Business card scanner & contact manager · iPhone & iPad

Scan a business card. Get a contact in seconds.

Point the camera at a business card: name, company, email and phone are ready before the conversation ends. Read on the iPhone — nothing to upload, nothing to wait for. No server, no account.

  • A business card filed in seconds, not typed by hand
  • A whole event in one batch — up to 24 photos
  • Duplicates caught before they cost you a cleanup
  • On the device, so the card never leaves your hands
Coming soon on the App Store See how it works

7-day trial · 3 new contacts a day · No card, no sign-up · iOS 26 / iPadOS 26 or later.

ContactSentry business card scanner on iPhone: a scanned card with name, company and role ready to save as a contact.
See it happen

From business card to contact, without the typing.

Photograph, confirm, save. Scroll — the phone follows along.

Andrea M. Serra / Harbor Quill LLP and Michael Turner / Northbeam Civic Advisory are fictional demo profiles created for this walkthrough.
  1. 01

    Frame it. ContactSentry does the rest.

    One Scan button, the photo library, or the hands-free scanner that captures when the text is steady. ContactSentry decides whether it is a card, a screenshot, a badge, a vCard or several cards in one photo — no picker. If it finds more than one, you confirm the grid, then Review. Apple Vision reads emails, phones, websites, addresses and social profiles as separate fields, on the device.

  2. 02

    Review in seconds, not minutes.

    Every field is editable, clearable, deletable. Skip discards without writing. While you type a street, Apple Maps suggests completions. Apple Maps can check that the printed address really exists: if it matches you see a green check, if not you pick from up to three suggestions. On iPhones with Apple Intelligence, the on-device model fills name, company, role and tags. Emails, phones and URLs still come only from what Vision read.

  3. 03

    Contacts, only when you say so.

    Before writing to your address book ContactSentry looks for the same person by email, phone or name. Merge to fill the gaps, replace, save as new or keep both. An explicit tap, never a silent write.

  4. 04

    Your own archive. Searchable in an instant.

    Everyone you met lands in a local database with tags, notes and the original photo, placed on a map from the address on the card. Find someone by name, company or city, without scrolling through a thousand contacts.

  5. 05

    Hand out your card without printing one.

    Build one personal card on the trial, up to 10 with Pro. Each becomes a plain black-on-white QR code carrying a standard vCard. Any iPhone or Android camera reads it and offers to save you. The other person needs no app.

A business card under a gold shield, illustrating on-device protection.
Privacy & security

Your contacts never touch a server. Because there isn’t one.

ContactSentry has no backend. Photos, recognized text and contacts stay on your iPhone. There is no account to create because none is needed: your purchase is tied to your Apple ID through the App Store.

  • On-device Apple VisionThe business card reader — cropping, text and field detection — runs in the Neural Engine of your iPhone. No photo and no line of text is sent anywhere to be recognized.
  • No server, no account, no analyticsPrivacy by design: data minimization is structural, with no developer-side retention and no third-party SDKs. This supports GDPR-conscious workflows, while you remain responsible for the contacts you choose to process.
  • Face ID lock and privacy coverThe archive is stored with complete iOS file protection. Lock the app behind biometrics, and a privacy cover hides its content in the app switcher.
  • Works in airplane modeReading, review, archive, map pins and the QR need no connection. Optional address checks and Maps suggestions use Apple Maps and can be switched off in Privacy. Export a vCard whenever you want the data back.

Read the privacy policy

Features

Built to save hours. Not to collect data.

Typing a business card into Contacts is the slow part. A photo replaces it, and a conference is one batch of 24. A business card organizer and contact manager that runs on your iPhone and iPad. No account, no analytics.

Find anyone in a second

A private archive with tags, notes and the original photo. Search by name, company or city.

No more duplicates

Every card is matched against Contacts before anything is written. You decide with one tap.

Everyone on a map

Addresses verified by Apple Maps and pinned. Open directions in Apple or Google Maps.

