Developer Flexibits today released Cardhop for iOS, a premium contact management experience for iPhone and iPad, after releasing Cardhop for Mac back in October 2017.

“Cardhop for Mac launched the first contact app that wasn’t just a boring database,” said Michael Simmons, co-founder of Flexibits. “With Cardhop for iOS, we are thrilled to bring the same enjoyable yet powerful experience to iPhone and iPad.”

Follow along with iDB as we quickly review this gem of an app.

Welcome to your friendly contacts app

Billed as the friendly and enjoyable contacts app, Cardhop takes the pain out of managing and interacting with your contacts with features like a gorgeous user interface with a Dark Mode and theming support, advanced features, third-party integration and more.

Light theme (left) and the Dark Mode-like black theme in Cardhop for iOS (center and right)

And because it uses the built-in Contacts app on iOS devices, there is zero configuration to get started with Cardhop. The key feature: a powerfukl parsing engine similar to that in Fantastical which lets you search, add, edit and interact with contacts using a simple sentence.

The parsing engine

Here’s how it works: you just type in something like “Séb” and Sébastien’s contact will instantly appear. Similarly, enter something along the lines of “Tim Cook tim@iDownloadBlog.com” and Cardhop will instantly add a new contact based on that information.

The input filed: quick suggestions (left), adding a contact (right)

Or, type in “call Cody” and Cardhop will instantly start a phone call with Cody. The natural language parser understands English, French, Italian, German, Spanish and Japanese.

And now, check it out in action in the video I’ve embedded below.

Here are a few other examples of what can be typed into the input field:

  • Christian Zibreg 456 Wall Street Huntington NY 11743 631-222-3377 home
  • imessage Sarah
  • call Kent
  • large text home John
  • Klemens 212-123-4567 mobile
  • skype Sandy
  • call 555-1212
  • tweet John

All told, you can interact with your contacts using the following actions: Call, Copy, Directions, Email, FaceTime, FaceTime Audio, Facebook Messenger, Large Type, Message, Skype, Telegram, Twitter, URL, Viber and VoIP.

Customizable swipe actions (left) and the email action (right)

The Large Type action is especially cool if you have a small-screened phone or your eyesight is not as sharp as it used to be: typing something like “large text mobile Tim” will bring up Tim’s mobile number in large type.

Siri shortcuts

An app like this begs for Siri Shortcuts support, and Cardhop delivers!

With full support for Siri Shortcuts, people who are big on iOS automation can chain together some of their favorite Cardhop actions and use them standalone or as part of complex, multi-steps scripts in the Shortcuts app.

An overview of birthdays

Another great feature in Cardhop is a built-in business card that you can, fo course, completely customize, exclude any items that you don’t want to share and more. To quickly bring up your business card, rotate your phone or hit a button on an iPad.

Your business card in Cardhop includes a handy QR code

Tidbits

The Notes field at the bottom of the contact card not only looks great, it’s highly functional too. You can drag it up or down to reveal more or less content, decide if these notes get shared and even insert current timestamp in the Notes field.

The incredibly useful Notes field is a swipe away

If you manage your contacts, you probably know that adding a few details about a contact goes a long way toward improving your relationships: the next time you chat with that person, you’ll know more about them right away.

Don’t worry, Cardhop has your back when it comes to privacy.

You can chose whether your exported vCard items include contact photo or the Notes field. This is really important if you tend to store confidential information in your card’s Notes field (which you shouldn’t), such as your bank accounts, credit card numbers and so forth.

Cardhop offers plenty of customizations to make the app your own

Just toggle a button in the settings interface to omit the Notes field when exporting contacts as a vCard file. Moreover, Cardhop supports directory lookups on Google Contacts, G Suite and Exchange Global Address List, making it super simple to find and interact with contacts on both personal and work accounts.

For further details, visit flexibits.com/cardhop-ios.

Cardhop for Mac 1.2

Aside from extending Cardhop to iOS, Flexibits today also brought the Mac app to version 1.2. Aside from providing full directory lookup support like in the inaugural iOS version, the update brought a bunch of tweaks, bug fixes and other improvements to the Mac app.

Summing up: a productivity booster

As I wrote in my review of Cardhop for Mac, I keep my Contacts database up to date and this app has saved me a bunch of clicks so far. The basic stuff such has adding or updating contacts is intuitive and efortless.

The same holds true for the iOS version.

The Cardhop icon is a great visual representation of the app’s purpose

The user interface is beautiful—actually one of the best I’ve seen on iOS to date and you can tell that was a big focus for the team—and the parsing engine is fantastic (if you loved Fantastical’s natural language parser, you’ll feel right at home).

Cardhop has completely replaced the counterintuitive and dull Contacts app on my Apple devices. I like how the app surfaces the right people so I don’t have to scroll like crazy when interacting with people.

Typing “large” or “big” followed by the contact name displays their info in a big banner

And coupled with custom actions for things like messaging, tweeting, emailing, placing phone calls, getting directions and so forth, Cardhop becomes a productivity powerhouse—and I bet you never thought this possible from a contacts app.

You can add a new entry from Favorites (left), Recents (center) or the input field (right)

Last but not least, Flexibits is in it for the long run: since Cardhop for Mac’s debut a year and a half ago, it saw multiple free updates that have significantly improved the app versus the 1.0 version, brining features like smart contact groups, printing, Instagram integration and other perks.

Pricing and availability

Cardhopfor iOS, a universal app for your iPhone, iPad and iPod touch is available via App Store with a limited-time twenty percent launch discount for four bucks (regularly $5).

The app requires iOS 12.0 or later.

Cardhop for Mac is a $20 download from Mac App Store. A free 21-day trial is available through the Flexibits website.