Starting today, the Google People API will get new endpoints for contacts and contact groups. Last year, we launched the Google People API with read-only endpoints with plans to eventually replace the old Contacts API. We’re one step closer to that goal by adding write endpoints that allow developers to create, delete and update a single contact. In addition, there are new contact group endpoints that allow developers to read and write contact groups.
Applications need to be authorized to access the API so to get started, you will need to create a project on the Google Developers Console with the People API enabled to get access to the service. All of the steps to do so are here. If you’re new to the Google APIs and/or the Developers Console, check out this video, the first in a series of videos to help you get up-to-speed.
Once you’re authorized, you can simply create new contacts like this (using the Google APIs Client Library for Java):
Person contactToCreate = new Person();
List names = new ArrayList<>();
names.add(new Name().setGivenName("John").setFamilyName("Doe"));
contactToCreate.setNames(names);
Person createdContact =
peopleService.people().createContact(contactToCreate).execute(); The scope your app needs to authorize with is https://www.googleapis.com/auth/contacts. Full documentation on the people.create method is available here. You can update an existing contact like this:
String resourceName = "people/c12345"; // existing contact resource name
Person contactToUpdate = peopleService.people().get(resourceName)
.setPersonFields("names,emailAddresses")
.execute();
List emailAddresses = new ArrayList<>();
emailAddresses.add(new EmailAddress().setValue("[email protected]"));
contactToUpdate.setEmailAddresses(emailAddresses);
Person updatedContact = peopleService.people().updateContact(contactToUpdate)
.setUpdatePersonFields("emailAddresses")
.execute(); Full documentation on the people.update method is available here. We look forward to seeing what you can do with these new features allowing you to modify contacts. To learn more about the People API, check out the official documentation here.