Press CTRL+K to open search

Import contacts

Updated
  • Updated on Sep 16, 2026
  • Published on Jul 23, 2026
  • 4 minute(s) read
Prev Next

Let's say that you use 8x8 Work along with Google or Microsoft Office 365. You can import your Google and Office 365 contacts into 8x8 Work for Desktop for a seamless communication experience. You can import contacts from Contacts > My Contacts, and access them from the contact directory as normal; to differentiate them from your 8x8 Work contacts, imported contacts are labeled with a small Google or Microsoft icon. You can import contacts from Google and Office 365 or all at the same time. You can also refresh or remove your imported contacts at any time from Settings > Contacts.

Important

The Outlook Classic contact sync feature for Windows will be retired on August 31, 2026

Note:

You can import your personal or company contacts from Office 365 in 8x8 Work for Desktop. Contacts can be duplicated if the same contact is saved in Office 365.                                        

Note:

With Google contact import:

  • You can only have contacts imported from one Google account at a time.

  • When using a G-Suite managed account, Google contact import applies to contacts from your personal Google Contacts list, but not from your business Google Directory list. To allow colleagues to access Google Directory contacts that are not using 8x8, those contacts should be imported by the administrator at the level of the company directory.

  • Contacts display profile photos imported from Google contacts.

Import contacts from Microsoft or Google

To import contacts from Microsoft or Google :

  1. Go to Contacts > My Contacts.

  2. Click New Contact and select the option to import from a third party.

  3. At the prompt, select whether to import a contact from:

    • Google: Log in using your Google credentials to add your Google Contacts list to your 8x8 Workcontact directory.

    • Microsoft : Log in using your Microsoft credentials to add your Microsoft Contacts list to your 8x8 Workcontact directory.

Link a Microsoft or Google account to sync contacts in 8x8 Work Contacts settings

Link a Microsoft or Google account to sync contacts in 8x8 Work Settings. Use this to keep your contacts up to date across connected accounts

To refresh or remove imported contacts:

  1. Go to Settings > Contacts.

  2. Next to Google, Microsoft Office 365:

  • To refresh your imported contacts, click Refresh .

  • To remove your imported contacts, click Sign out.

Refresh or sign out of linked Google account, or add a Microsoft account for import

Refresh or sign out of a linked Google account, or sign in with Microsoft to add another account for contact import

Import personal contacts for a CSV file

Note:

This feature is currently available to internal 8x8 users, with plans to extend it to customers in future versions.

You can now bring your existing contacts into 8x8 Work without re-entering them one by one. This is useful if you are moving to 8x8 Work for Desktop from another platform. A downloadable template ensures the correct format, and a built-in mechanism prevents duplicate contact imports. The import includes all contact details and custom fields you have added to your personal directory.

To import your contacts:

  1. Log in to 8x8 Work for Desktop.

  2. Go to Settings  > Contacts.

  3. Under Personal contacts, look for the new Import Personal Contacts section.

  4. Click Download the template first; this gives you a CSV with the correct column headers/format 8x8 expects. Use the correct format when filling in your contacts.

  5. Click Import CSV and upload the CSV file.

  6. Click Start import.

  7. Click Done when finished.

Import personal contacts into 8x8 Work using a CSV file from the Contacts settings page

Import personal contacts into 8x8 Work by uploading a CSV file from the Contacts settings page. Use this to migrate contacts from another platform without setting up continuous sync

After the import, a summary window displays the total counts for successfully added, skipped, or unsuccessful contact entries. To review skipped records, click Show skipped contacts.

View skipped contacts list to see which duplicate contact was not added on import

View the list of skipped contacts after an import to see which contacts already existed and weren't added again

Export personal contacts

You can now export your personal contacts directly from 8x8 Work for Desktop and 8x8 Work for Web. The export includes all contact details and custom fields you have added to your personal directory.

To export your contacts:

  1. Log in to 8x8 Work for Desktop.

  2. Go to Settings > Contacts.

  3. Under Personal contacts, click Export CSV to download a copy of all your personal contacts as a CSV file.

On Desktop (Electron), selecting Export CSV opens the native OS Save dialog. The filename is pre-filled as Contacts-YYYYMMDD-HHMM.csv.

On the Web, the CSV opens in a new browser tab using the same filename convention: Contacts-YYYYMMDD-HHMM.csv.

The exported CSV is UTF-8, comma-delimited, with the following fields:

First Name, Last Name, Phone Numbers, Emails, Company, Job Title, Departments, Location, Fax, and Address.

You can rename the file as needed.

To learn more, see Export personal contacts.

Export personal contacts as CSV file from Contacts settings in 8x8 Work desktop app

Export personal contacts from 8x8 Work Contact settings as a CSV file

Retirement of Outlook Classic contact sync for Windows

The Outlook Classic contact sync feature for Windows will be retired on August 31, 2026. Until this date, you can continue to import contacts from Outlook Classic. After this date, the feature will no longer be available.

This change affects Windows users only. Outlook Classic contact sync is not supported on Mac and is not affected by this change.

If you currently use this feature, take one of the following steps before August 31, 2026:

  • Move to a Microsoft account to access your Outlook contacts synced in the cloud.

  • Create your personal contacts directly in 8x8 Work.

8x8 will notify affected customers by email before the retirement date.

To learn more about this change, see Importing Outlook Contacts in 8x8 Work for Desktop.

Note

If you encounter issues after the retirement date, contact your administrator or 8x8 support.

outlook-clasic-contatcs-sync (1).png

Related articles