# Import, Export and Add Contact
You can manage your contacts within chatalog through three primary actions on the **Contact > Your Contacts** page:
1. Create contact
2. Import contacts (CSV)
3. Export contact list (CSV).
## 1. Create Contact (Add a single contact)
If you only need to add a single contact, fill in Name and Phone in the pop-up window and click Add to apply.
## 2. Import Contacts
After clicking the **"Import contacts"** button, you first need to download the .csv sample file to edit. Enter the columns of name and contact number. The phone number should be filled in together with the country code at the beginning, without extra brackets or a plus sign.
For example, if the country code is 852 and the phone number is 98765432, please fill in 85298765432. After saving the contact list file, you can drag the .csv file into the area to upload. Click **"import"** to wait for the upload to finish.
If you import a contact list that includes some existing phone numbers, the first name, last name, email, and custom fields will be updated. It will not create an extra contact when you import and update information for an existing contact with the same phone number.
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When importing contacts via CSV, you can define how **labels** and **custom fields** should be handled for existing contacts.
This allows you to control whether imported data should overwrite, merge, or preserve existing information.
### Label Strategy
Choose how labels in the CSV file should be applied to existing contacts.
#### 1. Replace existing labels
**What it does:**
* All current labels on the contact will be removed.
* Only the labels provided in the import file will remain.
**Use this when:**
* You want the import file to fully define the latest label structure.
* You are cleaning up or restructuring label organization.
* You want to ensure outdated labels are removed.
**Example:**
* Existing labels: `VIP`, `Wholesale`
* CSV labels: `Retail`
* Result: `Retail` (VIP and Wholesale will be removed)
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#### 2. Add to existing labels
**What it does:**
* Existing labels remain unchanged.
* Labels in the import file will be added to the contact.
* Duplicate labels will not be created.
**Use this when:**
* You are enriching contact segmentation.
* You want to tag contacts for campaigns without removing old labels.
* You want to preserve historical label data.
**Example:**
* Existing labels: `VIP`
* CSV labels: `Summer Campaign`
* Result: `VIP`, `Summer Campaign`
### Custom Field Strategy
Custom fields are handled more carefully to prevent accidental data loss.
By default:
* Existing custom field values are kept.
* Fields included in the CSV will update the corresponding fields in the system.
You can also define how the system handles **empty values** in the import file.
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#### When the imported value is empty
**Option 1: Ignore — Keep the current value**
**What it does:**
* If the CSV field is empty, the system keeps the existing value.
* No changes are made to that field.
**Use this when:**
* You only want to update specific fields.
* Your CSV does not include complete data.
* You want to avoid accidental clearing of data.
**Example:**
* Existing phone number: `+852 91234567`
* CSV phone field: (empty)
* Result: Phone number remains unchanged.
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**Option 2: Remove old value — Clear the existing value**
**What it does:**
* If the CSV field is empty, the system will clear the existing value.
* The custom field will become blank.
**Use this when:**
* You are intentionally removing outdated information.
* You are performing data cleanup.
* You want the CSV file to be the single source of truth.
**Example:**
* Existing Company Name: `ABC Ltd`
* CSV Company Name field: (empty)
* Result: Company Name becomes empty.
## 3. Export Contact
If you want to export all contacts, you just need to click **Actions > Export Contacts (CSV)**.
And if you want to export contacts with certain labels or within a certain label-added time, you may follow the steps below:
First, click **"Filter"** to expand the dropdown so that you can select labels and set a label-added time to filter. The contact list will then refresh to display contacts only with the selected labels and timestamps. Then, click **Actions > Export Contacts (CSV)**. The downloaded file will be a filtered contact list.
