5 ms·

A new way to sync Google Contacts

97 points by AndrewDucker 14y ago

zrail 14y ago
CardDAV is very much not a new standard. It's been around for at least a decade and is based on vCard which has been around for even longer. That said, I'm glad they're doing this now. For the longest time the only way to sync contacts on iOS has been to set up google as an exchange provider.
- mtgx 14y ago
  What would've been a newer standard?
  - zrail 14y ago
    The original title was something along the lines of "google uses new standard to sync contacts".
    - Calamitous 14y ago
      Perhaps they meant "new for Google."
- leephillips 14y ago
  "the only way to sync contacts on iOS has been to set up google as an exchange provider." This seems to work fine for me. Is there an advantage to CardDAV?
  - chmars 14y ago
    Google Sync via ActiveSync/Exchange has some serious limitations: 'Limited Contact Information. The iOS device can synchronize up to 3 email addresses. Phone number synchronization is limited to 2 Home numbers, 1 Home Fax, 1 Mobile, 1 Pager, 3 Work (one will be labeled 'Company Main') and one Work Fax number.' https://support.google.com/mail/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=139635 https://support.google.com/mail/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answ... The limitations on the Mac are less serious but still not all address data gets synced, for example relationships.
    - bad_user 14y ago
      This has been a serious limitation for me.
    - conradev 14y ago
      The lack of relationship syncing is particularly irksome when using Siri.
  - micampe 14y ago
    Yes. The Exchange/ActiveSync version Google uses is quite old and fairly limited in the number of elements available per property, the labels are only a fixed set, and some properties are not supported at all. CardDAV doesn't have these limitations.
    - leephillips 14y ago
      Thanks - sounds like pretty good reasons to switch.
- r00fus 14y ago
  If by long time, you mean 2011 - that's when the IETF RFC was filed: http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc6352 http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc6352 CardDAV is much like CalDAV and WebDAV - but for vCards - which has been around pretty much forever. Interesting fact: Apple appears prominently in the RFCs of two of the three protocols as well as the vcard format. With vCard and CalDAV, open-source productivity software never really did much better than Microsoft Exchange/Outlook, but CardDAV does provide something that Exchange doesn't - an working, standards-based way to sync your contacts across all accounts.
AndrewDucker 14y ago
And it looks like Thunderbird is going to support it natively (when they've finished rewriting their address book back-end) https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=546932 https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=546932
- acabal 14y ago
  Very cool if true, but didn't they recently announce they're stopping new development on TB? And that bug was opened in 2010 and isn't assigned to anyone.
  - 18pfsmt 14y ago
    In the comments, someone (from last week) linked to this post: http://mikeconley.ca/blog/2011/09/07/creating-a-new-thunderbird-address-book-the-feature-page-and-some-literature/ http://mikeconley.ca/blog/2011/09/07/creating-a-new-thunderb... So, it seems like work on a better address book is ongoing.
jasonkostempski 14y ago
Goodbye Exchange! I also just accidentally figured out iPhone supports syncing notes in Gmail through IMAP. The behavior is a little wonky but it's pretty handy. http://googlesystem.blogspot.com/2010/06/save-iphone-notes-to-gmail-account.html http://googlesystem.blogspot.com/2010/06/save-iphone-notes-t... Now if todo list could just get an open standard maybe we could sync iPhone Reminders to Gmail Tasks.
- BHSPitMonkey 14y ago
  Aren't Google Tasks synced through Google Calendar as events?
  - jasonkostempski 14y ago
    I think the ones with dates do but I use my calendar directly for items like that, I use my task list for tasks with no time dimension.
jasonkolb 14y ago
Having gone thru hell moving my contact list from iOS to Android, I am for it. Anything that might lead to better utilities to make contact lists more portable and easier to mine/use is a big plus as far as I'm concerned.
a3_nm 14y ago
Now, if only Android supported CalDAV and CardDAV synchronization (with your own server) instead of only offering Google account synchronization and Exchange synchronization...
- BitMastro 14y ago
  Aren't there any apps that offer CalDAV and CardDAV synchronization?
  - phireal 14y ago
    Yes: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.dmfs.caldav.lib https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.dmfs.calda... https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.dmfs.carddav.Sync https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.dmfs.cardd... are two of which I'm aware, but they're not free. They worked well when I had my own calendar server, integrating into the "Accounts and sync" section of the settings, thus providing fairly seamless integration with the native calendar app, for example.
  - a3_nm 14y ago
    I know of no CalDAV and CardDAV synchronization apps which are open source and actually work.
dmd 14y ago
Is there any advantage other than ideological to switching to using this if one already has Exchange sync set up and working for mail/cal/contacts?
markstahler 14y ago
For iOS specifically, is there any benefit to using CardDAV vs Exchange sync?
- dbloom 14y ago
  It doesn't involve Google paying royalties to Microsoft :-)
  - jpxxx 14y ago
    You mean Apple too. :] They've licensed ActiveSync for iOS since 1.0 I believe.
antihero 14y ago
Is there some API documentation?
- icebraining 14y ago
  There's the RFC: https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc6352 https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc6352
peterjmag 14y ago
Woohoo! This seems to fix the issue with large contact photos (from your iPhone) being resized down to tiny 48x48 icons by Google Sync. As far as I know, there wasn't any way around that when syncing via Exchange. http://productforums.google.com/forum/#!category-topic/mobile/apple-devices/cO2L3s509LQ%5B1-25%5D http://productforums.google.com/forum/#!category-topic/mobil... http://superuser.com/questions/40437/editing-contact-in-gmail-overwrites-iphone-contact-photo-with-a-poor-quality-pic http://superuser.com/questions/40437/editing-contact-in-gmai... http://productforums.google.com/forum/#!category-topic/gmail/android/_0aUWkpprsw%5B1-25%5D http://productforums.google.com/forum/#!category-topic/gmail...
- cochese 14y ago
  This was the first thing I checked for. Finally!
andyl 14y ago
With this scheme, it looks like gmail is the source, and you can sync from gmail to other devices. Is that true? Could you go the other way, and have a standalone app be the contact source, then sync from the app into gmail??
tlrobinson 14y ago
Is this the iCloud/Google Contacts sync solution I've been waiting for?
Smudge 14y ago
Is it just me, or are these flashy new Blogger themes not really that impressive? This is what the official Gmail blog looks like on my (android) phone: https://plus.google.com/112865255606805639625/posts/8E8Mtx9fNAx https://plus.google.com/112865255606805639625/posts/8E8Mtx9f...
- ripperdoc 14y ago
  Not just you. My pet peeve is that their sharing links gadget on the right side covers the scroll bar on at least Chrome. So, the scroll handle can get stuck under the links. Not very smart.
  - SquareWheel 14y ago
    I keep thinking that widget is the scroll bar and clicking a share button accidentally.

