You do not need to organize your whole address book on your first day with Dextr. Start by bringing your contacts in, make a few useful connections, and give yourself an easy way to reach out again. Each small step turns a list of names into a clearer picture of the people in your life.
Follow these steps in order on iPhone. Begin with people you know well, then come back for another short session when you have time. The app overview and Home screen reference follow the walkthrough.
1. Import your contacts and enable notifications
Dextr can work without an imported address book, but it is most useful with your contacts already in it. Importing gives Dextr AI people to help you organize and gives you a starting point for relationships, tags, reminders, and your Social Graph.
During onboarding
When you first open Dextr, follow the setup screens and allow access to Contacts. Choose Full Access to work with your whole address book, or Limited Access if you want to start with selected people. Only the contacts you allow will be available to import.
Follow the prompts to identify your own contact card. Dextr may ask for your phone number to help find it, or let you select the card yourself. Check the match, tap Import Contacts when offered, and let the import finish.
When the notification prompt appears, choose Allow. Notifications help Stay in Touch reminders reach you at the right time and let Dextr AI tell you when there are suggestions to review.
If you skipped a permission or setup step
From Home, tap the Settings gear in the upper-left corner, then open Contacts Sync. Turn on Enable Contacts Sync. If you see Setup Contacts Sync, follow that flow; if setup is already complete, tap Sync Now and review Last Sync Results.
If you denied contact access, use Grant Access in iOS Settings, or open iPhone Settings → Privacy & Security → Contacts → Dextr and review the access level. With Limited Access, include any additional people you want Dextr to import, then return to Dextr.
For notifications, open Dextr Settings → Notifications. If access is disabled, tap Open iOS Settings and turn on Allow Notifications for Dextr. Back in Dextr, enable the reminder and Dextr AI notification options you want and choose a convenient time for AI suggestions.
See Import and Sync Contacts for the full setup. If you use several devices, let one Primary Sync Device, usually your iPhone, handle the connection with Apple Contacts.
2. Start with Dextr AI at the top of Home
Tap Home, then the Dextr AI card near the top of the screen. Work through a few suggestions before trying to organize everything yourself.
Dextr AI walks you through useful decisions about your imported contacts. It can help you recognize someone, decide whether to keep them active, set their relation to you, add first-meeting context, and choose a check-in reminder. It is also a hands-on introduction to the ways Dextr helps you organize people.
When a review asks whether you know someone, use Jog Your Memory if you need a clue. Choose Keep for someone you want in your active contacts, Archive for a stale connection, or Skip for Now when you are unsure.
Review the context and make each decision yourself. A few accurate details are more useful than rushing through names you do not recognize. Continue with the Dextr AI walkthrough when you want to explore each kind of suggestion.
3. Use bulk selection to archive stale contacts
Your address book may contain old service providers, one-time introductions, or people you no longer expect to contact. Archive keeps those records available in Dextr while removing them from active use.
- Tap Contacts in the bottom menu.
- Tap the checklist button beside the sort arrows to activate bulk selection.
- Select the people you want to archive. Check the selected count before continuing.
- Tap the archive-box icon at the bottom right.
- Read the confirmation, check the count again, and confirm Archive.
Start with a small group you are confident about. The capture shows the toolbar with 16 contacts selected; your count should match your own choices.
Archiving is reversible. Open Home → Settings → Archived Contacts to find a person later and restore them. You can also review duplicate contacts separately when two records describe the same person.
For every bulk action and its controls, see How to Bulk Edit Contacts.
4. Start building your Social Graph with relationships
Relationships answer two useful questions: How does this person relate to me? and How do these two people know each other? Record both as you recognize connections in your address book.
Set a contact’s Relation to You
Open a contact’s profile and tap the relation label beneath the Message, Call, Email, and Request actions. It might say Acquaintance or another relation already assigned. Choose a group and the specific type that fits, such as Close Friend, Colleague, or a family relation.
