Adding numbers to existing contacts in BlackBerry OS 7

For the BlackBerry, some features have been a long time coming. Users have expressed frustration since time immemorial over the inability to do certain simple tasks in the BlackBerry OS. One of the most prominent issues has involved adding numbers to existing contacts. That is, when you get a call from an unknown number that actually belongs to one of your contacts, you’ve had to go through a mini process to add that number to their card. We’ve seen a few app developers try to solve this. We once featured Add Contact, which has since gone kaput. The latest one, ATEC, might not be far behind. RIM has finally added the feature to the BlackBerry OS. The best part about the new addition to the BlackBerry OS is that you don’t even need to look for it. All you have to do is add the contact to your address book as normal. That is, just highlight the number, press the menu button, and select Add to Contacts. Normally this would bring up a new card, but in BlackBerry 7 it brings up a dialog box resembling the one in the screenshot. It gets all polite, asking you whether you’d like to create a new contact card or add the number to an existing contact. It’s brilliant, really, even if its’ long overdue. Of course, not every BlackBerry user is running OS 7, and I’m sure that the majority of BlackBerry users will continue running older OS versions for quite some time. (One years after its release, RIM still doesn’t have the majority on OS 6. It’s one drawback of creating useful devices, rather than shiny and sparkly ones. People realize that their purposes are served just fine by the useful device and don’t upgrade as often.) But in the future, simple apps such as ATEC won’t be necessary. It appears RIM is finally understanding how little it costs to code these features into the OS.

About the Author

Joe Pawlikowski is the Senior Editor at MobileMoo.com and has been covering the mobile industry full time since 2007. When he's not writing about the tech scene, he can be found discussing his personal love - baseball (and more specifically the New York Yankees) as well as writing on his personal blog.