97 points by AndrewDucker 14y ago

zrail 14y ago

CardDAV is very much not a new standard. It's been around for at least a decade and is based on vCard which has been around for even longer. That said, I'm glad they're doing this now. For the longest time the only way to sync contacts on iOS has been to set up google as an exchange provider.

mtgx 14y ago
What would've been a newer standard?
- zrail 14y ago
  The original title was something along the lines of "google uses new standard to sync contacts".
  - Calamitous 14y ago
    Perhaps they meant "new for Google."
leephillips 14y ago
"the only way to sync contacts on iOS has been to set up google as an exchange provider." This seems to work fine for me. Is there an advantage to CardDAV?
- chmars 14y ago
  Google Sync via ActiveSync/Exchange has some serious limitations: 'Limited Contact Information. The iOS device can synchronize up to 3 email addresses. Phone number synchronization is limited to 2 Home numbers, 1 Home Fax, 1 Mobile, 1 Pager, 3 Work (one will be labeled 'Company Main') and one Work Fax number.' https://support.google.com/mail/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=139635 https://support.google.com/mail/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answ... The limitations on the Mac are less serious but still not all address data gets synced, for example relationships.
  - bad_user 14y ago
    This has been a serious limitation for me.
  - conradev 14y ago
    The lack of relationship syncing is particularly irksome when using Siri.
- micampe 14y ago
  Yes. The Exchange/ActiveSync version Google uses is quite old and fairly limited in the number of elements available per property, the labels are only a fixed set, and some properties are not supported at all. CardDAV doesn't have these limitations.
  - leephillips 14y ago
    Thanks - sounds like pretty good reasons to switch.
r00fus 14y ago
If by long time, you mean 2011 - that's when the IETF RFC was filed: http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc6352 http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc6352 CardDAV is much like CalDAV and WebDAV - but for vCards - which has been around pretty much forever. Interesting fact: Apple appears prominently in the RFCs of two of the three protocols as well as the vcard format. With vCard and CalDAV, open-source productivity software never really did much better than Microsoft Exchange/Outlook, but CardDAV does provide something that Exchange doesn't - an working, standards-based way to sync your contacts across all accounts.

