Google Contacts records will be managed in the Gmail model, with advanced filters

Unlike Google Contacts, Gmail can “sort” almost any message by applying automatic filters, with criteria such as recipient, date sent and other keywords making it much easier to manage messages later.

The newly added functionality addresses an older limitation of the Android platform, as Contacts only came with a basic implementation of the search function, which omitted many of the more advanced innovations, such as the option to sort results by criteria like the date the contact was saved and other criteria not necessarily related to Contacts, such as links to the Gmail contact list and entries in the Calendar app.

The plan seems to be to help users who can’t remember a particular person’s details to discover the information they want using any available source, including those not automatically included in the specifics of the information they’re looking for.

For example, if you want to rediscover a particular contact, but can’t remember that person’s name, the new filters could help you speed up your search by including criteria that don’t seem immediately relevant in the context of the search. For example, if you have forgotten the name of the company you need, you may be able to find it in a partial search. Similarly, you can also search for contacts that are only associated with that company, covering both phone numbers and email addresses.

This should make it quite easy and convenient to search for contacts in the future. At the moment, users can only search by name, which, depending on how large your contact list is, could be a little tricky. The changes are still being tested, so if you don’t see it available to you yet, don’t worry. There’s no mention of when Google is expected to roll out these changes, so we’ll just have to wait and see.