Feb 17, 2020

How to change the icon (colored circle with a letter) in front of emails to a picture.

When I read my gmail inbox mail (for instance on my iphone) 99% of the incoming mail has a letter. I would like to have a picture instead. For instance if I get an email from John Doe, I would like a picture of John Doe to appear rather than a D in a circle. I have tried to put pictures on the contacts (for instance I have a picture of John Doe in the contact list with John Doe's picture for the contact for John Doe) but still get a D not his picture. How do I fix this.

AND just to make it easier to communicate this issue, what is the letter next to the email in the inbox referred to as?

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Reading and Receiving Messages,Internet Explorer,Windows

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All Replies (2)

jp88

Diamond Product Expert

Volunteer helper, and user, in Google forums. Not a Google employee.

Feb 17, 2020

Go to contacts.google.com on a desktop type device.

Click on the contact that you wish to add an avatar.

Click on existing avatar, you can upload a photo.

Make sure all other Gmail accounts are signed out, a reboot may be needed, and could take 24 hours to dribble through.You may also need to clear the browser cache.

Richard Bridgforth

Original Poster

Feb 17, 2020

Thank you ... I will try this. I have uploaded the contacts from outlook using a CSV file (i did not attempt to remap the import / export). The picture (again I don't know the techncial term for the pictures or icons) showed up once and did not show up this time when I imported deleted and re-imported. I have over 1,000 contacts and would hate to have to go into Outlook for each one and re-upload the pictures .. but I will try what you have written at least see if that works. Thanks you and I will let you know what I find.