How to Organize Contacts With Tags and Tag Groups

You remember the person from your running club, the designer you met at a community event, or the friend who is always up for a weekend hike. Their name may escape you, but the connection does not. Tags give you a way to find people through the things you remember about them.

In Dextr, a contact can have several tags. Tag Groups keep those labels organized, so you can find one running partner or everyone with an interest in fitness without scrolling through your entire address book.

Start with tags you will actually use

Choose labels that help you answer a real question: Who would enjoy this invitation? Which contacts work in my field? Who belongs to this club?

A small collection is enough to begin: running-club, pickleball, design-community, or current-clients. Reuse the same label for the same idea. Creating both “running-club” and “running-friends” for identical groups makes them harder to find later.

The example below follows Ada Wilson, who already belongs to a running club. We will add pickleball as another interest, then use those tags to find people.

1. Open Tags on a contact’s profile

1. Tap Contacts in the bottom menu and open the person you want to organize.
2. Tap the Tags button beneath the Message, Call, Email, and Request Info actions.
3. The number on the button shows how many tags the contact already has.

You do not need to open the full profile editor to change tags on an existing contact. This button opens Set Tags, where you can choose several labels together.

2. Select tags and save

In Set Tags, tap each label you want to apply. Selected tags have a darker fill and an outline. Use Search when your collection grows.

Here, running-club is already selected and pickleball has been selected from Fitness. Leave running-club selected to keep it, then tap the checkmark in the upper-right corner to apply the selection.

Tapping a selected tag again deselects it. When you save, that label is removed from this contact. The shared tag remains available for everyone else.

3. Create a tag when you need a new one

If the right label does not exist yet, create it from the same selector.

1. Tap the plus button beside the tags in the appropriate group. For example, use the plus beside Fitness.
2. In New Tag, check the Group and enter a clear Name.
3. Optionally choose a Color Override or Emoji Override to give this tag its own appearance.
4. Tap the upper-right checkmark to create it.
5. Back in Set Tags, check your selected labels and tap its checkmark to apply them to the contact.

This example creates weekend-hikes in Fitness, with a hiking boot emoji. Leaving Color Override unset lets the tag use its group’s color. You can also create a tag under Ungrouped and organize it later.

Review tags from the profile’s Tags tab

The tag-shaped tab at the right end of the profile’s tab bar gives you a list of the person’s tags. After adding pickleball, Ada’s profile shows two: running-club and pickleball.

Tap a tag in this list to see other people with the same tag. The Search or create tag field is also a quick way to add another label: type part of its name and choose an existing match, or use the create option for a new name. Tags created through this inline field start under Ungrouped.

This tab is especially useful when you are reviewing a contact after a conversation. Add the interest while it is fresh, alongside a journal entry with the details you want to remember.

Organize labels into Tag Groups

A Tag Group organizes tags into a collection. For example:

• Fitness: running-club, pickleball, weekend-hikes
• Creative Community: photography, design-community, ceramics
• Work: current-clients, referral-partners, former-coworkers

Open Home → Settings → Tags to manage the collection. You can also use the New Tag Group field in the tag selector shown above: enter a group name and submit it with the keyboard.

To move an existing tag, open its details, edit its Group, and save. In the selector, touch and hold a tag and choose Edit to reach its details. Creating a tag with a group’s plus button starts it in that group.

The pencil beside a group’s name lets you rename the group. Tap its emoji or appearance icon to choose a group color or change its emoji. Tags can inherit that appearance, or use their own overrides.

Groups organize labels; they do not assign all their tags to a contact. Someone with running-club does not automatically receive pickleball. When you view all people in Fitness, however, Dextr includes contacts with any tag in that group.

Pin the tags you use most

In the tag selector, touch and hold a tag, then choose Pin. It appears in the Pinned section for quicker access the next time you tag someone. Use Unpin when you no longer need the shortcut.

Pin the few labels you reach for most often, such as current-clients or running-club. You can keep the wider collection organized in groups without searching through it every time.

Find everyone with a tag

There are two useful routes to the same people:

1. On a contact’s Tags tab, tap a tag such as running-club.
2. Or open Contacts, choose the tag icon in the filter bar above the bottom menu, then tap it again to open the tag menu. Choose a group and an individual tag.

The running-club list now contains 17 people. The title shows which tag you are viewing and how many contacts match it. Tap a person to open their profile, or use Add Contacts to add more people to the tag.

To see an entire group, choose All within that group’s menu. Fitness then includes people with running-club, pickleball, or another Fitness tag. A person with several matching tags appears once.

Turn a shared interest into an invitation

Tap Text Blast above the tag’s contact list to start a message for that audience. A running-club tag makes a Saturday-run invitation easy to aim at the right people; a whole Fitness group could be useful for a broader outdoor gathering.

Review the recipients and message before sending. Follow the Text Blast guide for setup, personalization, and a complete sending example.

Add or remove tags for several contacts at once

You do not have to open every profile when a whole group needs the same label.

1. Open Contacts, or narrow the list to an existing tag first.
2. Tap the bulk-select icon near the top: the checklist with a checked circle and an empty circle.
3. Select the people you want to update and review the selected count.
4. Tap the solid tag icon in the bottom action bar for Add Tags.
5. Choose the tag or tags, then tap the checkmark.

This example has 16 contacts selected. Adding pickleball keeps their running-club tag and any other existing labels. Bulk Add Tags adds to their collection; it does not replace all their tags.

To remove a shared label from selected contacts, use the crossed-out tag icon for Remove Tags, choose the label, and confirm with the checkmark. The bulk-editing guide shows how to activate selection and walks through both actions.

Keep your tagging system tidy

Three different actions help you maintain tags:

• Remove a tag from one contact: open Set Tags, deselect it, and save. You can also use the tag row’s Remove action on the profile’s Tags tab. The contact and the shared tag both remain.
• Edit a shared tag: change its name, group, color, or emoji in the tag’s details. The change follows that tag wherever it is assigned.
• Delete a shared tag: delete it from its details when the label itself is no longer useful. This removes its assignments from contacts, but does not delete those people.

A Tag Group must be empty before you can delete it. Move or remove its tags first. Often, renaming or reorganizing a useful group is all you need.

Use tags alongside the rest of the contact’s story

Tags work best for shared interests, communities, and practical lists. Other Dextr features hold different kinds of context:

• Relation to You describes the person’s connection to you, such as Friend or Colleague. Relationships between contacts record how two people know each other. See how to connect relationships.
• Places keep location details attached to people. Use Places when you want to record and find an actual location.
• Events preserve who attended an occasion and who you met there. See how to use Events.
• Introduced By records who connected you with someone. Learn how to keep track of introductions.

Tags stay part of your Dextr context rather than becoming Apple Contacts fields. The Contacts Sync guide explains which details sync with Apple Contacts and how your Dextr context travels between devices.

For a practical example of combining memberships and interests with custom relationships, read Advanced Ways to Create Relationship Networks. It shows how to build a community with relationship groups and types while using tags for overlapping circles.

Start with a few useful tags and add them when you create or revisit a contact. The goal is a small habit that makes the right people easier to find when you have a reason to reach out.