Syncing Outlook contacts
Connect your personal Outlook contacts so they sync automatically into emu.chat.
Written By EmuChat
Last updated About 15 hours ago
The Outlook Contacts integration pulls the contacts from your personal Outlook account into emu.chat and keeps them up to date automatically. The sync is one-way: emu.chat reads from Outlook and never writes back, so your Outlook contacts are left untouched. This guide covers how to connect it, what it syncs, and who can see the synced contacts.
Before you start
You can set up the Outlook sync on your own account, no admin role is required. You will need to grant emu.chat permission to read your Outlook contacts during setup. You can connect one Outlook sync per account in each workspace.
Connect Outlook Contacts
In the emu.chat sidebar, go to Integrations, then select Outlook Contacts.
If emu.chat doesn't yet have permission to read your contacts, you'll see Microsoft permissions required. Click Grant permissions and complete the Microsoft sign-in and consent prompt.
After you approve, Microsoft returns you to the setup page so you can configure the sync.
emu.chat only requests permission to read your contacts. It cannot change or delete anything in Outlook.
Configure the sync
On the Configure Sync step, choose how contacts should sync, then click Save Configuration.
Keep contacts private controls who can see the synced contacts. It is on by default, so only you see them. Turn it off if you want everyone in the workspace to see them.
Conflict Resolution decides what happens when a contact exists in both systems. The default, Always update from source, keeps each contact matching Outlook and overwrites local edits on the next sync. Choose Keep local changes to preserve your edits in emu.chat and only fill in fields that are still empty.
Deletion Behavior decides what happens when you delete a contact in Outlook. The default, Unlink, keeps the contact in your workspace but stops syncing it. Choose Hard Delete to remove the contact from your workspace as well.
You can also open Field Mappings to change which Outlook fields map to your contact fields. The defaults cover the common ones: first and last name, email, mobile number, and company. Leave these as they are unless you need a different mapping.
What syncs and how often
When you save, emu.chat creates a contact list named Outlook Contacts and runs the first sync. After that it checks Outlook for changes automatically on a regular schedule and applies any additions or updates.
You don't have to wait for the schedule. Use Sync Now to pull recent changes straight away, or Full Resync to clear the sync state and re-fetch every contact from scratch.
The Sync Status card shows the total number of contacts synced and when the last sync started and finished, and the Sync History table lists recent runs with how many contacts were created, updated, or skipped.
Who can see synced contacts
Visibility depends on the Keep contacts private setting you chose during setup:
On (default): only you can see the contacts synced from Outlook. They live in your private Outlook Contacts list.
Off: everyone in the workspace can see the synced contacts.
To learn more about how private and shared contacts work across emu.chat, see Personal vs shared contacts.