Contact lists: Cannot select/filter on multiple groups

[roniziv]

One of the "hidden" new features of iOS 16 is the contact lists instead of contact groups.
In the old groups interface I was able to choose multiple groups from several accounts that I have (Gmail, Exchange ...) to populate the contacts that I can search/browse in.
Now, in the new lists interface I am forced to select one list at a time or the All Contact lists. Am I missing something?
Thanks, Roni

 

[Franconian]

I have my private contacts stored in iCloud and my business contacts stored in Exchange (and managed with Outlook). Until iOS 15 you could go to Contacts > Groups and select what you want to view. So I selected "iCloud" and "Exchange Contacts". Everything else was filtered.

Now with iOS 16 this option to select several lists/groups is gone! I can only choose either iCloud or Exchange Contacts or I have to select everything under "All Contacts". This includes suggested contacts from Outlook, which are thousands of E-Mail adresses and so on.

 

[NoBoMac]

No, not missing anything. They made iOS Contacts to be similar to MacOS Contacts.

Personally, I'm ok with it as new version now has ability to add groups. And always thought the selecting groups to view was a bit "mistake" prone: toggle certain groups in Contacts causes one to not find contacts in the app but can see them everywhere else (Siri Search, Mail, Messages) where now more prominent that one is viewing a subset of the contacts in the app.

 

[Franconian]

I absolutely hate this new "feature". It's absolutely stupid that you can not select multiple lists/groups from different accounts.

My Contacts are almost unusable now and I have to type in the name instead of scrolling.

 

[o0dles]

My contact list was mess after I did a phone to phone transfer. I know my work and gmail contacts were turned off on my old phone but the phone transfer enabled the contacts and created duplicate contacts. I disabled the gmail and work contacts and now on my imessages some text show the number and not the contact name. They appear as names on my contact so I had to add to existing from iMessage. This is because some contacts where created without the ”1” before the phone number. What a mess.

 

[RammyXX]

Not being able to hide groups is a pain in the butt and a step backwards.

 

[lemimouth]

Contacts management is becoming worse and worse. I remember in early days of iOS, when adding a new contact, you could select in which account it'll be saved. This feature disappeared YEARS ago.

It's like Apple employees and engineers only have ONE account on their phone and / or never add a new contact from the phone.

I can't imagine Tim Cook wanting to add a new contact, then saying to himself "oops, I have to switch from work to private contact list before doing this" !

Edit : spelling

 

[Franconian]

Still nothing with iOS 16.1 👎

 

[roniziv]

Agreed, very frustrating.
I have another problem with the contact list as it seems that sometime in the past my work account had been duplicated and it appears as another list in my contacts. It doesn't synchronize with my work's account anymore and I can't seem to find any way to delete this list.

 

[Ergolad]

Old thread, but I'm choosing to stay on iOS 16 as my laptop maxes out at Monterey. Wish I'd stayed on iOS 15.... Anyway. I too am frustrated with how the Contacts app doesn't allow you to select the Lists you want to search/show. Yes, it allows you to do a single list search, or now edit lists, but I don't understand the removal of the ability to check specific lists you want to show/search. The only solutions I've found is to use CardHop, a Contact manager that comes bundled with Fantastical, my preferred Calendaring app. I hadn't had much of a use for CardHop, but then I realized they retained the search options that had been removed in the stock iOS Contacts app. So when I'm wanting a specific search of my contacts, I look to CardHop now.