Apple’s Contacts app (formerly Address Book) hasn’t changed much over the years. It’s pretty much a loose database of friends and family, offer the required functionality to support a centralized locations for email addresses, contacts, and phone numbers. But it feels like Apple was forced to make it, against its will.
Luckily, Flexibits’ Cardhop picks up where Contacts leaves off. Cardhop organizes your contacts via an easy menu in the macOS menu bar, then adds quick actions to message, email, place a call. Other neat features include quick access to groups of contacts (for sending a group email) and the ability to send Facebook messages without having to switch over to a web browser.
Flexibits has gone bananas in its effort to both bring additional functionality to macOS with an emphasis on user experience (just like it did with Fantastical). This is a good thing. Pretty much every function you could want out of Contacts is easier to access and simpler to perform in Cardhop. Functions such as creating a new contact group, importing or exporting your contacts on the fly are all at your fingertips via the Cardhop menu and keyboard shortcut.
Cardhop’s simple and fast search allows you to quickly find a contact – and even dial their number on your iPhone, iPad or Mac. Of course, you can also do more pedestrian tasks like updating contact info and adding notes (great for when you’re on the phone), all from the handy macOS contact menu. Additional Cardhop touches like a dark theme are the icing on the cake.
Over the years, Apple’s first-party Contacts app hasn’t changed much. Cardhop takes contacts to a whole new level, promoting them to first class status and providing a new level of discovery in macOS. This is a classic example of a “third-party opportunity” where a sharp developer made an old dog do new tricks.
Is Cardhop perfect? No. It’s getting good ratings and has an avid following, but it could also be argued that it goes for splash when functionality should win the day. For example, I’d love to see a more compact view option to save precious screen real estate and even more keyboard shortcuts (like using tabs/arrow keys to navigate card fields) but I’m sure they’re coming.
Cardhop contains a great set of features for a 1.0 release, and is the first app to innovate in the contacts space in a long time. When combined with 2015 Apple Design Award Winner Fantastical, Cardhop is a perfect one-two combination for Mac users that rely on contacts and calendars to get things done.
Cardhop retails for $19.99 and requires macOS 10.11 or later.