As much as I like to keep things organized, my Google Contacts list had become a mess. Years of attending events, networking, and adding every business card to my phone book had left me with a list of 1,500+ random names and numbers. Some entries were missing key details like a last name or a working phone number, while others were obvious duplicates I’d never gotten around to merging.
Trying to clean a mess like this is a nightmare. Thankfully, the fix came from an unexpected place — Google Sheets, with Gemini doing the heavy lifting.
I finally cleaned up my messy Google Drive with a little help from Gemini
Gemini turned years of clutter into order
It’s not meant to make sense of messy data
After being frustrated with the never-ending list of contacts in the Contacts app, I decided to finally sit down and take action. Ideally, the first place where you start with such a big cleanup task is through Google Contacts, since it syncs contacts across all your devices.
On paper, it offers the right tools as well, like labels and the ability to find and merge duplicates. However, for a more complicated mess like my contact list, Google Contacts’ built-in tools were not enough. At best, I could use it to find and merge duplicates, but that’s about it. I could not bulk-fill company names or email addresses, or normalize phone number formats.
QuizGoogle productivity apps
Trivia challenge
From Docs to Drive — see how well you really know Google’s suite of productivity tools.
Google DocsGoogle DriveGmailGoogle MeetProductivity
Which keyboard shortcut opens the ‘Explore’ feature in Google Docs, which uses AI to help research and format your document?
Correct! Ctrl + Alt + Shift + I opens the Explore panel in Google Docs. This AI-powered tool lets you search the web, your Drive, and images without leaving your document, and can even suggest citations.
Not quite. The correct shortcut is Ctrl + Alt + Shift + I. The Explore feature is one of Google Docs’ most powerful built-in research tools, pulling in web results and Drive content right alongside your writing.
How much free storage does Google provide across Drive, Gmail, and Google Photos combined for a standard Google account?
Correct! Google offers 15 GB of free storage shared across Google Drive, Gmail, and Google Photos. If you need more, you can upgrade via a Google One subscription, which starts at 100 GB.
Not quite. Google gives users 15 GB of free storage pooled across Drive, Gmail, and Google Photos. It’s a shared pool, so a full Gmail inbox can eat into your Drive space too.
What is the name of Gmail’s feature that automatically sorts incoming emails into categories like Primary, Social, and Promotions?
Correct! Gmail’s Inbox Tabs feature sorts your emails into categories such as Primary, Social, Promotions, Updates, and Forums. Google introduced this tabbed inbox layout back in 2013 to help users manage email overload.
Not quite. The feature is called Inbox Tabs. While Smart Labels and Priority Inbox are also real Gmail features that assist with organisation, it’s the tabbed layout that separates your inbox into Primary, Social, Promotions, and more.
Which function in Google Sheets allows you to search for a value in the first column of a range and return a value in the same row from another column?
Correct! VLOOKUP stands for ‘vertical lookup’ and is one of the most widely used functions in Google Sheets and Excel alike. It searches the first column of a specified range and returns a corresponding value from a column you specify.
Not quite. The answer is VLOOKUP, which performs a vertical search down the first column of a range. HLOOKUP does the same thing horizontally, while INDEX and MATCH are often used together as a more flexible alternative.
What was Google Meet originally called before it was rebranded and made available to all Google users in 2020?
Correct! Google Meet was originally known as Hangouts Meet and was part of the G Suite for business customers. In 2020, amid the surge in demand for video conferencing during the pandemic, Google rebranded it as Google Meet and opened it to all users for free.
Not quite. Google Meet was previously called Hangouts Meet. Google has had a notoriously complicated messaging and video app history, with Allo, Duo, and Hangouts all eventually being deprecated or merged as the company consolidated around Meet and Google Chat.
Which Google Slides feature lets a presenter share a link so that audience members can follow the presentation on their own devices in real time?
Correct! Audience Tools in Google Slides generates a link that attendees can open on their own devices to follow along with the presentation as the speaker advances slides. It’s a handy feature for hybrid meetings and large presentations.
