list of duplicated contacts

Waze – Remove duplicate contacts on Android

If you have recently installed the Waze app on your Android phone like I have, it works great. But, one odd thing that happens is that you have a lot more contacts. If you look at the contact list, a lot of them are just duplicates of existing contacts.

list of duplicated contacts
List of duplicated contacts

When you open up the contact, you see the little icon down at the bottom that shows you where the contacts are coming from.

icon showing that contact is from Waze
Contact details showing Waze icon

Video Explanation

They are coming from the Waze app. So, I got curious and I uninstalled and reinstalled the app. Lo and behold, it does ask to access your contacts.

Waze asking for access
Waze asking for access

Why you would ever want a GPS navigation app to access your contacts is beyond me but it asked me and technically I said yes. I never pay attention to these permissions but I probably should, as should all of us. The way to solve this without removing Waze from you phone is to go into your settings, go to accounts, and then select the Waze account.

List of accounts including Waze
List of accounts including Waze

Go ahead and uncheck sync contacts.

Box to uncheck to stop Waze from synching contacts
Stop Waze from syncing your contacts

You don’t need to do that anymore. Then hit the button that brings up the extra menu.  On my phone, Galaxy S4, it’s in the lower left hand corner.  It’s one of the hardware buttons. Then it brings up the option where you can remove the account.  

option to remove account
Option to remove account
android accounts
Confirmation to remove account

Go ahead and remove the Waze account from your phone and then all of these extra contacts will go away. This should solve it. It should shrink your address book down to the way it should be and you won’t have to sort through all these duplicates to find what you are looking for.

Leave a Reply