Macworld Tacts Review: Contacts manager offers better support for groups 3.5/5 mice

“The group facilities in Tacts are top notch. While Apple’s own Contacts does nothing more than display groups and the contacts that belong to them (which must be set on a computer and synced into the phone), Tacts can create groups, delete groups, add contacts to groups, and even create smart groups. You define those smart groups by rules based on the contents of the contacts (which, sadly, don’t include user-added fields).

Tacts is worthwhile for anyone interested in stronger group capabilities out of their contact management, but it comes at a cost of integration with Apple’s built-in facilities.“

Derik did bring up a couple issues that we like to discuss.

We try to make Tacts user interface as easy and intuitive as possible.  This is why we modeled the Groups list after Apples favorites list.  “Edit” in a tableview will mean that you can reorder the table items or delete items.  We decided to be consistent with Apple’s design, so users who are already familiar with Apple’s built-in apps can learn how to use Tacts quickly.

In order to modify the setting of each group, you can press the “Arrow Button” to the right of the group.  We would be happy to hear other alternatives to this design though.

Top Contacts can only leverage outbound call records made from Tacts itself.  So the more you use Tacts, the smarter Top Contacts gets.  It is unfortunate that Apple does not provide 3rd party Apps access the iPhone call, email and text history.  However, we do understand that Apple wants to protect user privacy.

In version 1.0.2, Top Contacts will get refreshed every time you switch back from the background or if you hide and slide up the view after about 2 minutes.  So force quitting should not be required.

We also want to mention that Top Contacts not only uses call frequency, but also take into account of your current time, date and location to give you the most suitable contact suggestions.   So if you typically call your friend on Monday nights from home, Tacts will give that friend a higher ranking for that situation.

Read the rest of the Macworld Review.