IssueTracker

I'd agree that custom text (FN or NICKNAME attributes in the Vcard standard http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vcard  - not sure which one is intended for this use) should always take prority for display in logs, and an UI that lets you precompose the display name from a predefined sequence of existing fields would be nice.


I like it how it's handled in MS Outlook 2003. In a New Contact screen, you enter a fully qualified name, and Outlook automatically tries to properly detect and separate first, second, and family name fields, but also offers the option to compose the display these fields either in a different order, or to enter your own custom text for "display name".

(And if you set-up multiple e-mail adresses for a contact, Outlook then doubles this entry as "Name [email]" in the Address book contacts list.)

Issue 36916884 is a related request.

Seems that the field "Display Name" and ability to set custom display name for contact exist in HTC Sense. But I use android without sense and miss this feature!

Yes. This feature is VERY necessary.

I have thousand contacts in Gmail Contacts and there are many peoples with the same Name there. My Android group this contacts to one, but in Gmail Contacts they are different and separated by different "File As" field.

I am using Samsung Galaxy Tab.

Me too I'd LOVE to have this feature! sometimes simply ESSENTIAL! I have HTC Desire with SENSE but I haven't the possibility to choose to display the nick name, just a combination of name/surname

Me too. This feature should be integrated ASAP.

I don't want to see the name of my family members when they give me a phone call or a SMS. It should displayed as something like 'Daddy'.

So, display name is vital for the Google Contact users like me. In further, it will be great that Google Contact / Android users can make several custom display name rules just like "People who is in group Business displayed as 'Orgnization : Name'", "People who is in group Family displayed as 'Nickname'", etc..

Great idea. I'd love to display nickname instead of names too !

I agree. I spent forever trying to figure out how to make titles visible. For example I know the captain as the captain, not as 'Josh,' but I like having an accurate name for him in the contacts so I can look it up before a meeting. Also, anyone 'named' "First Sergent" is always first in my contacts, which is annoying.

This cant really be that hard to implement can it? I hate that we cant have nicknames.

This needs to get done... it's crazy that my gmail contacts are all displayed by Nickname (in my case FirstName LastInitial) - but full names are displayed on my phone.  Not everyone appreciates having their full name show up in the address fields when I send mass emails - hence my use of last initial only - but not on Android... very vexing.

Only work around is to edit ALL MY CONTACTS to make First Name into the name I want displayed and then stash real names in some other field?  Ridiculous.

It is a funny issue. It actually looks for it whenever you type into the search bar, even though displays a different name.

I think this is an important feature. It should be implemented as a priority list, so you could decide for example to use nickname for all those on where it is available and let´s say full name as fallback option.

It's especially strange since Google Contacts has the "File As" field. This should be available to Android devices for sync and sorting.

Await this to be implemented

This is absolutely necesarry, even my old cellphone allowed this, when I moved to Android smartphone it bothers me. I could organize all my google contacts, they now display correct name but only in my browser, Android 4.0.4 smart is still showing the same contacts in format "Family Name", "Given Name" "Additional Name".

Android 4.2.1, same problem.

Nearly 3 years and still no solution? All the methods needed are already in place, it should be a simple fix.

This is crazy I've spent a good amount of time cleaning up all my contact only to find out that I can't sort them on the "File As" field. This is one of the few things that Google needs to take a note from Microsoft on. FIX THIS PLEASE!!!!

Field "file as" is correctly implemented on Google Contacts and sorting on GMail website is correct, but it would be nice to be able to display sort the contacts file "file as" field inside Android.

At the moment there is no point on classifying all my contacts with the full name of each one (and note that in Spain each individual has at least TWO last names) if later we're uanble to display and sort them just by that field nor the "nickname" field and we are only able to see our contact list with the full name of each person (ex.: "Mr. José María Gonzalez Rodriguez" instead of "Pepe").

Please fix this and/or the phonetic sorting bug, Google! It should be pretty easy. They are basic app functions.

What's happening with this bug? It causes a huge inconvenience,  yet should be trivial to resolve.

I gave up. They're not adding this useful and basic new feature. My solution was using 'name' field as 'file as' and storing full name and surname in personalized fields.

Why this issue is marked Obolete? This is not fixed!!

Could you please comment your decision?

On Android 4.4 and 5.0 this issue is not fixed.

For example, in Google Contacs I have contact with name "Alexey Ivanov" (this is my father), in Gmail I see field "File as" that I fill "Father". And in Gmail contacts list I see this contact with "Father" name and can search it via "father" keyword.

But in Android contacts I see it with name "Alexey Ivanov" instead of "Father", and it is not searchable with keyword "Father".

Same problem with mother, grandmother, friends (I want to fill full name, but see only Nickname in contact list).

Can you implement "File as" fiels for Android system?

You can add a nickname field in Lollipop.

As I see in Android 5.0 you have possibility to search by this field.
One thing still missing: show user nick in list of contacts.

Field "nickname" was exist on Android 4.x versions too. But it does not replace "File as" field.

Field "File as" store string how I want to see this contact in list. Not for all contacts I know name or familyname, for some contacts I know only Organisation name or some different info. For other contacts I know to see additional info in contact list.
Here is examples that demonstrate the problem:
1. Alexander SuperCompany Top Manager
2. Svetlana (Ivan Petrov wife)
3. SuperCompany1 director
4. SuperCompany2 call center
5. SuperCompany3 manager 1
6. SuperCompany3 manager 2
7. Alexey friend of Sergey Sidorov

This seems like an easy feature to enable if the developers would simply make available additional choices (on an Android phone) to Contacts -> Settings -> Sort by. Right now (Android 5.0) your only choices are "First name" or "Last name." If they added "Nickname" and/or "File As," fields that can be populated on the phone and/or on the web, your list of contacts might read:

A+ Plumbing
Doctor
Uncle Sam

rather than:

John Smith
Dr. Jane Doe
Sam Vespucci

Any contacts without the "Nickname" or "File As" field populated could default to being sorted by, for example, last name.

Plus 1 to introduce this very necessary feature. Just moved from iPhone (where the "File As" field is supported) to Android (where it is not - despite Android being much more closely coupled with Google Contacts) and finding its absence very  difficult to live with.

Please explain why this very basic functionality is still not implemented! (It was pretty common long before phones became "smart"...)

I really don't understand why this feature has not been implemented yet. Indeed, if we couple this with the fact that Google recently removed support for groups in their Contacts app for Android, it seems Android is taking quite a few (significant!) steps back in terms of usability.

Even worse is the fact that Contacts (web app) supports the feature in question, which means the data is already there for many contacts, but (stupid) Android isn't able to use it.

The absolute worst in all of this is marking the issue as obsolete and not even commenting on the reasons why.

It's a shame, really. And ridiculous too.

I was using this feature very happily on an ancient Samsung Omnia and figured it would be available at some point on my Android phone - I was wrong. I would really like to hear the reason why a project member has marked it "Obsolete". A feature available on Gmail online but not on my android phone where it's more important. I know a number of people with the same first and last names and shouldn't have to click in to see further details to know which one I want - I want the "file as" function that you have gone out of your way to add on gmail to be available for use in displaying my contacts on android!

Extremely sad that engineers cannot understand the full use-cases for "contacts".
Clearly, Name (prefix, first name, middle name, last name, suffix), Phonetic name and Nickname are all different fields with different usage than "File As" field.
Age-old contact managers and CRMs (even Microsoft Outlook and windows mobile which is a decade-old, now obsolete OS!) realized this and offered all these as separate fields to be exploited by users.
Unfortunately, google, in particular android group, continues to ignore the requirement of so many users!