Sensobi a better address book for your BlackBerry

Have you ever actually sat down and looked at your Address Book on your BlackBerry smartphone? I mean "really" sort through it. I bet that there are a good number of contacts that you don't even need. When was the last time that you talked to so – and – so? You may have some of those contacts; the type that you quickly throw into your address book. They are saved, but forgotten for many reasons; it may be because you think you may need to reach them at some point in time, or you make brief contact and want to talk at a more convenient time. Whatever the reason is, these lost souls occupy your address book and continue to grow. At this point you either keep them or delete them. I try to keep my address book trimmed down, but I always find a stray contact or two that have snuck in.

A while ago, Bla1ze turned my attention to an impressive Address Book alternative that helps you to see who you have talked to, what you've said, how often you want to talk and more. This application is called Sensobi Contacts. Rather than trying to remember when you've talked to this person last, let Sensobi Contacts fill you in. Lets see Sensobi Contacts in action!

About Sensobi Contacts

Sensobi Contacts is brought to you by Sensobi Inc. The newest version available is 1.5.459 and will take up 245.5KB of space. The application requires that you be using a BlackBerry with a trackball and running OS 4.2 or higher. Sensobi works with both BIS and BES. According to their site, Sensobi Contacts isn't available for the Storm, but they are working towards a resolution; so sit tight. As it is currently in Beta, you can try it out for free!

Now, lets crack open the address book, shall we? Sensobi Contacts does a fantastic job of bringing your address book to life. As with your native address book, the application displays a list of your contacts and allows you to shortlist them by typing out the name or company. In addition to this, Sensobi offers you some very important information and options. Below each contact, you will see your last method of communication (call, text or email) and the date and time it occurred. This also includes missed calls as well. Some contacts appear in bold and some do not. The contacts in bold indicate you have had some sort of contact with them within the last 30 days. As your contacts are listed in alphabetical order, the application will display the bold contacts in alphabetical order first, then the rest of the contacts. An added bonus is that you can add contacts from within the application, and they will appear in your native address book. This feature generates a pop up where you can enter a first/last name and mobile number. Unfortunately, the mobile field doesn't recognize that you are entering numerical characters; you have to use the alt button. If you require additional information to be stored, press more and you are redirected to the native "Add contact" field.

creating a new contact, basic version

To avoid confusion, I wanted to touch upon some of features that are incorporated into your contacts. Lets have a look at them now.

Rank, popularity, dots and more.

Rank – It's always important to keep in touch regularly. This feature allows you to choose how often you want to talk to a contact. Sensobi give you three options to choose from; every week, month or 3 months. Each of these options, once selected, are separated by stars. Week, month and 3 months are marked by ***, ** and * respectively. These can be seen when viewing a specific contact.

Ranking

Dots – when looking at your contact list, you may notice some of them have coloured dots before their name. Red dots let you know that you have missed a call or failed to contact the person on time. Yellow alerts you that a scheduled communication is fast approaching. The green will tell you that you a good keener and are up to date. These dots will only appear next to contacts that are ranked.

ToDo – What's the big ToDo? Let me tell you. This is actually another view of your contacts. They will now be shown by ranking (Red, Yellow then Green). You can also see the next time you are supposed to contact them.

Popularity – Okay, well all know that the cool kids have BlackBerrys. This feature is a point system. Points are earned each time communication happens. More points are earned if you reach out and touch someone rather than waiting for someone to reach you. I'm not sure how they came up with the values. For example, an outbound call netted me 13 points, while a response to an email awarded me with 18 points. Since using Sensobi, I've earned well over 300 points…too bad they aren't brownie points. Keep in mind that, if you don't contact someone for a while, you'll start to lose points.

Viewing Each Contact

Viewing contact info

Viewing Email

To see additional information for a contact, simply click on the desired name. The top of the contact screen will show the contacts name and company (if entered). It will also show the email address and phone number. If more than one number is assigned to the contact, you won't see the numbers. You are only told the total number of contact numbers entered, ie "2 phone numbers". You can also see the popularity points, ranking and last time you were contacted or made contact; a communication history. I like the fact that you can click on a specific entry in the history and view its details, whether it is an email, duration of a phone call or text message. Also, when viewing a contact, a row of commands appear at the bottom. You can use these to email, call, SMS, add a note, view additional info, and more. Sensobi Contacts also allows you to choose a follow up date, which can be saved in the calendar!

Follow Up

Multiple contact list viewing options are available through Sensobi contacts. Each view displays contacts with whom you have communicated within the last 30 days first. Here are the available views:

Importance – Based on the popularity points system. It's a descending list with contacts with the most points on top. You can see the total points for a contact and the last communication (with its individual point value).

Guess who won this popularity contest?

Inner Circle – The initial view of the app, as described earlier.

Last Contact – 30 day contacts are viewed by the most recent communication first. Non-30 day contacts are listed alphabetically.

Alphabetical – Shows all contacts in alphabetical order; completely disregarding the 30 day rule, points or ranking. Entries for Companies are listed before entries for Individuals.

Conclusion

Sensobi Contacts is an interesting way to manage your contacts and see which relationships (professional or otherwise) you need to work on. The idea of a points system for contact is, dare I say, fun! Your communication history no longer requires guessing, as each contact entry displays it for you! For more information on the free beta application Sensobi Contacts, check out sensobi.com