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Help Center / Import Contacts

Importing Contacts into Linxi

Linxi's import is a two-step flow — upload a file, then map its columns to Linxi fields — so it works with whatever export format your old system happens to produce, not just one exact template.

1

Supported formats

CSV, TSV, XLSX/XLS (Excel), and VCF (vCard). Upload the file from Contacts → Import, and Linxi parses it and shows you a column-mapping step before anything is actually saved.

2

Required and optional fields

A phone number is the only truly required field. First name, last name, email, and any custom columns your file has are all optional and get mapped during the import step — you can even create brand-new contact columns on the fly if your file has data Linxi doesn't already have a field for.

3

Phone number format

You don't need to pre-format numbers into E.164 yourself — Linxi normalizes them automatically during import (a US number like (561) 555-0188 or 561-555-0188 becomes +15615550188). Rows with a number that can't be normalized into a valid phone number are skipped, not silently dropped without explanation — the import summary tells you how many were skipped and why.

4

Importing from common sources

  • Google Contacts — Export as CSV from contacts.google.com
  • Excel/spreadsheet — Save/export as CSV or upload the .xlsx directly, both work
  • A CRM export — Most CRMs export CSV; check the column-mapping step to make sure phone/name fields line up correctly, since CRM exports often use non-obvious column headers
  • Another SMS platform's export — Usually CSV; same mapping step applies
5

Lists and tags during import

You can assign every imported contact to a new or existing list, and/or apply tags, as part of the same import — useful for keeping a CSV export from one source clearly separated from your other contacts.

6

Duplicates and opted-out contacts

A phone number that already exists as an active contact in the workspace is skipped as a duplicate, not created a second time. If a phone number matches a contact that was previously soft-deleted, importing it again brings that contact back rather than creating a duplicate. Existing STOP/opted-out contacts stay opted-out through a re-import — importing a file never resets someone's opt-out status.

💡 Phone numbers are automatically normalized to E.164 format during import — for US numbers, +1 is added automatically if it's missing, so your source file doesn't need to be pre-formatted.