Merging identities
Attach an orphan identity to a contact, promote it to a new one, or split a merge back apart — every merge is a deliberate action you take, never something CommSync does for you.
When the same person reaches you from a phone number and an email address, CommSync can unify them under one contact. Their conversations then read as a single timeline. Unlike auto-classification features like labels or triage, a merge is always something you do. There is no background process that links two identities on your behalf.
Manual, on purpose
CommSync will never link two identities unless you choose to. There is no confidence score, no queue you must approve, and no automatic merge. Only the actions below run, and you start every one — from the contact panel, or from your agent through the MCP contact tools.
The four actions
Every identity in your contact graph either attaches to a contact or sits as an orphan (see Contacts & identities for how orphans arise). Four actions cover every way you reshape that graph:
| Action | What it does |
|---|---|
| Attach | Links an orphan identity to a contact you already have. Its thread history moves under that contact immediately. |
| Promote | Creates a brand-new contact from an orphan identity, with a display name you give it. |
| Merge | Links two identities — typically an orphan and one already on a contact — under a single contact in one step. |
| Split | Detaches an identity from its contact. This turns the identity back into an orphan and undoes an attach or merge. |
Two whole contact records for the same person?
These four actions move individual channels. When the duplicate is an entire contact record — two "Priya" entries, each with its own channels and notes — use Merging contacts instead. It folds one record into the other in a single step.
Attach an orphan to a contact
Find the orphan thread
A new sender's thread shows the raw phone number or email address until you attach it to someone.
Open the contact panel
Click the sender chip or the person icon in the thread header.
Choose Attach to existing contact
Search your contacts and pick the contact this identity belongs to. The thread moves under that contact right away — no confirmation queue, no waiting.
Promote an orphan to a new contact
If the sender is genuinely new, choose Promote to new contact from the same panel instead. CommSync creates a contact with just this identity attached and prompts you for a display name. From Contacts & identities you can also promote an orphan directly from the Contacts view.
Split a merge back apart
Merged the wrong two identities, or want to un-link one you attached by mistake?
Open the contact
Find the contact in the contact panel or the Contacts view.
Find the identity to detach
Find the phone number or email address you want to remove from this contact.
Choose Split (or Detach)
The identity becomes an orphan again. Its thread history detaches from the contact. The thread then shows the raw address again.
Splitting is not destructive
CommSync deletes nothing — the identity and its messages still exist, they simply no longer link to that contact. Re-attach it (to the same contact or a different one) whenever you like.
Your contact graph scopes every merge
Your contact graph is private to you (see Core concepts). When you merge, attach, split, or promote an identity, only your view changes. A teammate's contact graph for the same phone number or email address is completely independent, and they make their own decisions about it.
From an agent
The same four actions are available as MCP tools, so an agent with an API key can clean up your contact graph programmatically:
merge_identities(identityAId, identityBId)
split_identity(identityId)
attach_identity_to_contact(personId, identityId)
promote_identity_to_contact(identityId, displayName, notes?)See MCP server for the full tool reference. This covers access gates and parameters.