  • Batch import Pro24 photos, several cards per photo.
  • Import from ContactsLinks existing cards, never clones.
  • Social linksLinkedIn, X, WeChat, Telegram.
  • Ten languagesLatin, Cyrillic, Arabic, CJK cards.
  • Tags & notesEvent, room, what was agreed.
  • Backup with photos ProZIP export, restore on a new iPhone.
  • Contacts cleanup ProDuplicates, ghosts, incomplete cards.
  • vCard & CSV exportYour data, back whenever you want.
Apple Intelligence · on supported iPhones

It fills name, company and role. Vision decides the rest.

Emails, phones and URLs are never invented by a model: they come from what Apple Vision actually read. Without Apple Intelligence the app works the same — you type those three fields.

Who it is for

Contacts that cannot sit on someone else’s server.

Diplomatic receptions, classified briefings, client files. ContactSentry stays on the iPhone you already carry into those rooms.

Diplomatic & consular

Receptions, national days, delegations. Dozens of cards a week, from people whose details are sensitive by definition. Tag by mission, country and event; find them again in a second.

Defense & government

No network needed, no cloud processor, complete file protection, biometric lock. On approved devices, scan and review offline wherever data must remain inside the building.

Legal, finance, healthcare

Client and counterpart details stay under your professional duty of confidentiality, on a device you control, with an export you can hand to your own systems.

Trade fairs & business

Fifty cards on Friday, all in Contacts and tagged by Saturday morning. Duplicates caught before they multiply. Your own QR card instead of a box of paper.

A Potomac & Pine business card on a walnut desk next to an iPhone showing ContactSentry Review with the same contact already read.
A sentry, not a service. Nothing leaves the device, so nothing has to be trusted to anyone else.
My Card

Your digital business card, as a QR code.

Create your personal card — one on the trial, up to 10 with Pro, for work, institutional and personal use. Each one becomes a plain, black-on-white QR code carrying a standard vCard. Point any iPhone or Android camera at it and the phone offers to save the contact. No app on their side, no link to a server, no record of who scanned.

  • 1 personal card on the trial, up to 10 with Pro
  • Full-screen mode with a brightness boost for dim halls
  • Print-ready PNG for badges and event posters
  • Notes, tags and location are never included in the code

Try an introduction now: scan this code with your phone camera. It carries a demo contact.

QR code containing a demo contact. Scan it with your camera to try it.
Julia Ferrante
Architect · Ferrante Studio
ContactSentry

Scan it. Any iPhone or Android camera offers to save Julia — a fictional demo contact. They do not need the app.

Worldwide

Speaks your language.

  • English
  • Italiano
  • Deutsch
  • Français
  • Español
  • Português
  • 日本語
  • 한국어
  • 简体中文
  • العربية

Ten interface languages, chosen automatically from your iPhone or set inside the app. Reading uses Apple Vision’s automatic language detection, so cards in Latin, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Cyrillic or Arabic script are read whatever language the app is set to.

Pricing

Free to start. Pro when the stack gets tall.

A 7-day trial with 3 new contacts a day. After that the archive stays on your iPhone. Pro removes the cap.

7-day trial
$0

7 days. 3 new contacts a day. No card, no sign-up, no automatic conversion.

  • 3 new contacts a day, for 7 days
  • Archive, tags, notes, search, map, vCard export — also after the trial
  • 1 My Card QR code
  • Import from iPhone Contacts (new people count toward the daily cap)
  • Duplicate detection when saving to Contacts
  • CSV export of the first 5 rows
Coming soon on theApp Store

App Store prices in your local currency; taxes may apply. Prices may change. Purchases and renewals are handled by Apple through your Apple ID.

FAQ

Business card app questions, answered.

How fast is filing a business card?

A photo, then the fields are on screen to check. Reading runs on the iPhone, so there is no upload and no queue. You confirm and save. Up to 24 photos go through as one batch, and you still confirm each card — speed without a silent write into Contacts.

Is ContactSentry a business card manager or a CRM?

A private business card manager. It scans and reads business cards, organizes them with tags, notes and a map, and saves them to iPhone Contacts when you tap. It is not a cloud CRM and has no server. When your team needs one, export to CSV or vCard and import into the CRM you already use.

Is ContactSentry really free?

Yes, to download. You get a 7-day trial with 3 new contacts a day and 1 My Card, no card or account. After the trial the archive, search, map, vCard export and that My Card QR stay available. Saving new contacts, extra My Cards (up to 10) and Pro tools (cleanup, ZIP backup, full CSV, archive → Contacts) require a purchase. There is no automatic charge. Deleting and reinstalling the app does not start a new trial.

