How syncing works
Every hour, plus whenever you press Sync from Google Workspace. What a sync changes, what it leaves alone, and how long things take.
When
- Automatically, every hour, for every organization that is connected.
- On demand: press Sync from Google Workspace on the Contacts page. Useful right after onboarding someone.
Settings → Connection shows whether the connection works and when the last sync ran.
What a sync does
- Reads the current people and their details from your Google Workspace.
- Adds new people with App access off and hidden from the directory, so you decide who gets what.
- Removes people who were deleted or suspended in Google Workspace. Their App access ends and their seat is freed on that same sync.
What a sync never does
- It never writes to Google Workspace. The connection is read-only.
- It never turns on App access by itself.
- It never touches contacts people saved on their phones themselves.
Sync scope
Once connected, Settings → Connection has a Sync scope card that lists your organizational units. Untick a unit and everyone in it leaves the directory and the app; tick it again and they come back exactly as they were. People in a newly included unit arrive after the next sync, without app access.
Your team’s phones
The app shows the directory as it is on our servers, so a change reaches the app the next time it loads the list.
People can also keep their colleagues in their phone’s own Contacts app, so names show up on incoming calls. The app updates those contacts when it is opened (at most every 30 minutes) and about once a day in the background (on iPhone, when iOS allows it). Someone who leaves your company is removed from the phones on that next update. The switch for this is Settings → Features → Sync company contacts to phones, on by default. Turn it off and the app removes the contacts it put on each phone; contacts someone saved themselves are never touched. Company contacts in your phone is the team’s side of it.
Timing
- A new hire appears after the next hourly sync, or immediately after Sync from Google Workspace.
- Right after you change something in the Google Admin console, allow a few minutes for Google to apply it before syncing.