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Contacts

Sonny automatically builds your contact list from chat and email conversations. Every visitor who provides an email becomes a contact you can track, tag, and manage.

How contacts are created

Contacts are created automatically from two sources. There is no manual "Add Contact" button — your contact list grows organically as people reach out.

Live chat

When a visitor provides their name and email through the chat widget, a contact is automatically created. If a contact with that email already exists, their name is updated.

Inbound email

When an email arrives at your forwarding address, Sonny automatically creates a contact using the sender's email and name. If the sender already exists as a contact, the existing record is used.

Contact fields

Each contact record has the following fields. Editable fields can be changed from the contact detail page.

EmailRead-only

The contact's email address. Set automatically when the contact is created. Unique per workspace — two contacts in the same workspace cannot share an email.

NameEditable

The contact's display name. Set automatically from chat or email, and can be edited manually from the contact detail page.

SourceRead-only

How the contact was first created. Shows the channel type and label, e.g. "chat:My Website" or "email:Support". Set automatically and cannot be changed.

NotesEditable

Free-text internal notes about the contact. Only visible to your team, never shown to the contact. Use this for context like account details or special instructions.

TagsEditable

Color-coded labels shared across your workspace. Tags can also be applied to conversations. Use them to categorize contacts by type, priority, or any grouping that works for your team.

What you can do with contacts

Search and sort

Search contacts by name or email from the contacts list. Sort by name, email, source, or creation date in ascending or descending order.

Tags

Apply color-coded tags to contacts for organization. Tags are workspace-wide and shared with conversations. Add or remove tags from the contact detail page.

Merge contacts

Merge duplicate contacts into one. Select a primary contact and one or more secondary contacts to merge. All conversations from the secondary contacts are moved to the primary contact. Secondary contacts are archived.

Automatic creation

Contacts are created automatically when visitors provide their email via the chat widget or when emails arrive at your forwarding address. No manual entry required.

Contacts and conversations

Every conversation is linked to a contact (once an email is provided). From a contact's detail page, you can see all their conversations — including status, channel, assignee, and the last message. Click any conversation to jump directly to it in the inbox.