To update several people at once, open Contacts, activate bulk selection, select the relevant people, and tap the filled-circle Set Relation to You action in the bottom toolbar, immediately left of Archive. Choose the relation that accurately describes everyone selected. This is a quick way to classify colleagues or a group of friends.
Connect one contact to another
Open a person’s profile, then tap the Relationships tab, shown as three connected dots between the reminder bell and tag icon. Use Search Contacts to find the other person, select them, and choose the relation that answers the question at the top of the selector.
For example, on Maya’s profile, choose Alex and answer “Who is Alex to Maya?” with Colleague. Check the names and direction before choosing a type, especially for relationships such as parent and child. Add the connection once; Dextr can show it from either person’s perspective.
Bulk Relation to You changes each selected person’s connection to you. Connections between two other people are recorded through their profiles. If one introduced you to the other, also save that under Introduced By.
Follow How to Connect Relationships for the complete workflow. You will return to the Social Graph in the final step to see the results.
Once you have the basics in place, explore Advanced Ways to Create Relationship Networks to build custom groups for clubs, organizations, and professional circles, then connect the people within them.
5. Group and categorize people with tags
Tags let you organize people in ways that fit your life and work. A person can have several tags, so you do not have to choose a single category.
- Shared interests: running-club, pickleball, weekend-hikes, or photography.
- Useful attributes: volunteer, designer, mentor, or speaks-spanish.
- Sales funnel stages: new-lead, contacted, meeting-booked, proposal-sent, or customer.
For a sales workflow, put the stage tags in a Sales Pipeline tag group. When someone moves forward, add the new stage and remove the previous one so the labels describe their current position. Tags give you a flexible way to track the funnel; you decide when to update them.
Open a contact’s profile and tap Tags beneath the Message, Call, Email, and Request buttons, beside their relation to you.
Select the labels you want, then tap the checkmark. Use a tag group’s plus button to create a new tag when needed; give it a clear name and optionally choose an emoji or color.
To tag a group quickly, activate bulk selection, select the people, and tap the solid tag icon to add tags. Choose the labels and save with the checkmark. Use the separate remove-tags action when you need to clear an old label.
Open a tag to see its people together. The same running-club group can include close friends, acquaintances, and colleagues: the tag describes their shared interest, while relationships describe how they know you or one another. See How to Tag a Contact for more examples.
6. Add a journal entry to a contact
Choose someone you spoke with recently and record one useful detail before it fades. A Journal Entry can capture the last interaction, a recommendation, a promise, or something you want to ask about next time.
From Home → Add New → Journal Entry, select the contact. Set the date and time, then choose the interaction type: Call, Email, Gift, In-Person, Message, or General. For relevant types, choose the platform and whether the interaction was incoming or outgoing. For an in-person meeting, add a Place.
Write a short note such as: “Maya is planning an October design club. Promised to send three workshop ideas and introduce her to Jordan.” Review the details, then tap the upper-right checkmark.
Find it again on the contact’s clipboard-and-pencil tab, under Events & Journal. This timeline keeps journal entries and shared occasions together. You can also start an entry from the plus button beside Events & Journal, then choose New Journal Entry with the person already selected.
Read the latest entry before your next conversation. Use the history filter when you want to focus on calls, emails, messages, events, or another activity type. Journal Entries are part of Dextr Pro; the Journal Entries guide covers the full workflow.
7. Add Dextr’s Home Screen widgets
Make Dextr the place you start your outreach. A widget on the first page of your iPhone Home Screen is an easy cue to call or text someone through the app instead of forgetting that extra step.
- Touch and hold an empty area of the iPhone Home Screen.
- Tap Edit → Add Widget.
- Search for Dextr and choose a widget and size.
- Tap Add Widget, position it where you will notice it, and tap Done.
Start with large Quick Actions for its Call / Message button. Favorites puts familiar people and their call and message actions within reach, while Today keeps events and due reminders visible.
