Why WhatsApp Contact Names Can Change Automatically

Last Updated: April 25, 2022

Why did your friend's name change from "Bob" to "Bobert" randomly on WhatsApp? Because WhatsApp automatically syncs your contacts from your Android or iPhone, you should see the same contact names as you do on your phone. If you're seeing the wrong names or just phone numbers instead of names, we can help! We'll show you all of the reasons why your WhatsApp contacts could look different than how you'd expect, and teach you easy ways to fix wrong contact names.

1

The person might have changed their display name.

If someone who isn't in your contact list changes their display name, you'll see the name they chose on WhatsApp. This only happens when you don't have that person's phone number saved to your Android or iPhone contacts.
- If you add that person's phone number to your contacts with a specific name, their WhatsApp name will change to the one you enter in your contacts.

2

WhatsApp might not have access to your contacts.

If you see phone numbers instead of contact names, WhatsApp might not have permission to access your phone contacts. To see people's names instead of phone numbers, you can make a quick change in your settings.^{[1]
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- On an iPhone, open the Settings app and select WhatsApp. Tap the "Contacts" switch to allow WhatsApp access to your contacts.
- On an Android, open the Settings app, tap Apps, select WhatsApp, tap Permissions, and then give the app access to your contacts.^{[2]
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3

You might need to refresh your contacts.

If you changed someone's name in your phone contacts but it isn't right in WhatsApp, try refreshing your WhatsApp contacts. The steps are a little different depending on your phone:
- If you have an iPhone, open the Settings app, select WhatsApp, and tap the Contacts switch to turn contacts off. Then, tap the switch again to turn them back on.
- Tap the New Chat icon.
- Tap the three dots at the top-right.
- Tap Refresh.

4

You're syncing phone contacts from multiple accounts.

If you sync contacts to your Android or iPhone from multiple accounts, you probably have duplicate contacts. For example, if you add a Gmail account to your iPhone and allow it to sync your contacts, your Gmail contacts will download to your iPhone. Then, if you already had a contact's phone number on your phone with a certain name, you'll now have a duplicate contact that could have a different name. You can fix this by deleting duplicates or merging contacts.
- If you have an Android, you can easily delete duplicate contacts using the Google Contacts app.
- If you have an iPhone, go through your contact list and merge any duplicates you find. Then, adjust the names in your contacts to fix them in WhatsApp.

5

You're using one Apple ID or Google account on two phones.

WhatsApp syncs names directly from your Android or iPhone's contacts list. If you're using the same Apple ID or Google account to sign in to multiple phones (for example, if your whole family shares one Apple ID and has multiple iPhones), changes made to the contacts on one device will affect other devices, which also affects contact names in WhatsApp.
- Using unique Apple IDs for each iPhone and unique Google accounts for each Android will resolve this problem.