The address book inside SmartXHosting webmail is a full CardDAV-backed contact store — searchable, shareable, and in sync with any desktop client. This tutorial covers browsing your contacts, viewing details, sorting and filtering, and looking up colleagues on the Global Address List.
On mobile webmail:
On desktop webmail:
The contact list supports several view modes:
Choose the view from the toolbar. Your preference is remembered per address book.
The search bar at the top of the contact list matches across:
Examples:
acme matches "Acme Ltd" in company or "[email protected]" in email.alex matches first name Alex, Alexander, Alexandra etc."0161" matches Manchester-area phone numbers.Tap (mobile) or click (desktop) a contact to open the detail view:
From the detail view, tap an email address to start composing to that contact, or tap a phone number to call (on mobile) or copy (on desktop).
You can tag contacts with categories — helpful for grouping clients by project, team, or status.
Typical category schemes for UK businesses:
Assign categories by editing the contact. Filter the list by category from the category dropdown in the toolbar.
The GAL holds every mailbox and group in your organisation. Access depends on administrator configuration; where enabled, it appears as a folder alongside your personal contacts.
For UK organisations using Active Directory or LDAP, the GAL is usually synced from that source, so changes flow through within minutes of HR provisioning.
Like folders, address books can be shared. A sales manager might share a "Top 100 accounts" book with the sales team; a front desk might share a "Supplier contacts" book across all reception staff.
Sharing follows the same permission model as folder sharing — Viewer, Contributor, Editor, Manager. See the folder-permissions tutorial for the role matrix.
A shared address book appears alongside your personal book in the contact navigation pane. Search operates across both personal and shared books by default.
Exporting contacts:
Printing:
Q: Can I merge duplicate contacts?
A: Yes. Select two or more entries and use Merge — webmail combines non-conflicting fields and asks you to resolve conflicts (e.g. two different phone numbers).
Q: Does the Global Address List include external partners?
A: No, the GAL lists only internal mailboxes and groups. External partners you work with regularly go in your personal book or in a shared "Suppliers" / "Partners" book.
Q: Can I add a photo to a contact?
A: Yes. Use the edit view to upload a photo. It syncs to mobile clients over CardDAV.
Q: What is the maximum photo size?
A: 1 MB per photo, auto-scaled to 500×500 pixels for efficient storage.
Q: Do my contacts count towards mailbox storage quota?
A: Yes, but contacts are tiny compared to email — a 10,000-contact address book uses under 100 MB even with photos. Storage quota is rarely a constraint.