VCF

A standardized file format used for storing and exchanging contact information. Email clients, mobile devices, and contact management applications widely support it. The VCF format allows users to easily share contact details between different platforms and devices, such as names, phone numbers, email addresses, and more. The terms vCard and VCF are often used interchangeably when referring to the file format and its contents, but VCF is the more common file type. Both are a plain text file that follows a specific structure to organize contact information.

BEGIN:VCARD
VERSION:3.0
N:LastName;FirstName;MiddleName;Prefix;Suffix
FN:FullName
ORG:Organization
TITLE:JobTitle
TEL;TYPE=WORK,VOICE:PhoneNumber
TEL;TYPE=CELL:MobileNumber
ADR;TYPE=WORK:;;StreetAddress;City;State;ZipCode;Country
EMAIL;TYPE=PREF,INTERNET:EmailAddress
URL:WebsiteURL
END:VCARD

Basic Structure

VCF files use a structured text format to organize contact information. Each piece of information is stored on a separate line, with a specific prefix identifying the data type. The basic structure includes fields for names, organization details, phone numbers, addresses, email addresses, and URLs.

• BEGIN:VCARD: Marks the start of the vCard data.
• VERSION: Specifies the version of the vCard format.
• N: Contains the name components (LastName; FirstName; MiddleName; Prefix; Suffix).
• FN: Displays the full name.
• ORG: Lists the organization name.
• TITLE: Indicates the job title.
• TEL: Provides phone numbers with type specifications (e.g., work, cell).
• ADR: Includes address details (street, city, state, zip code, country).
• EMAIL: Specifies email addresses.
• URL: Contains website URLs.
• END:VCARD: Marks the end of the vCard data.

Versions

VCF has evolved with multiple versions, each introducing new features and improvements.

• vCard 2.1: An older version still widely supported.
• vCard 3.0: An updated version with added features and properties.
• vCard 4.0: The latest version, introduced in 2011, with improvements in multilingual support and data validation.

Most modern contact management systems and email clients support vCard 3.0 and 4.0 formats while retaining backward compatibility with vCard 2.1.

Data Interchange

VCF files are used as a data interchange format in various applications, including smartphone contacts, personal digital assistants (PDAs), personal information managers (PIMs), and customer relationship management systems (CRMs). Different "vCard variants" have been developed for specific niches, such as XML representation, JSON representation, or web pages.

Usage

VCF files can be attached to email messages, sent via Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS), shared on the World Wide Web, instant messaging, NFC, or through QR codes. They can contain a variety of information, including name and address details, phone numbers, email addresses, URLs, logos, photographs, and audio clips.