When you initiate a call or text through Dextr, including through its widgets, Dextr automatically creates an interaction record that you can complete as a Journal Entry. Add a short note afterward to capture what mattered. That recorded outreach helps keep your last-contact history and eligible reminders current, and gives Dextr AI more useful context about the relationships you maintain.
Finish the call or message in the chosen calling or messaging app. The recorded action is a starting point for your history; add the conversation details yourself, and discard a pending entry if you cancelled the attempt.
See Build New Outreach Habits with Dextr Home Screen Widgets for all the widget choices.
8. Create an event to remember who attended and who you met
An Event can be as simple as dinner with friends or as large as a business conference. It gives you one place to remember the occasion, the people, and the conversations you want to continue.
- On Home, tap Event in Add New.
- Enter a recognizable name, such as “Community Design Evening.”
- Set the start date and time, and add an end date if useful.
- Choose In-Person and the Place, or Virtual and the platform.
- Add notes about the occasion and tap the checkmark to save.
Open the event and tap Add Attendees. Search for existing contacts, or enter a new person’s name and choose Add followed by their name. Use Met At Event for someone you first met there; keep people you already knew as other attendees.
Add a useful meeting note while it is fresh. Dextr keeps People Met separate from Other Attendees, so you can distinguish new connections from familiar faces. Adding someone to an event records their attendance; it does not send an invitation.
Add the Recently Met widget to your iPhone Home Screen to keep new connections visible afterward. The large widget can show up to 12 people and their meeting notes. During a current event, it can show that event and the people you have met there.
Tap someone in the widget to open their profile and follow through. The Events guide shows attendee management, conversation notes, and follow-up options in more detail.
9. Set a Stay in Touch reminder for someone who matters
Think of one person you would like to hear from more regularly. A Stay in Touch reminder turns that intention into a recurring nudge without making you choose every future date yourself.
Open Home → Reminder, choose the person, and add a clear title and a little context. Select Stay in Touch, then use No More Than to set the number of days, weeks, or months between check-ins. Review the next date and save with the checkmark.
For example, set a monthly reminder to ask Maya how the design club is going. To find it again, open the contact’s profile and tap the bell tab beneath their relation and Tags buttons. Tap a saved reminder to open it, or use the plus button beside Reminders to add one. There can be one active Stay in Touch reminder per person; edit the existing one when you want a different interval.
Initiating calls and texts through Dextr records the outreach and lets eligible Stay in Touch reminders reset automatically. When a reminder is due or overdue, that action can complete it and schedule the next check-in. Open the reminder to see its next date. This is another reason to use the widgets as your usual starting point.
Notifications must be enabled for the nudge to reach you outside the app. For a specific promise with a deadline, such as sending a workshop outline on Friday, add a separate Calendar reminder. The Stay in Touch guide explains both options.
10. Add people to Places
A Place connects people with locations: where they live, where they work, or where you first met. Later, a location can help you remember someone even when their name does not come to mind.
Add a home or workplace from a profile
Open the contact’s profile and tap the pencil button in the upper-right corner. In the contact editor, scroll to Places and tap New Place.
The Add Address screen lets you search for an address, city, or place name. Check the result and select the location. Back in the editor, tap its address label and choose home, work, or the label that fits, then save with the upper-right checkmark.
Places are added automatically when you add an address to a profile, so you do not need to create the same location separately. Reuse the existing Place when several people share a workplace or address.
Open the Place from Home → Places and choose its Contacts tab to see the associated people, including groups such as Works Here. The example above connects 12 contacts with the same workplace.
Add a Place from Home
To create a location before adding it to a person or event, tap Home in the bottom menu, then tap Place in the Add New area.
Search for the location and check its name and street address before choosing it. Reuse a matching Place already stored in Dextr when one is available.
Use the saved Place in a contact’s First Met details, an Event, or an in-person Journal Entry. Adding a Place from Home creates the location; connect it to a person from their profile when you want to record where they live or work. Read How to Use Places in Dextr for those different connections.
