Question 1

What is Confluence?

Accepted Answer

Confluence is a free contact merger and contact cleaner that runs entirely inside your web browser. You add the contact files you exported from Outlook, Google Contacts or Apple Contacts, it finds the duplicates and the messy bits, you approve the changes, and it hands you back one clean file as a vCard (.vcf) or a spreadsheet (.csv).

Question 2

Is it really free?

Accepted Answer

Yes. It is free while we are testing it. There is no account to create, no card to enter and no trial that quietly expires in the middle of your clean-up.

Question 3

What file types can I merge?

Accepted Answer

vCard files (.vcf) and comma separated spreadsheets (.csv). You can mix them in the same session, for example an Outlook CSV plus an iPhone vCard, and export whichever format you prefer at the end.

Question 4

How many contacts can it handle?

Accepted Answer

Lists of several thousand contacts are normal. Because the work happens on your own device, the practical limit is your computer's memory rather than a server quota.

Question 5

Do I need to install anything?

Accepted Answer

No. It is a web page. Open it, drop your files in, and everything runs in the browser tab you already have open.

Question 6

Are my contacts uploaded anywhere?

Accepted Answer

No. Your files are read by the browser itself, the same way it opens a photo you drag onto a page. The names, numbers, emails, addresses and notes never travel to a server, so there is nothing for us to store, leak or sell.

Question 7

What makes this safer than other contact mergers?

Accepted Answer

Most online mergers ask you to upload your address book, or to connect your Google or Microsoft account and grant write access to it. Confluence does neither. It never touches your live address book, it only reads the export file you chose, and every change waits for your approval before it is applied.

Question 8

Can it damage my existing address book?

Accepted Answer

It cannot. Confluence never writes back to Outlook, Google or iCloud. It produces a new file, and you decide whether to import it.

Question 9

Should I keep a backup of my original export?

Accepted Answer

Yes, please do. We are careful, but we are not perfect. Keep your original exported file somewhere safe until you have checked the merged result and you are happy with it.

Question 10

What do you collect?

Accepted Answer

Only visit information: an approximate location, an anonymous browser ID, basic device details and anonymous counts such as how many files were added. Never the contents of your lists. The privacy page spells out every item.

Question 11

How does it decide two records are the same contact?

Accepted Answer

It compares names, phone numbers, email addresses, companies and addresses, then grades each pair as certain, likely or unlikely. Certain pairs are folded together automatically and shown to you in a list you can undo. Likely and unlikely pairs wait for your decision.

Question 12

I have several clients with the same name. Will it merge them by mistake?

Accepted Answer

No. A shared name on its own is never enough to merge automatically. Two records need at least two additional matching details, such as a phone number and an email, or a phone and an address, before they are treated as certain. Same name with a completely different phone and address is marked unlikely.

Question 13

Can it find duplicates inside a single list?

Accepted Answer

Yes. You do not need two files. Choose the option to find duplicates in one list and it will scan that list against itself.

Question 14

Does it handle accents and spelling differences?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Names are compared with accents and punctuation normalised, so Jose and José line up, as do differences in capitalisation and extra spaces. Nicknames that are genuinely different names, such as Bob and Robert, are offered for review rather than merged for you.

Question 15

What about triples, or a cluster of four copies of one contact?

Accepted Answer

Related pairs are gathered into a single cluster, so a contact that appears three or four times is resolved in one decision instead of several conflicting ones.

Question 16

Can I see the two records side by side before deciding?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Every suggestion opens a side-by-side comparison that highlights what each record has that the other is missing, and you can edit either side right there before accepting.

Question 17

Can I protect one list so it is never overwritten?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Mark a file as the priority list and its values are treated as the truth. Other files can only fill in blanks, for example adding an old address you no longer have, without ever bringing back an out-of-date phone number.

Question 18

What happens to information that only exists in the other file?

Accepted Answer

It is pulled into the merged contact as long as it does not conflict with your protected list. Tags, extra phone numbers, extra emails and notes are added rather than replaced.

Question 19

Are my Outlook categories or tags kept?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Categories, tags, labels and groups are read from both CSV columns and vCard CATEGORIES lines, merged together, and written back out. One note: Outlook only includes categories when you export as a vCard, so choose that format if your tags matter.

Question 20

Which fields are supported?

Accepted Answer

Names and phonetic names, nicknames, photos, labelled phone numbers and emails, messaging handles, companies, job titles, departments, addresses, birthdays and anniversaries, family members, websites, social profiles, categories and notes.

Question 21

Can I edit a contact while I am reviewing?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Names, phones, emails, company, job title, address, tags, birthday and notes are all editable in the comparison view. Edits apply to your working copy only, never to the file on your disk.

Question 22

Can it make all my phone numbers use the same format?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Formatting rules can standardise phone numbers, tidy capitalisation of names, trim stray spaces and strip country codes, and you can preview how many contacts each rule would change before running it.

Question 23

How do I delete contacts that only have a name or only a company?

Accepted Answer

Add the clean-up rule for name-only or company-only records, or type the request in plain language. Nothing is deleted until you press Run clean-up, and you can then see the exact list of what was removed and why.

Question 24

Can I remove contacts with no phone, email or address?

Accepted Answer

Yes, that is a one-click filter in the clean-up rules.

Question 25

Some phone numbers and emails are buried in the notes field. Can it rescue them?

Accepted Answer

Yes. The notes rescue tab finds phone numbers and email addresses hiding in notes, shows each one, and lets you move it into the proper field, edit it first, or skip it. You choose whether the original note text stays, loses only the moved part, or is cleared.

Question 26

Can I just describe what I want in plain English?

Accepted Answer

You can type a request such as removing contacts with no email, and it becomes a rule you can see and approve. If the wording is not understood, it says so rather than guessing.

Question 27

Can I delete a contact by hand?

Accepted Answer

Yes, with a confirmation step. Deleted contacts sit in a Removed this session list with an undo button until you finish, so an accidental click is never permanent.

Question 28

What format should I export?

Accepted Answer

Choose vCard (.vcf) for Apple Contacts, iPhone or anything where categories and photos matter. Choose CSV for Google Contacts, Outlook or a spreadsheet. You always pick deliberately; nothing is chosen for you.

Question 29

Will the merged file import cleanly back into Outlook, Google or Apple?

Accepted Answer

Yes. The vCard output follows the standard vCard structure, and the CSV output uses column names those apps recognise, including a Tags column alongside Categories.

Question 30

Will I lose my multi-line notes?

Accepted Answer

No. Line breaks inside notes are preserved through both the vCard and CSV round trip.

Question 31

What if I close the tab in the middle of a clean-up?

Accepted Answer

Your progress is saved into your own browser's storage as you work. When you come back it offers to pick up where you left off, or to start fresh.

Contact merging questions, answered

The basics