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iPhone: How to disable short names for contacts

By default, your iPhone will shorten last names for contacts that you choose to provide a last name for. This wasn’t always the case, though, and it’s possible to revert it back to the original form with the full name displayed.

Follow along to learn how….

iPhone: How to disable short names

  1. Open up Settings > Contacts > Short Name.
  2. Here, you can choose to turn off Short Name, which will let you show full names in apps such as Messages. You can also turn on Prefer Nicknames, which will always use nicknames, provided you’ve added it in your contact.

This is super useful, especially if you have multiple contacts with last names that start with the same letter.

For more help getting the most out of your Apple devices, check out our how to guide as well as the following articles:


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