# Adding a New Contact

Contacts are the people you message through DM Champ. Before you can send someone a message or have your AI bot reply to them, they need to be in your contact list. Here is how to add a new contact manually.

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## The Contacts Page

When you open the Contacts page, you will see your lists on the left and a table of contacts on the right. The table has 8 columns:

| Column           | What It Shows                                                                                                 |
| ---------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Contact Info** | The contact's name and email address.                                                                         |
| **Phone Number** | Their phone number with country code.                                                                         |
| **Channel**      | The messaging channel associated with the contact (e.g., WhatsApp, Instagram, SMS).                           |
| **Status**       | A colored badge indicating where the contact is in their journey.                                             |
| **Tags**         | Tags displayed as chips next to each contact. Tags are pre-loaded so they appear instantly without any delay. |
| **Last Active**  | When the contact was last active or last messaged.                                                            |
| **Bot Active**   | Whether the AI bot is currently active for this contact.                                                      |
| **Actions**      | Quick action buttons for the contact.                                                                         |

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## How to Add a Contact

1. Click **Contacts** in the left sidebar.
2. Click the **New Contact** button in the top-right area.
3. Fill in the contact's details:
   * **First name** (required)
   * **Last name**
   * **Phone number** - make sure to include the country code (for example, +1 for the US, +44 for the UK, +31 for the Netherlands)
4. Choose whether you want the **AI bot to be active** for this contact right away. If you turn this on, the bot will automatically respond when this contact messages you.
5. Add the contact to one or more **lists** to keep things organized (for example, "Leads" or "VIP Customers").
6. Click **Save**.

Your new contact is now in DM Champ and ready to receive messages.

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## Next Steps

* [Organizing Lists & Contacts](https://help.dmchamp.com/contacts-and-lists/list-and-contact-management) - Learn how to group and manage your contacts.
* [Importing Contacts from a File](https://help.dmchamp.com/contacts-and-lists/importing-contacts) - Add many contacts at once using a spreadsheet.
* [Creating a Campaign](https://help.dmchamp.com/campaigns/creating-campaigns) - Start messaging your contacts.