How to import contacts

Bring people in from a spreadsheet: add tags and custom-field values to contacts you already talk to, and keep a record of people who haven't messaged you yet. An import sends nothing to anyone.

Who can import: owners and admins. The Import button sits beside Add contact in the Contacts page header, where importing is turned on for your workspace.

Before you start: what an import can and can't do

• Instagram contacts are matched by username. A username that belongs to someone who has messaged you adds to their contact. A new one is added as a record marked Unverified: Instagram only allows messages to people who messaged you first, and when that person does, their conversation arrives as its own contact.
• An import can't give anyone permission to be messaged on Instagram.
• A WhatsApp number needs documented permission. A yes in the permission column needs where permission was given and when. Anyone without it is imported with no permission on record, and nothing is sent to them. A no is always recorded.
• An import never re-subscribes someone who opted out. They can send START, or write to you.
• A contact you merged is updated where it lives now. A row that matches a record you merged into another contact updates that contact. A WhatsApp yes for a merged number isn't carried over to another number, so that row is listed with the reason.
• An import doesn't start anything. It fires no rules, enrols nobody in a sequence and sends no message.

The file is a CSV with the column names in its first row, separated by commas, semicolons or tabs. It can have up to 5,000 rows, 50 columns and 2 MB — split a bigger list into several files.

Step 1: choose the file

1. Open Contacts and click Import in the page header.
2. If WhatsApp is turned on for your workspace, choose Instagram or WhatsApp. One file is one channel.
3. Under CSV file, choose your file.

Step 2: match the columns

Each column in your file gets a row with an example value and an Import as menu. HyperDM guesses from the column names, so check every guess.

Then:

1. Under Contacts you already have, choose what happens to people already in HyperDM:
   • Fill in what's missing adds tags and fills in an empty name or field. Values they already have stay.
   • Update with the file's values replaces their name, or a field, when the file has a value for it. Tags are added, never removed. An empty cell never clears anything.
   • Leave them as they are changes nothing about them — except an opt-out, which is always recorded.
2. Untick Add people who aren't contacts yet if you only want to update people you already have.
3. Click Check the file.

Step 3: check the dry run

Nothing is saved yet. The dry run counts the rows in the file, the new contacts, the contacts it would update or leave alone, and the rows that can't be imported — each one listed by its row number with the reason.

If the check is refused, your file and every match stay exactly as they were, with the reason beside them. Click Back to change a match.

Step 4: import

1. Click Import.
2. Read the results: how many contacts were added, updated, unchanged, skipped and not imported.
3. If any rows didn't import, click Download the rows that didn't import. It's a CSV of those rows exactly as your file had them, with the reason on each. Fix them and import that file.

The import checks everything again and runs as one step. If it fails, nothing is imported and it says so. Clicking Import again is safe: an import can't run twice. The download of rows that didn't import is kept for 30 days.

Common problems

Everything else on the page is in Contacts.