AndrewDucker 14y ago

And it looks like Thunderbird is going to support it natively (when they've finished rewriting their address book back-end) https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=546932 https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=546932

acabal 14y ago
Very cool if true, but didn't they recently announce they're stopping new development on TB? And that bug was opened in 2010 and isn't assigned to anyone.
- 18pfsmt 14y ago
  In the comments, someone (from last week) linked to this post: http://mikeconley.ca/blog/2011/09/07/creating-a-new-thunderbird-address-book-the-feature-page-and-some-literature/ http://mikeconley.ca/blog/2011/09/07/creating-a-new-thunderb... So, it seems like work on a better address book is ongoing.

jasonkostempski 14y ago

Goodbye Exchange! I also just accidentally figured out iPhone supports syncing notes in Gmail through IMAP. The behavior is a little wonky but it's pretty handy. http://googlesystem.blogspot.com/2010/06/save-iphone-notes-to-gmail-account.html http://googlesystem.blogspot.com/2010/06/save-iphone-notes-t... Now if todo list could just get an open standard maybe we could sync iPhone Reminders to Gmail Tasks.

BHSPitMonkey 14y ago
Aren't Google Tasks synced through Google Calendar as events?
- jasonkostempski 14y ago
  I think the ones with dates do but I use my calendar directly for items like that, I use my task list for tasks with no time dimension.

jasonkolb 14y ago

Having gone thru hell moving my contact list from iOS to Android, I am for it. Anything that might lead to better utilities to make contact lists more portable and easier to mine/use is a big plus as far as I'm concerned.

a3_nm 14y ago

Now, if only Android supported CalDAV and CardDAV synchronization (with your own server) instead of only offering Google account synchronization and Exchange synchronization...

BitMastro 14y ago
Aren't there any apps that offer CalDAV and CardDAV synchronization?
- phireal 14y ago
  Yes: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.dmfs.caldav.lib https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.dmfs.calda... https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.dmfs.carddav.Sync https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.dmfs.cardd... are two of which I'm aware, but they're not free. They worked well when I had my own calendar server, integrating into the "Accounts and sync" section of the settings, thus providing fairly seamless integration with the native calendar app, for example.
- a3_nm 14y ago
  I know of no CalDAV and CardDAV synchronization apps which are open source and actually work.

dmd 14y ago

Is there any advantage other than ideological to switching to using this if one already has Exchange sync set up and working for mail/cal/contacts?

markstahler 14y ago

For iOS specifically, is there any benefit to using CardDAV vs Exchange sync?

dbloom 14y ago
It doesn't involve Google paying royalties to Microsoft :-)
- jpxxx 14y ago
  You mean Apple too. :] They've licensed ActiveSync for iOS since 1.0 I believe.

antihero 14y ago

Is there some API documentation?

icebraining 14y ago
There's the RFC: https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc6352 https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc6352

peterjmag 14y ago

Woohoo! This seems to fix the issue with large contact photos (from your iPhone) being resized down to tiny 48x48 icons by Google Sync. As far as I know, there wasn't any way around that when syncing via Exchange. http://productforums.google.com/forum/#!category-topic/mobile/apple-devices/cO2L3s509LQ%5B1-25%5D http://productforums.google.com/forum/#!category-topic/mobil... http://superuser.com/questions/40437/editing-contact-in-gmail-overwrites-iphone-contact-photo-with-a-poor-quality-pic http://superuser.com/questions/40437/editing-contact-in-gmai... http://productforums.google.com/forum/#!category-topic/gmail/android/_0aUWkpprsw%5B1-25%5D http://productforums.google.com/forum/#!category-topic/gmail...

cochese 14y ago
This was the first thing I checked for. Finally!

andyl 14y ago

With this scheme, it looks like gmail is the source, and you can sync from gmail to other devices. Is that true? Could you go the other way, and have a standalone app be the contact source, then sync from the app into gmail??

tlrobinson 14y ago

Is this the iCloud/Google Contacts sync solution I've been waiting for?

Smudge 14y ago

Is it just me, or are these flashy new Blogger themes not really that impressive? This is what the official Gmail blog looks like on my (android) phone: https://plus.google.com/112865255606805639625/posts/8E8Mtx9fNAx https://plus.google.com/112865255606805639625/posts/8E8Mtx9f...

ripperdoc 14y ago
Not just you. My pet peeve is that their sharing links gadget on the right side covers the scroll bar on at least Chrome. So, the scroll handle can get stuck under the links. Not very smart.
- SquareWheel 14y ago
  I keep thinking that widget is the scroll bar and clicking a share button accidentally.