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iPhone 3.0 Tip: How to Share Contact via Email & MMS

By on July 10, 2009 in Posted In: Tips & How-to

One of the popular questions that I have been asked is how you can share contact with others on iPhone.

Three months ago, I have posted 3 great ways to forward a contact to your friends or co-workers. They should work for you but they’re not perfect. And, the solutions depend on 3rd party applications.

With the release of iPhone 3.0, Apple finally built this feature into iPhone and allows you to share contacts with others via MMS (not available for all carriers) or email natively.

To share a contact on iPhone 3.0, simply view your contact and you’ll see a new button called “Share contact”. Tap on it and select MMS/Email to send out the contact. (For those without MMS enabled, you’ll not be prompted with the option and your contact will be sent out via email)

Contacts - Share ContactShare Contacts via MMS or Email

Share contact by MMSShare contact by email

The contact is delivered in a standard vCard format. When you or your friend receive an email with vCard attached, simply tap on the attachment and you can add the contact.

vCard as email attachmentAdd as a New Contact

I’ll continue to post other iPhone tips about iPhone 3.0 OS. So, stay tuned.

About Simon Ng

Founder, developer and chief blogger of simonblog.com
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  • magatron

    Hi Simon,

    I am already on iphone 3.0 but i dont have “Share Contact” option in my contacts. When i tap on a contact, i only see “Text Message” and “Add to Favourites”. Any sujjestions please

  • bdking88

    Yes, same here. I’ve got the brand new iPhone, the latest software, but I don’t have the button to “Share Contact” at all. Just “Text Message” and “Add to Favorites”. Anyone have any ideas?

  • rahul

    hi there, i am facing the same problem on my new iphone 3GS, i had the option of share contact earlier but its not there now…any clue ppl???

  • eric

    on the iphone 3g ver 3.0.1…make sure that you have activated the mms settings for your iphone. Settings>Messages>MMS Messaging>On for you to be able to see the “Share Contact” option.

  • Angel

    and how about prommiesed sms? I don’t use mms and internet…

  • Musketeer

    > I don’t use mms and internet…

    Then you’ve the wrong phoneAngel.

    M

  • RT

    But how can I share multiple contacts in the same mms? I have 200 texts/month and I want to share about 40 contacts with the same person. Can I do this with 1 text message?

    • http://www.simonblog.com Simon Ng

      @RT,

      You probably can’t do it via MMS. I suggest you use email to share multiple contacts.

      • http://YooZZa! Gianni

        How do you email multiple contacts? I’m on iPhone 4S which runs iOS 6.0

        • http://YooZZa! Gianni

          Also, can the iPhone 4S with iOS 6.0 be unlocked now? I got my iPhone in the US, network provided by Verizon but now live in Taipei, Taiwan. I tried a few local place to unlock the phone but, no luck thus far… I guess the phone needs to be JB first before unlocking, was told JB tools for iOS 6.0 wasn’t available yet?

          Anyhow, thanks for the help!!!

  • ALVIN C

    I am not able to receive contacts forwarded to me through MMS.
    My MMs is turned on and I can hear the acceptance ring but no appearance,
    Any advise as to what I am doing wrong?

  • http://handsonmac.com Peter

    This method for sharing contacts does not transfer the data in your notes field. Anyone know a workaround?

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  • Vince

    I have found the same thing-I can share the contact but the notes do not share

  • Imran

    Hi everyone,

    There is share contact option in contacts. But when i tap the share contact, it directs only via email and there is no option for sharing contact via sms.

  • Quynh

    I use share contact on iphone4, but i only success share contact with email. With SMS, contact is not share :D