Not quite. The feature is called Audience Tools. Presenter View is a different feature that shows the speaker their notes and upcoming slides privately, while Live Captions provides real-time subtitles during a presentation.
What is the primary purpose of the Google Study app, which is designed to help students with their coursework?
Correct! Google Study is an AI-powered app designed to help students understand their homework problems step by step, rather than simply giving them the answer. It focuses on building comprehension by walking users through the reasoning behind solutions.
Not quite. Google Study is built around helping students understand how to solve problems through AI-powered step-by-step explanations. It’s focused on learning and comprehension rather than writing essays or connecting users with human tutors.
Which of the following is a feature unique to Google Keep that distinguishes it from most other note-taking apps?
Correct! Google Keep supports location-based reminders, meaning you can set a note or reminder to pop up when you physically arrive at a specific location, like a grocery store. This geo-triggered feature sets it apart from many simpler note-taking tools.
Not quite. Google Keep’s standout feature here is its location-based reminders, which alert you when you arrive at a designated place. While Keep supports voice notes and basic checklists, it doesn’t offer embedded Sheets or automatic draft versioning.
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This is also why I was putting off the idea of cleaning my contact list for such a long time. I was not comfortable giving a third-party app or tool access to my contacts to fix the mess. That is, until I realized I could use Google Sheets and Gemini to do the job.
Sheets and Gemini, the unexpected cleanup duo
Export, prompt, re-import
I use Google Sheets every day for work, and the Gemini integration has only made it more useful, enabling me to do things I never thought were possible on a spreadsheet. All this while cutting down the time I spend on such tasks.
Another benefit of using Sheets and Gemini is that I know my data is not going anywhere. Google already has access to this data, so Gemini working on it inside Sheets did not feel like a major privacy concern.
After this clarity, I exported my contacts from Google Contacts to a CSV file and opened it in Sheets. This immediately gave me something that Google Contacts never did: a single view of every contact field, entry, and the gaps in them. While minor, this view was enough to give me a quick summary of the actions I needed to take to clean up my contacts.
I started by triggering Gemini and asked it to go through my contacts list and identify the gaps in the data. Based on its analysis, I told Gemini to tag each contact as Personal, Work, Vendor, or Others based on their name, number, email address, and other available details.
Within seconds, Gemini added the tags to each contact. I also asked Google’s AI tool to figure out the missing last names of some contacts based on their email address.
Next, I told Gemini to fill in the gaps it identified, including adding a Company column by figuring out the employer details from the email ID or the contact’s name.
Doing all of this manually would have taken me hours.
As part of the organization, I also wanted to archive contacts that I no longer needed. Instead of manually going through such a long list, I simply asked Gemini, “Which contacts should I archive?”
A few seconds later, Gemini identified several contacts that I could archive. They were entries with missing phone numbers or email addresses, generic service names like “Airport Cab” or “Plumber,” and old duplicates that slipped past Google Contacts’ native merge tool.
After trimming my contact list from 1,500+ down to around 900 entries and organizing them with proper labels, I exported the cleaned sheet as a CSV and re-imported it into Google Contacts. It was smart enough to automatically convert categories I created in Sheets into native labels.
Gemini is not perfect
Trust, but verify
As impressive as Gemini’s work was, it was not perfect. It miscategorized a few entries, tagging some personal contacts as work-related. And once, it assigned a company name to a contact based on their Gmail address, which made no sense.
None of this is Gemini’s fault, as the data itself is too messy. I was surprised it did not make more mistakes. Once Gemini cleaned the data, I glanced through the entire contact list, especially the important ones, before re-importing them into Google Contacts.
Do note that if you plan to use Gemini to clean up your contact list, you must have a Google Workspace account or a One AI Premium subscription.
My contact list finally makes sense
I used to dread the thought of manually cleaning my contact list. And I was not comfortable giving a third-party tool access to my phone book. Every time I tried to find someone, all I saw was a long list of unrecognizable names and numbers.
I can now find anyone I need in seconds. Opening a contact immediately provides me with enough information to recall who that person is.
The fix was not a fancy new tool. But a few minutes, Gemini, and Google Sheets.
