How to share a contact with someone nearby without internet

You can send a contact to someone standing near you with no internet, either with AirDrop or with a Bluetooth chat app that supports contacts. In Flight Mode Chat, a contact is one of the things you can send in a chat, along with text, images, voice notes and files.

The free built-in way

AirDrop is Apple’s own tool for this, and it is a good first choice. Open the contact in the Contacts app, choose Share Contact and pick the other person’s device. It works between nearby Apple devices without a mobile network. Both people need to allow AirDrop, and it suits a one-time handover.

Reading a number aloud or typing it into the other person’s phone also works, if you have a minute and no language barrier.

When a chat app is handy

AirDrop sends the item and that is it. If you are already talking to the person, sending the contact inside the chat keeps everything in one place.

I build Flight Mode Chat, so take this with that in mind. It sends messages between nearby phones over Bluetooth Low Energy, with no internet, no servers and no SIM. Besides contacts it sends text, images, voice notes and files, and everything is end-to-end encrypted. It runs on iPhone and iPad.

Steps

1. Both people install the app while there is still a connection.
2. Open it on both phones. It discovers nearby users automatically.
3. Open a private chat with the person.
4. Choose the contact you want to share and send it.
5. The other person receives it in the chat and can save it.

A short example: you meet a fellow traveller on a long flight, and want to pass along the number of a guide you used in the last city. You are both in Airplane Mode with Bluetooth on, and the contact arrives in the chat.

Things to keep in mind

• The other person needs the app too. The contact cannot go to someone who does not have it installed.
• It works with people close to you. It cannot send a contact by SMS or iMessage, and it cannot reach someone far away.
• A contact holds personal details. Send it in a private chat, since a public channel can be read by anyone nearby who has joined it.
• Check with the person whose number it is before passing it on. That is good manners.

When the other person does not have the app

Fall back to AirDrop if they have an Apple device, or write the number down. Once you both have a connection again, a normal message works fine.

Related guides

To see what else the app can send, read sending photos, voice notes and files without internet. For meeting people in the first place, see chatting with passengers on a plane, and for privacy, encrypted offline chat.