> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://help.withallo.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Shared contacts

> How contacts are shared with your team, and how to import a directory

## How contact sharing works

**Contacts are shared at the workspace level by default.** When a contact exists in your Allo workspace, every team member sees it, whether it was:

* Created manually in the app
* Synced from a connected CRM
* Synced from your phone's contacts on mobile
* Created via the [Allo API](/en/v2/api-reference/crm/people-overview) or an automation (Zapier, Make)

<Note>
  On mobile, if you allow Allo to access your device contacts, those contacts become visible to your team too. Keep personal contacts out of that sync if you don't want to share them.
</Note>

## Share a directory with your team

<AccordionGroup>
  <Accordion title="From a CRM (recommended)">
    As an admin, go to **Settings > Integrations** and connect your CRM (HubSpot, Salesforce, Zoho, Attio, and more). All CRM contacts appear as shared contacts for the whole team, and stay in sync.

    [See all integrations](/en/integrations/overview)
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="From Google Contacts">
    Connect the [Google Contacts integration](/en/integrations/google-contacts): your Google directory becomes available to the team.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="From a spreadsheet or homemade CRM">
    There's no direct CSV import in the app yet. The simplest path:

    1. Export your contacts as CSV
    2. Import them into Google Contacts
    3. Connect the Google Contacts integration in Allo

    For an automated flow, use [Zapier](/en/integrations/zapier), [Make](/en/integrations/make), or the [API](/en/v2/api-reference/crm/create-person).
  </Accordion>
</AccordionGroup>

## Duplicates

When you create a contact in Allo, it is **not** duplicated in your connected CRM if it already exists: we match by email and phone number first.

## Current limits

* No per-user contact permissions yet: a workspace contact is visible to the whole team. If your access rules live in your CRM, connect the CRM: contacts follow the CRM's access
* No direct CSV import in-app (use the Google Contacts path above)

## Troubleshooting

<AccordionGroup>
  <Accordion title="Contacts created via API aren't visible to the team">
    They should be. If your team can't see API-created contacts, [contact support](/en/support/contact): a workspace setting adjustment on our side fixes it quickly.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="A colleague can't see a contact I just added">
    Ask them to refresh (pull down on mobile, reload on web). First syncs from a CRM can take a few minutes for large directories.
  </Accordion>
</AccordionGroup>