11. View your updated Social Graph
Return to Home and tap the connected-nodes button in the upper-right corner. The Social Graph becomes more useful as you set relations to yourself and connect people to one another. Come back after this first session and look for the connections you just added.
You can also open the graph from the connected-nodes button on a contact’s profile to begin with that person’s network.
Use these controls to explore:
- Search: In your main graph, enter a person’s name to highlight matching contacts. Submit the search to bring the match into focus, then select the person to see their card.
- Filters: Tap the sliders button. Choose the Displayed Relation Types and adjust Minimum Relationships to control which connections appear. Start with a low minimum while your network is still taking shape.
- Point of view: Select a person, then tap the target-shaped button beside their name card to center the graph on them. This helps you explore who connects to that person. Use the back control to return to the previous view.
- Fit the view: Tap the four-corner fit button when you want the current network back in view.
How Dextr Supercharges Your Contacts
Your contacts hold the names and numbers of people in your life. Dextr adds the details that make those connections easier to understand and maintain: how you met, who introduced you, what you have in common, and what you want to remember for next time. On iPhone and Mac, those details stay connected to the person, so you can pick up a conversation with useful context.
Start with the address book you already have. Dextr AI guides you through organizing it, relationships reveal the connections between people, and tags let you group contacts around your interests and work. Journal Entries preserve useful details, while reminders and Home Screen widgets help you act on them. Each small update makes your contacts more useful the next time you reach out.
Remember the person behind each name
Keep shared interests and useful categories in searchable tags, record when and where you first met, and set the relationships your contacts have with you and other contacts, link people to events and places to remember where you met, keep track of who introduced you, and map their connections to other people. As you make these associations, Dextr creates a visual map of your relationships so that you can quickly see how everyone is connected.
Keep the people who matter within reach
A useful address book is one you can recognize and navigate. Review Dextr AI’s Keep and Archive suggestions, use bulk selection to move stale contacts out of active use, and merge duplicate records for the same person. Archiving keeps a contact available in Dextr if you need it later, while giving your current relationships more room.
For a step-by-step walkthrough of Dextr AI suggestions, duplicate merging, and archiving, read How to Clean Up Contacts With Dextr.
Turn context into a reason to reach out
Save a useful detail in a Journal Entry, set a Stay in Touch reminder, and put Dextr’s widgets where you will see them. Starting calls and texts through Dextr records that outreach, helps eligible reminders reset, and gives Dextr AI more context for future suggestions. Add a note afterward so the next conversation can start where the last one left off.
Security, Privacy, and Your Data
Dextr is a privacy-first application. This means that none of your data or information about your contacts is ever sent to us, shared with third parties, or sold to anyone. All data stays on your devices and in your own iCloud account. Dextr also never deletes contacts from your iCloud without making sure that you know ahead of time that an action will do so.
For a setup that keeps Dextr’s own data on one device, follow How to Use Dextr Without iCloud. The guide explains the app-sync switch, checking your local copy, and the separate iCloud Backup setting.
When you want to remove Dextr and its stored information, see How to Permanently Delete All Dextr Data for local copies, iCloud storage, backups, and the separate privacy-request process.
Import and Sync Your Contacts
Dextr can be used as a standalone CRM without importing your iOS contacts. However, the app is most useful when you import them. For the purposes of this article, we will assume that you have imported your address book.
Follow How to Import and Sync Contacts With Dextr for illustrated setup, contact-access permissions, and sync-result checks. If you use more than one Apple device, see How to Use Dextr With Multiple Devices for iCloud setup, Pro access on another device, and choosing your Primary Sync Device.
Already have Dextr Pro but see an upgrade prompt? Follow How to Restore Your Dextr Pro Subscription to refresh your existing purchase and check the Apple Account used for it.
Feedback and Support
Now that you have an overview of the basics, please don't hesitate to reach out to Support with any questions or concerns. Your feedback is welcome and can help direct future updates to the app.
