Contacts and Merging Duplicates

Manage customer contact information and merge duplicate records.

Contact Panel

When you open a conversation in your inbox, the right side shows the Contact Panel with:

• Customer name
• Phone number and identifiers (phone, PSID, IGSID) across all connected channels
• Contact notes (if any)
• Conversation history — The 20 most recent conversations with this customer

Cross-Channel Identities

The same customer might message you on multiple channels. Wallin tracks these identities:

• WhatsApp — Uses phone number (e.g., +1-555-0100)
• Instagram — Uses IGSID (e.g., 123456789)
• Messenger — Uses PSID (e.g., 987654321)

If a customer messages you on WhatsApp and later on Instagram, they appear as the same contact with two identities listed.

Viewing All Identities

In the Contact Panel, scroll through the Identities section to see all channels and phone numbers for this customer. Identities are linked to the same Contact record when Wallin detects it's the same person.

Managing Contact Notes

In the Contact Panel:

1. Scroll down to Notes
2. Click Add Note to add customer information
3. Type your note (e.g., "Prefers evening calls", "Referred by Jane", "VIP customer")
4. Click Save

Notes are visible to all team members and persist across conversations.

Merging Duplicate Contacts

Sometimes the same customer appears as two separate contacts (e.g., they signed up with different phone numbers or had an account bug). Merge these duplicates to consolidate their history.

Detecting Duplicates

The Contact Panel may show "Merge suggestions" if Wallin detects potential duplicates based on:

• Similar names
• Overlapping identities
• Recent contact attempts

Manual Merge

1. Open a conversation for the customer you want to merge
2. In the Contact Panel, look for "Merge contacts" option
3. Select the duplicate contact from the dropdown
4. Review the merge preview:
   • The current contact is the winner (primary record)
   • The selected contact is the loser (will be merged into winner)
   • All identities and conversations move to the winner
5. Click Confirm Merge

After merging:

• All identities from the loser contact move to the winner
• All conversations (and their history) consolidate under the winner
• The loser contact record is kept (for auditing) but marked as merged
• The winner's contact ID doesn't change; it just gains new identities

Unmerging Contacts

If you merged contacts by mistake:

1. Open a conversation for the winner contact
2. In the Contact Panel, look for "Merged from" or "Unmerge" option
3. Click Unmerge
4. The identities move back to the loser contact
5. All conversations return to their original contact records

Important: You can only unmerge one level. Wallin doesn't support merging a merged contact further.

Contact Information

The Contact Panel shows basic information:

Updating Contact Name

To change a customer's name in Wallin:

1. Open their contact
2. Click Edit Name
3. Enter the correct name
4. Click Save

This updates the name in all conversations with this customer.

Bulk Contact Operations

Currently, bulk merge is not available. To merge multiple duplicates:

1. Open one duplicate contact
2. Merge it into the primary
3. Open the next duplicate and merge
4. Repeat until all duplicates are consolidated

This is a manual process; contact support if you need bulk merge for large datasets.

Contact Segmentation

When you create a segment for broadcasts, you can target specific contacts by:

• Phone number — Import a list of numbers to reach
• Contact name — Search by name
• Channel — Reach customers on specific channels
• Recent activity — Message only active customers

See Audience → Segments to create targeted broadcast audiences.

Privacy and Data

• Contact notes are internal to your organization; customers never see them
• Names and phone numbers are imported from Meta or entered manually
• Conversations remain linked to a contact indefinitely
• Deleted contacts are kept for auditing purposes (never truly deleted)

Best Practices

1. Merge duplicates regularly — Check the merge suggestions in the Contact Panel
2. Update names — If a customer tells you their preferred name, update it in Wallin
3. Add notes — Record preferences, referrals, or special instructions
4. Use phone numbers — For WhatsApp contacts, phone numbers are unique and trustworthy; use them as a merge key
5. Segment by activity — When broadcasting, segment to active customers only to improve delivery

Related Articles

• Inbox Overview — Managing conversations
• Assignment and Labels — Organizing conversations with labels and assignments