Google’s productivity services, from Google Docs to Gmail and more, offer plenty of time saving alternatives. Some of these items are hidden away in the labs, such as the ever-valuable “canned response” feature. Some, however, have made their way into the main release. This is the case with Google contact groups — a utility that lets users create different groups of contacts so messages commonly sent to the same set of people can hit your outbox more quickly. To make this service more effective, Google has made two improvements to basic group functionality.
First, Google has made it easier to add previous contact lists into an existing group. When you’re in the groups interface (found in your “Contacts” list), you can simply select your “Add to [Group]” feature and paste in whatever contacts you would like to add into this interface. Additionally, since this feature is connected to your existing contacts, any name you begin typing will auto-populate to make this copy/paste list easy to construct.
Second, Google has made it easier to determine how your contacts will be treated in various groups. This will allow you to choose which of the multiple email accounts (several can be attached to a given contact inside your Gmail account) you would like to have associated with a given group.
One of the most important elements of the “groups” feature is its association with the user’s Android device, including both smartphones and tablets. Many Android contact organization tools, including several contact widgets, are based around the group mechanism. Various other Google services can also benefit from properly constructed groups, such as Google Documents (where you can easily share a single document with a contact group) or Groups pages (where you can create a hub page for events, activities, or information sharing).
