Contacts

Manage organizational contacts in Microsoft Entra ID. Create and maintain external contacts that appear in the Global Address List (GAL) for communication with vendors, partners, and other external collaborators.

Note: Contacts are directory entries for external people without sign-in access. For external users who need to sign in, use Guest Users (B2B collaboration).

Contacts Overview

The contacts dashboard provides aggregate statistics:

• Total Contacts — All contacts across the directory
• Synced from AD — Contacts synchronized from on-premises Active Directory
• Cloud-only — Contacts created directly in Entra ID
• Hidden from GAL — Contacts excluded from the Global Address List

Contact List

The contact list displays all organizational contacts with the following columns:

Contacts can be filtered by:

• All contacts
• Synced (from on-premises AD)
• Cloud-only

Create Contact

To create a new contact, provide the following information:

Required fields:

• First Name — Contact’s first name
• Last Name — Contact’s last name
• Display Name — Name shown in the directory
• Email Address — External email address (e.g., contact@external.com)

Optional fields:

• Company
• Job Title
• Business Phone
• Mobile Phone
• Department
• Show in Global Address List (GAL) — enabled by default

Contact Properties

Basic Information

• Display name
• First/Last name
• Email addresses (primary + aliases)
• Phone numbers
• Job title
• Department

Organization Details

• Company name
• Manager
• Street address
• City, State, Country
• Postal code
• Notes

Bulk Operations

Import Contacts

Upload CSV file with contact information for bulk creation.

Export Contacts

Download all contacts to CSV for backup or analysis.

CSV Format

DisplayName,EmailAddress,FirstName,LastName,Company,JobTitle,BusinessPhone

Distribution Group Membership

Contacts can be added to distribution groups to receive emails. Example groups:

• External Partners — 45 contacts
• Vendor Communications — 23 contacts
• Project Stakeholders — 12 contacts

Sync from On-Premises

Contacts synced from on-premises Active Directory cannot be edited in the cloud. Modifications must be made in AD and will sync automatically.

Synced Contacts

• Read-only in Entra ID
• Edit in on-premises AD
• Sync cycle: 30 minutes

Cloud-only Contacts

• Full edit in Entra ID
• No AD dependency
• Immediate updates

API Reference

• GET /api/identity/contacts — List all contacts
• POST /api/identity/contacts — Create new contact
• PUT /api/identity/contacts/:id — Update contact
• DELETE /api/identity/contacts/:id — Delete contact
• POST /api/identity/contacts/bulk — Bulk import contacts