Practice
vCard
vCard is the standard file format for exchanging contact data (.vcf files). Version 4.0 is defined in RFC 6350; versions 2.1 and 3.0 remain in wide use.
A vCard is a plain-text "electronic business card": a block starting with BEGIN:VCARD and ending with END:VCARD, containing typed properties like FN (formatted name), TEL, EMAIL, ADR, BDAY, PHOTO, and NOTE. One .vcf file can hold a single contact or an entire address book, which is why vCard is the lingua franca of contact migration — every phone OS, mail client, and CRM can produce or consume some dialect of it.
The format's history explains its quirks. The Versit consortium published vCard 2.1 in 1996; the IETF standardized 3.0 in RFC 2426 (1998) and 4.0 in RFC 6350 (2011), which obsoleted the earlier RFCs. Each generation changed encoding rules and property syntax: 2.1 uses QUOTED-PRINTABLE and per-property charsets, 3.0 introduced mandatory FN and a cleaner TYPE parameter syntax, and 4.0 mandates UTF-8 throughout, folds lines at 75 octets, and adds properties like KIND, GENDER, ANNIVERSARY, and MEMBER for groups.
Fifteen years after 4.0 was published, 3.0 is still the de-facto interchange version — it's what iOS, Google, and most exporters actually emit. Anyone building or choosing contact software ends up reading vCards in all three dialects whether they like it or not.
2.1, 3.0, 4.0 — what actually differs
Encoding is the deepest difference: 2.1 allows per-line charsets and QUOTED-PRINTABLE escaping (an umlaut becomes =C3=BC), 3.0 typically rides on the transport's charset, and 4.0 is UTF-8 only. Structure: 3.0 made FN mandatory; 4.0 relaxed N to optional and reworked TEL to prefer URI values (tel:+49...). New 4.0 semantics include KIND (individual, org, group), ANNIVERSARY, GENDER, the MEMBER property for group cards, and PID/CLIENTPIDMAP for multi-source merging — machinery designed for sync, which is precisely the part older parsers choke on. Photos changed too: 2.1/3.0 embed base64 blobs inline, 4.0 prefers data: or https: URIs.
Why .vcf files mangle between apps
Most interop pain has four roots. Version mismatch: an exporter writes 4.0 features into a file a 3.0-only importer half-understands, silently dropping properties. Custom X- properties: Apple's X-ABLabel groupings or vendor-specific social fields vanish on any cross-platform move. Multi-contact files: some importers read only the first card in a concatenated .vcf, which looks like a successful import of one contact. And missing stable UIDs: exporters that mint a fresh UID every time guarantee duplicates on re-import. The robust strategy when migrating is to export vCard 3.0 (the broadest dialect), verify the contact count after import, and spot-check a record with an umlaut, a photo, and multiple numbers.
vCard as your exit door from any contact silo
The format's real significance is political: as long as every platform can emit a .vcf, your contacts are never truly locked in. Google Contacts, iCloud, Outlook, and virtually every CRM offer vCard export, which makes the format the universal escape hatch when you leave a service. Endearist leans on exactly this property — it imports .vcf files (alongside CSV) so you can carry an address book accumulated across a decade of platforms into a local-first home, and duplicate matching runs during import so overlapping exports from several sources converge instead of multiplying. Owning your relationship data starts with it living in a format you can take anywhere.
Frequently asked questions
- What's the difference between vCard 3.0 and 4.0?
- vCard 4.0 (RFC 6350, 2011) mandates UTF-8 encoding, makes N optional while keeping FN required, prefers URI values for phones and photos, and adds properties like KIND, GENDER, ANNIVERSARY, and MEMBER plus PID-based merge support for sync. vCard 3.0 (RFC 2426, 1998) lacks those properties but is understood by virtually everything. In practice 3.0 remains the safer export choice; 4.0 is the better internal model.
- How do I open a .vcf file?
- Almost any contacts app handles it: on iOS and Android, tapping the file offers an import dialog; on macOS, Contacts opens it directly; on Windows, Outlook or the People app imports it; Google Contacts has an import function in its web interface. Because a .vcf is plain text, you can also open it in any text editor to inspect what it contains before importing — useful for checking the version line and contact count.
- Can one .vcf file contain multiple contacts?
- Yes — the format simply concatenates BEGIN:VCARD…END:VCARD blocks, so a single file can carry your entire address book; that's how whole-account exports from Google or iCloud work. The catch is that some importers only process the first block and report success, so always compare the contact count before and after a migration. If an importer balks, splitting the file per card is a reliable workaround.
Last updated: 2026-06-10
Tend relationships, not records.
Endearist is a local-first personal CRM. Free up to 25 contacts.
Start free