Contacts vs Recent Contacts
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Contacts
Organize and manage contact details, including birthdays and custom posters. Easily connect via messages, calls, or FaceTime. Share your information instantly with new contacts using NameDrop.
- Manage contact information
- Sync across devices
- Quickly connect via calls/messages
- Store personal information for autofill
- Customize Contact Posters
- Share contacts with NameDrop
- Use on Apple Watch
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With Contacts on iOS, iPadOS and macOS, you can store and manage your and other’s contact information, birthdays, Contact Posters and more. Easily connect with your contacts with Mail, Messages, Phone, or FaceTime. Or instantly share your Contact Poster and your number or email address with someone new through NameDrop on iPhone and Apple Watch. Manage Your Contacts Easily add people to your contacts, and sync their contact information across all your devices with iCloud, Microsoft Exchange, Google, and other syncing services. If your contacts choose to, you can automatically get updates to their Contact Poster through Messages, Phone and FaceTime as well. Get Connected Quickly When you need a contact’s information, you can search to find who you’re looking for. You can then quickly message, call, FaceTime, email or even Apple Pay them. If you add their social profile to their contact card, you can jump to it with a tap. And if you add their birthday, you’ll also see it in Calendar so you never miss it. Store Your Personal Information Create a My Card in Contacts to store your own contact information including your phone numbers, email addresses, physical addresses, and more. You can then use the information in your My Card to use Autofill to instantly complete forms online or in apps across iOS, iPadOS and macOS. Customize Your Contact Poster Create a customized poster to represent yourself when you connect with others using Messages, Phone and FaceTime. Choose from various treatments for photos, Memoji and your name, and choose to automatically share it with your contacts or be asked every time before you share. Share your Contact with NameDrop Exchange contact information with someone new by simply bringing your iPhone near their iPhone or Apple Watch. Your name and Contact Poster are automatically included every time, and you can select the phone number or email address you want to share from your My Card along with it. Use Contacts on Apple Watch Select people from your contacts to use as a complication on your watch face for easy access, and quickly connect with them through Messages, Phone or Mail right from your wrist. You can also create new contacts and customize existing contacts, or exchange contact information with someone new using NameDrop with their iPhone or Apple Watch.
Recent Contacts
Easily back up and restore all your phone contacts without a computer. Export contacts to Excel or vCard, find and merge duplicates, and remove incomplete entries. Share backups via message, email, or AirDrop.
- Backup contacts in one tap
- Export to Excel (CSV) or vCard
- Find and merge duplicate contacts
- Remove incomplete contacts
- Share backups via Message, Email, AirDrop
- View recently added contacts
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Easy Backup is the best way to backup and restores all your contacts from your phone without the computer. FEATURES: • See your most recently added contacts • Save all your contacts in one single tap. • Share and export backups via Message, Email, or AirDrop • Export contacts to Excel (CSV) or vCard • Find & merge duplicate contacts • Remove incomplete contacts ADDITIONAL SUBSCRIPTION INFORMATION: Subscription price: - 1 week: $4.99 - 1 month: $6.99 - Lifetime: $24.99 - Subscription may be canceled at any time within the iTunes and App Store Apple ID Settings. All prices include applicable local sales taxes. - Payment will be charged to iTunes Account at confirmation of purchase. - Subscription automatically renews unless auto-renew is turned off at least 24-hours before the end of the current period. - The account will be charged for renewal within 24-hours prior to the end of the current period, and identify the cost of the renewal. - Subscriptions may be managed by the user and auto-renewal may be turned off by going to the user's Account Settings after purchase. - No cancellation of the current subscription is allowed during active subscription period. - Any unused portion of a free trial period, if offered, will be forfeited when the user purchases a subscription to that publication, where applicable Privacy policy: https://sites.google.com/view/tlabs91 Terms of service: https://sites.google.com/view/tlabs-termofservice
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: Recent Contacts at 4.6 against Contacts's 3.5. Recent Contacts also leads on update cadence (fortnightly vs every 6 months). Contacts's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 5) and ads (none vs shown). On price there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS
Both are free to download. Recent Contacts sells 5 in-app purchases, starting at $4.99 per 7 days. Contacts asks for nothing beyond the download.
Recent Contacts holds the better App Store score, 4.6 against 3.5. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Contacts has 3.3K ratings behind it against 90, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews complicate that: 27% of Contacts's written reviews are positive against 0% of Recent Contacts's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.
Contacts ships an update every 6 months, Recent Contacts fortnightly. The most recent releases landed on September 25, 2026 and September 15, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Contacts | Recent Contacts |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 3.5 (3.3K ratings) | 4.6 (90 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 27.1% of reviews — better | 0.0% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 3.3K — better | 90 |
| Update frequency | Every 6 months | Fortnightly — better |
| Ads | No — better | Yes |
| In-app purchases | No — better | Yes |
| Monetization | Free — better | Free with in-app purchases |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod, Apple Watch — better | iPhone, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 10.0 — better | 15.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 7 MB | 36 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Apple | LE NGUYEN QUANG PHUOC |
Customer experience
Contacts
Recent Contacts
Bugs and requests
Contacts
Reported bugs
4 issues- Contacts not syncing properly across devices
- Editing contact information causes data loss
- App crashes or freezes when performing basic tasks
- Incorrect or missing contact details
Requested features
5 requests- Add ability to create and manage contact groups
- Improve search and filtering functionality
- Allow customization of contact information fields
- Integrate with more third-party apps and services
- Add option to lock/secure sensitive contact information
Recent Contacts
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
Contacts
No in-app purchases
Recent Contacts
- Weekly Premium$4.997 Days
- Weekly Premium3 Days trial$4.997 Days
- Monthly Premium3 Days trial$6.991 Month
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- Monthly Premium$7.991 Month
- Lifetime$24.99
Questions
Is Contacts free?
Is Recent Contacts free?
Which has better reviews, Contacts or Recent Contacts?
Do Contacts or Recent Contacts have ads?
Which is updated more often, Contacts or Recent Contacts?
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