import contacts. I see there is a simple option to “Show Outlook Contacts” so anyone having Outlook can just import their contacts from other servers to Outlook, and then enable this option through the Skype Client. Thanks Skype!! Keep up the Good Work… But do something soon about allowing Skype to be used over 3G…please.
I like Skype and use it once in a while. I also use Skype’s phone system to call Europe, especially Norway. Thank you for everything Skype. However, we ask you to change your calling rates to India asap. If you do so, you will certainly benefit more and many people will stop buying fradulent phone cards and start using your service. Your India rate is too high! Attach herewith please find a copy of the Airtell’s rates to India. If you like to earn more revenue, you must bring down your India rate and be competitive. Good luck and warm best wishes, Ashoke, USA
_____________________________________
■Airtel On the No Rental Plan, call India at a
FLAT 1.6 ¢/min on local access and there is no rental!
■That is on the $15 plan you get 938 mins and on $25 plan you get 1563 mins on local access to call any phone in India.
■Validity of 60 Days on $15 plan and 90 Days on $25 plan.
■Call rate to any phone in India on toll free is 3 ¢/min on both $15 and $25 plans.
Skype is great but I have a serious issue with the way it manages contacts, which is woeful. I have Skype Out so I can call internationally & often use it for interstate & mobile (cell) calls. I would love:
1. Integration with my Windows Vista Contacts. I really want only one address book that other programs can use.
2. The ability to organise contacts within Skype into groups. The current facility seems to require that any grouped contact be still in the main contacts list.
3. The ability to use other address books such as my Thunderbird addressbook. Supposedly Skype can access the Outlook book but Outlook is a black art to me – I’ve never used it & completely fail to understand it.