When several contacts need the same change, editing each profile separately takes unnecessary time. Dextr's bulk selection tools let you choose a group and apply an action to all selected contacts.
This is useful after importing an address book, attending an event, or deciding to organize an existing group of people.
Select the contacts you want to change
1. Open Contacts
Tap Contacts in the bottom menu. This opens the Contacts area, where you can use the full contact list or narrow it to a tag, favorites, or a relation.
2. Activate bulk select
On the Contacts page, tap the checklist button at the upper left, immediately beside the up/down sort arrows. This activates bulk select and adds selection circles to the contact rows.
3. Select and review your group
Tap the selection circle beside each person you want to update. Use Select All only when everyone in the current list should receive the change.
Check the selected count before choosing an action. You can also open a tag's contact list first and use the same checklist button there. The examples below use all 16 running-club contacts.
On iPhone, the available bulk actions appear in the selection toolbar. On Mac, use the list's selection and action controls. The actions offered depend on the list and selected contacts; an archived-contact list, for example, can offer Restore.
You can start from a tag's contact list to narrow the group first. The running-club list used here already contains 16 people with tags, relations, and event context.
Add or remove tags
Suppose the 16 people in your running club also play pickleball. Select them, tap the solid tag icon for Add Tags, choose pickleball, and tap the checkmark. They keep their running-club tag and any other existing tags.
To remove a shared tag, tap the crossed-out tag icon for Remove Tags, choose the tag, and tap the checkmark. The example shows pickleball selected for removal from 16 contacts. Removing a tag changes their classification; it does not delete the contacts.
Choose tags that will help you find people later, such as an interest, city, or professional group. See How to Organize Contacts With Tags and Tag Groups for step-by-step tagging, pinned tags, colors and emoji, and Tag Groups.
Set a shared relation to you
Tap the filled-circle action for Set Relation to You, then choose the relation that fits everyone selected. For example, if all 16 running-club members are close friends, choose Close Friend. Dextr applies the relation and clears the selection.
This updates Relation to You. It does not declare that every selected person has a relationship with every other selected person. Connections between contacts are managed separately in their profiles.
Only include people for whom the chosen classification is accurate. To record how two people know each other, follow Connect two contacts in the relationship guide.
Archive contacts you no longer use
Select the contacts, choose Archive, and review the confirmation. Archiving removes them from active use while retaining their Dextr records.
Open Settings → Archived Contacts to find and restore them. Archived records are not editable until restored, so this is useful for contacts you want to keep without including them in your active lists.
Deletion is a separate, permanent action. Where a deleted Dextr contact is linked to Apple Contacts, that linked record can also be removed. Read the confirmation carefully, especially when several people are selected. The cleanup guide covers these choices.
Check one result before moving on
After applying a bulk change, leave selection mode and review the list. Here, running-club still contains 16 people, and their rows show Close Friend. Open one contact to check its details before moving to the next group.
Tags and Relation to You are Dextr context; they are not standard fields exported to Apple Contacts. If you are concerned about other changes reaching your address book, review how Contacts Sync works.
Bulk editing works best for decisions you have already made. When you need help deciding what to do with each person, use Dextr AI's guided review instead.