Google Contacts preview now supports contact import from third-party services

Despite being announced over a year ago, the revamped Google Contacts still remains a preview. An update to the web app today adds the ability to import contacts from a variety of popular third-party services.

Users can find the Import feature under the More dropdown in the left hand panel. Clicking it will bring up a dialogue box to import from Yahoo Mail, Outlook.com, AOL, or another provider. Interestingly, third-party service ShuttleCloud is responsible for handling the import and users will have to agree to their terms and conditions before continuing. Google notes that ShuttleCloud will only have temporary access to names and email addresses.

Afterwards, it is a fairly simple process of entering your account credentials. To import a CSV or vCard file, users will have to go back to the old Contacts interface. It’s quite curious that this redesign has taken such a long time, but then again it’s better to be safe than sorry when handling something as important as contacts.

The feature is live for most people with a full roll out in the next three days. For Google apps customers, administrators must first enable the feature. Full instructions are available here.