Does it work offline?

Yes. Camera, cropping, text recognition, field completion, archive, map pins already saved and the QR card all work in airplane mode. Optional address checks and street completions talk to Apple Maps and stay off if you switch them off in Privacy, or if there is no connection. You need a network only for the App Store and for those optional Maps lookups.

Where is my data stored?

In the app’s archive, on your iPhone, protected by iOS data protection. If you tap “Add to Contacts”, the contact is also written to your iOS address book. ContactSentry has no servers: photos and contacts are not uploaded anywhere. A trial timestamp may be kept in iCloud Keychain so reinstalling the app does not reset the 7-day trial.

How does ContactSentry support GDPR-conscious use?

ContactSentry has no developer-operated server, account or analytics pipeline, so there is no transfer of contact data to us. Everything stays under your control on the device, with tools to view, correct, export and erase it. This privacy-by-design architecture reduces unnecessary disclosure, but your organization remains responsible for its own lawful basis, policies and device management. We make no certification claim.

Can I import people from iPhone Contacts?

Yes. Archive or Settings opens “Add from Contacts”: you pick who enters. If email or phone already matches a card, ContactSentry links it instead of cloning. New people count toward the daily trial cap; linking does not. Limited Contacts access shows only the people you shared with the app.

How does address verification work?

In Review, ContactSentry can ask Apple Maps to confirm the printed address and to suggest streets as you type. If Maps finds the same address, Review shows a “Confirmed by Maps” check and fills only empty fields such as postcode or city. Below that you pick from up to three candidates. The printed block is never overwritten. The switch lives in Settings › Privacy and is on by default; offline or switched off, nothing is sent. The query goes to Apple, not to us.

Can I restore a backup on a new iPhone?

Pro can export a ZIP with cards, original photos, tags and dates, and import it again — including an archive made by the previous brand name. Cards already present (same id) are skipped. vCard export stays on the trial: it is the no-lock-in path, and importing a vCard goes through Review and the daily cap. Full ZIP backup and restore are Pro so a complete archive cannot be given away for free.

Can someone without ContactSentry scan my QR card?

Yes. The QR contains a standard vCard. The built-in camera on any iPhone or Android phone recognizes it and offers to add the contact. No app, no link, no server, and ContactSentry does not know when or by whom it was scanned.

Which languages does ContactSentry speak?

English, Italian, German, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Japanese, Korean, Simplified Chinese and Arabic. The app follows your iPhone language by default; you can pick a different one in Settings inside the app. Cards in any of these scripts are read regardless of the app language.

Does merging duplicates change my iCloud contacts?

Yes. Contacts cleanup edits the Contacts database on your device, exactly as the Contacts app would, so changes sync wherever your contacts do. You confirm each merge or deletion before it happens. Export a VCF backup first from the same screen.

Which iPhones support Apple Intelligence?

iPhone 15 Pro, 15 Pro Max and every later model, with Apple Intelligence turned on in Settings. On other iPhones running iOS 26 the app still works: reading with Apple Vision is identical, and you fill in name, company and role yourself on the review screen.

Does it run on iPad and Mac? What about Android or Windows?

ContactSentry runs on iPhone and iPad with iOS 26 / iPadOS 26 or later. A Mac version, sharing the archive through your private iCloud, is on the roadmap. Android and Windows are not planned: the app relies on Apple Vision and Apple Intelligence.

Can I get a refund?

Purchases are handled by Apple. Refund requests go through reportaproblem.apple.com with your Apple ID, under App Store terms. To cancel the subscription: Settings › Apple ID › Subscriptions.

How do I delete my data?

Delete individual cards in the app, or uninstall it: the archive goes with it. There is nothing to erase on a server, because there are none. Contacts you added to your iOS address book stay in Contacts until you delete them there.

ContactSentry app icon

The next business card, in your Contacts in seconds.

Skip the evening of data entry. Coming soon to the App Store. Free to download. Pro from $29.99 a year or $79.99 once.

Coming soon on theApp Store

Requires an iPhone or iPad with iOS 26 / iPadOS 26 or later. Mac is on the roadmap.