# 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. This page covers the Contacts table itself and how to add someone one at a time. ::: walkthrough creating-contacts ::: --- ## The Contacts Page In the sidebar, click **Contacts**. The page opens on the **Contacts** tab (there's a **Lists** tab right next to it — see [Organizing Lists & Contacts](list-and-contact-management.md)). ::: master-only
The v2 Contacts page, showing saved-view pills, smart filter chips, search, and the contacts table

The Contacts page: saved views, smart filter chips, search, and the contact table.

::: Above the table, two rows of chips help you slice the list before you even open a contact: - **Saved views** — ready-made slices: All, Hot leads, Replied this week, Dormant (30d+), Customers, Do not disturb. The count on each pill tells you how many contacts qualify. - **Smart filter chips** — layer these on top of a view: Untagged, Missing email, Bot off, No reply 24h+, New this week. Below that sits the **search box** (finds a contact by name, phone, email, or message content), a **Filter** button for more detailed criteria, and the **Columns** button described next. ### Table columns The table has two columns that are always shown — a select checkbox and **Contact** (name, avatar, phone) — plus nine you can show or hide with the **Columns** button (top-right, a grid icon): | Column | Shown by default? | What It Shows | |---|---|---| | **Lead score** | Yes | A score badge estimating how engaged/qualified the contact is. | | **Phone** | Yes | Their phone number with country code. | | **Channel** | Yes | The messaging channel the contact reaches you on (WhatsApp, Instagram, SMS, etc.). | | **Status** | Yes | A coloured badge for where the contact is in their journey — New, Engaged, Lead, Customer, Churned, or Spam. Click the badge to change it inline (except Spam — see [Custom Fields, Lead Profile & Notes](custom-contact-fields.md#status)). | | **Tags** | Yes | Up to a few tags as chips, with an overflow count if there are more. | | **Last message** | Yes | A one-line preview of the most recent message. | | **Last active** | Yes | When the contact last messaged or was messaged. | | **Created** | No — hidden by default | The date the contact was added. Turn it on from **Columns** if you need it. | | **Flags** | Yes | Small icons showing whether the bot is active, the contact is private, and Do Not Disturb is on — one glance instead of three separate columns. | There's no separate "Actions" column. Click anywhere on a row to open the contact quick-view panel for editing, deleting, or jumping to the chat. --- ## How to Add a Contact 1. Click **Contacts** in the left sidebar. 2. Click the **New contact** button, top-right. ::: master-only
The empty New contact modal, with red asterisks on First name and Phone, an Email field, a Primary channel picker, and a greyed-out Create contact button

The New contact form — First name and Phone carry a red asterisk, and Create contact stays greyed out until both are filled in.

::: 3. Fill in the contact's details: * **First name** (required) * **Last name** * **Phone number** (required) — include the country code (for example, +1 for the US, +44 for the UK, +31 for the Netherlands). Every channel here reaches people by phone number, so an email address on its own isn't enough to create a contact. * **Email** * **Primary channel** — pick which channel this contact reaches you on (WhatsApp Business, WhatsApp Web, SMS, Instagram, Messenger, or the Chat Widget). 4. *(Optional)* Add a **note** — this is the same field as [Lead Profile](custom-contact-fields.md#notes-lead-profile), a free-text area the AI reads when personalising replies. 5. *(Optional)* Add any **custom fields** or **tags** you already use. 6. Click **Save**. ::: master-only
The New contact modal filled in with a first name, last name, and a Netherlands phone number, with Create contact now green and clickable

A filled-in contact, ready to save — the phone field's country selector controls the dial code, and Create contact turns green once the required fields are in.

::: > **What's different from before:** creating a contact no longer lets you turn the AI bot on/off or add the contact to a list in the same step. A contact you add by hand is created with the AI bot **off**. Open their quick-view panel and switch **Bot Active** on when you want the AI to reply to them — see [Excluding Contacts from the AI Bot](excluding-contacts-from-bot.md). To put them on a list, use the panel's **Lists** section or the **Add to List** bulk action. Your new contact is now in the app and ready to receive messages. --- ## Frequently Asked Questions **Why can't I find the Bot Active or List picker in the New Contact form anymore?** They moved. Set them right after saving, from the contact's quick-view panel (click their row). A contact you add by hand is created with the AI bot **off**, so switch **Bot Active** on there if you want the AI to reply to them — see [Excluding Contacts from the AI Bot](excluding-contacts-from-bot.md) and [Organizing Lists & Contacts](list-and-contact-management.md#adding-contacts-to-a-list). **I don't see all the columns I'm used to.** Click **Columns** at the top-right of the table and tick the ones you want. **Created** is off by default — turn it back on there. **Can I message a contact on a channel other than the one they came in on?** A contact sits on one channel, and everything you send them goes out on that channel. Adding a WhatsApp number to a contact who came in through Instagram doesn't turn that chat into a WhatsApp chat. What you can do is continue the conversation on WhatsApp or SMS: open the chat and pick **Continue on WhatsApp** from the three-dot menu (or the contact panel). That creates a linked WhatsApp contact for the same person, copies their details across, and the AI carries what they told you on the first channel into the new one. See [Chat Interface](../chats/chat-interface.md). If the same person writes to you on another channel by themselves, they still arrive as their own contact on that channel; when the phone number matches a contact you already have, the two are linked automatically. **Can I merge two contacts?** Not yet. If the same person exists twice, copy the details you want onto the contact you're keeping and delete the other one. Deleting a contact also deletes that contact's chat history, so delete the one whose conversation you don't need. Note that a phone number can only be saved on one contact per account, so you'll need to remove or delete the duplicate before that number can be used elsewhere. --- ## Next Steps - [Organizing Lists & Contacts](list-and-contact-management.md) — group and manage your contacts. - [Importing Contacts from a File](importing-contacts.md) — add many contacts at once using a spreadsheet. - [Custom Fields, Lead Profile & Notes](custom-contact-fields.md) — the extra details you can attach to a contact.