WhatsApp has become one of the most popular messaging apps, with over 2 billion users worldwide. Many WhatsApp users have hundreds of contacts in their address book that they communicate with regularly on the platform. However, the contacts list on WhatsApp itself can be cumbersome to organize and manage after a while. This is where syncing your WhatsApp contacts with Excel can be extremely useful.
Excel provides tools to neatly organize, sort and filter your contacts. You can create different worksheets for separate groups and categories. Once your contacts are in Excel, you can also use the powerful lookup, pivot table, and data analysis features offered by Excel. Synchronizing WhatsApp contacts into an Excel spreadsheet takes a bit of time but makes managing your contacts much easier.
Why Sync WhatsApp Contacts with Excel?
Here are some of the benefits of syncing your WhatsApp contacts with Excel:
– Better organization of contacts into groups/categories with separate worksheets
– Powerful sorting, filtering and lookup functions in Excel for easy searching
– Ability to add more data columns and details like name, company, job title etc.
– Identify frequently contacted people and separate personal and professional contacts
– Sync contact updates/changes from WhatsApp into Excel automatically
– Create mailing lists, labels, contact lists for holiday greetings etc.
– Use Excel data tools like pivots for analysis of contacts
– Easy backup of contacts list outside WhatsApp ecosystem into Excel
How to Sync WhatsApp Contacts with Excel
There are a couple of ways to import your WhatsApp contacts into Excel. The two main methods are:
Method 1 – Using Third-Party Apps
Several third-party apps are available that can extract your WhatsApp contacts and import them into Excel automatically:
– WazzSync – Android app that syncs WhatsApp contacts with Excel in one click
– ChatMigrate – Exports WhatsApp contacts from Android into CSV for Excel
– Backuptrans – Windows software to transfer WhatsApp data like contacts into Excel
– MobileTrans – WhatsApp to Excel sync app for Android, iOS and Windows
The main steps are:
1. Install the third-party app on your device
2. Run the app and connect your phone. Allow access to contacts.
3. Select the WhatsApp contacts export or sync option.
4. Choose Excel or CSV format. Select file location to save.
5. The app will extract all WhatsApp contacts and export to Excel/CSV.
Method 2 – Using Excel VBA Script
You can use Excel VBA scripts to connect with WhatsApp on your smartphone and import contacts directly. Follow these steps:
1. Enable WhatsApp Web option on your phone.
2. Get your WhatsApp Web identity code from phone settings.
3. Open Excel workbook and go to Visual Basic Editor.
4. Create a module and paste VBA script (sample below). Update code with your identity.
5. Run the ExportWhatsAppContacts macro in the script.
6. Allow WhatsApp Web login request on phone.
7. The code will export contacts into current Excel sheet.
Here is a sample VBA script to sync WhatsApp contacts:
“`vb
Sub ExportWhatsAppContacts()
Const WhatsAppUrl As String = “https://web.whatsapp.com”
Const WhatsappId As String = “abc123xyz” ‘Update
Dim objHTTP As Object, html As Object
Set objHTTP = CreateObject(“MSXML2.XMLHTTP”)
‘Open WhatsApp Web
objHTTP.Open “GET”, WhatsAppUrl, False
objHTTP.setRequestHeader “Content-Type”, “application/x-www-form-urlencoded”
objHTTP.send (“instance=” & WhatsappId)
‘Get Contacts HTML
objHTTP.Open “GET”, WhatsAppUrl & “/index.html?_dc=1665173946239”, False
objHTTP.send
Set html = CreateObject(“htmlfile”)
html.body.innerHTML = objHTTP.ResponseText
‘Parse Contacts
Dim contacts As Object, contact As Object
Set contacts = html.getelementsbyclassname(“infinite-list-item”)
Dim rowNum As Long
rowNum = 1
For Each contact In contacts
Cells(rowNum, 1) = contact.innerText
rowNum = rowNum + 1
Next contact
‘Logout
objHTTP.Open “POST”, WhatsAppUrl & “/logout”, False
objHTTP.setRequestHeader “Content-Type”, “application/x-www-form-urlencoded”
objHTTP.send (“instance=” & WhatsappId)
End Sub
“`
Important Things to Note
Here are some important things to note when syncing WhatsApp contacts with Excel:
– Update the VBA script with your correct WhatsApp Web identity code.
– The exported contacts do not include profile pictures or phone numbers. Only names are extracted.
– The contact names may have some extra text which needs cleaning up.
– Requests permission on phone before exporting contacts via WhatsApp Web.
– Exported contacts are added starting Cell A1 on active sheet. Clear old data first.
– Disable multi-device WhatsApp connection option on phone for VBA script method.
– Third-party apps provide more customization options for data exports.
– Re-run the script periodically to sync updated WhatsApp contacts.
– Export produces a simple listing. Further formatting required in Excel.
Adding Other Details in Excel
Once your WhatsApp contacts are imported into Excel, you can add other details against each contact:
| Name | Company | Job Title | Email ID | Mobile Number | Birthday | Last Contacted |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| John Doe | ABC Corp | CEO | [email protected] | 9890098900 | 12-04-1980 | 10/5/2022 |
| Jane Smith | XYZ Inc | Director | [email protected] | 7766554433 | 11/3/1975 | 14/7/2022 |
You can copy-paste details like company, job title, email etc. from other sources if you already have that data available somewhere else.
For mobile number, birthday, and last contacted date, you will need to add manually for each contact in Excel.
The key is to enrich the basic WhatsApp contact list with as many relevant details for each person as feasible.
Categorizing Contacts
Once all details are populated, you can categorize contacts into separate groups using Excel worksheets or a Category column:
| Name | Category |
|---|---|
| Raj Singh | Friend |
| Sheila D’souza | Family |
| Amar Shah | Work |
| Liz Williams | Friend |
This allows you to filter and view each category separately for better organization.
Some common contact categories are:
– Friends
– Family
– Work colleagues
– Business contacts
– Vendors/Suppliers
– Old friends
– Service providers
You can also have separate sheets for each category in the Excel workbook.
Refreshing Data
As you add new contacts on WhatsApp or existing contacts get updated, you need to refresh the Excel sheet to sync the latest data.
This can be done by re-running the VBA script which extracts your WhatsApp contacts again.
Before running the script, copy your existing Excel data on a separate tab or backup sheet.
The script will overwrite your existing contacts with freshly exported data from WhatsApp.
You can then use Excel tools like VLOOKUP to reconcile new contacts added, deleted or updated.
For third-party apps, check if they have an option to only import newly added WhatsApp contacts each time. This will avoid overwriting your enriched data.
Regular refreshing of WhatsApp contacts into Excel ensures you have the most updated details always available.
Conclusion
Syncing WhatsApp contacts into Excel is easy using apps like WazzSync or a VBA script. It provides better organization, additional details and categorization for each contact.
Make sure to periodically refresh the Excel sheet with latest contacts data from WhatsApp.
The powerful filtering, pivot tables, charts and lookup functions make Excel ideal for managing your WhatsApp contacts after syncing. Maintaining separate worksheets for each contact category also helps.
Start enjoying the benefits of Excel for organizing your WhatsApp contacts now! Let me know if you have any other questions.