Google Contacts adds filtering options just like Gmail chips

Following in the footsteps of apps like Gmail, Drive, Photos, and more, Contacts is poised to be the next Google app on Android to embrace search chip filters. To those unfamiliar, search chips are Material Design elements that use tags or descriptive words to filter content. They are a good alternative to toggle buttons or checkboxes and have been fully embraced by Google in their design language on Android and the web.

As reported by Android Police, in what appears to be either an A/B test or early days of a staged rollout, some users are reporting the familiar search chip filters appearing in the Google Contacts Android app. In the below screenshot, you can see what these chips look like and the type of information they filter. For example, I could tap on the chip to only show me email contacts, and everyone in my contacts who does not have an email would be filtered out.

This new feature is reportedly showing up for those using Contacts version 3.74.21.466997988 or higher, though I am using version 3.75, and the feature isn’t showing up for me. This further cements that this rollout may be in limited testing. However, we will keep an eye out for this update to reach our devices so we can report back with more information. If this is a test, we hope it sticks and makes it to the next stable version.