If you are not a hardline Angry Birds or Temple Run player, chances are that the two iPhone apps you use the most are Contacts and Calendar.
Under iOS 7 both the Contacts and Calendar apps underwent a substantial transformation. Think you know it all? Read on and find out how easy it is to block contacts, delete nagging contact suggestions from popping up or to zip through time with the new iPhone Calendar app. 
In addition to exploring the features of the iOS Contacts and Calendar apps on the iPhone, learn how to manage iPhone contacts and calendar events directly from your PC:
Manage iPhone contacts and calendars
iPhone Calendar app re-vamped
The iPhone Calendar app under iOS 7 is as streamlined and as practical as ever. The old skeuomorphic design is gone for the sake of simplicity and workability. Once you open the Calendar app, you are taken to the default Day view where today’s events are displayed. At the same time, you can scroll through the days of the week on top. 
What happened to event list view?
The list view is gone from the Calendar app under iOS 7. Now you can quickly invoke a list of events by tapping the search symbol on top. 
Whooshing through time
You can quickly whiz from day- to month- to year- view by tapping the top left corner of each section. At any point of time, you can create a new event by using the “+” button. 
New alert time one week before event
The iOS 7 Calendar app includes a new alert time period. You can now set up to be notified for an event up to 1 week in advance. This is especially handy for appointments which require extensive preparation. 
New calendar settings
Calendar settings remain largely unchanged under iOS 7. The only exception is that you can now set the starting day of the week (default is Sunday). You can also set the Default Alert Times for all calendar events to “1 week before” a feature unavailable in iOS 6. To access calendar settings navigate to Settings > Mail, Contacts, Calendars. 
Calendar settings remain largely unchanged under iOS 7. The only exception is that you can now set the starting day of the week (default is Sunday). You can also set the Default Alert Times for all calendar events to “1 week before” a feature unavailable in iOS 6. To access calendar settings navigate to Settings > Mail, Contacts, Calendars.
Where did the “Invitees” option go after update to iOS 7?
A blog reader told us about a problem with the iOS Calendar app where the “Invitees” option disappears after updating to iOS 7. 
If you experience this issue, all you need to do in order to be able to invite people to your iPhone calendar events is to sync back the iPhone calendar with iCloud. To do so, navigate to Settings > iCloud and place the Calendars switch to the ON position. 
Once you merge the iPhone calendar to iCloud, the “Invitee” option becomes available again.
The Contacts app under iOS 7
The iOS 7 Contacts adopts the minimalistic look present throughout Apple’s latest mobile OS. Flipping through the contacts app one finds it contains lots of text labels and few icons which are quickly deciphered. 
Adding contacts
There are multiple ways to create contacts on the iPhone. It is easier than ever to add contacts form the Phone and Messages apps. To set up a new contact entry from within the Recent-calls list simply tap on the “i” symbol, next select “Create New Contact” or “Add to Existing Contact”. 
It less obvious how to save contacts from within the Messages app. If you are looking through a text message, to create a contact associated with the sender’s number, tap “Contact” then tap “Create New Contact”. 
When creating a new contact on the iPhone, you’ll notice that the contact photos are not square as in iOS 6 but are now round. Also, the “social profile” and “instant message fields” are now directly accessible from the main Edit view. Previously, one had to dig those fields up by tapping on “add field”. 
Contact fields and custom labels
As with iOS 6, the Contacts app in iOS 7 offers a myriad of detail fields which can be added to the contact. You can quickly fill out information about the contact’s address, birthday and other important dates, related people and so on.
You can also add custom labels to almost any new field. For example, add the plate number of your partner’s car, by tapping “add address”. Next, instead of selecting “home” or “work”, create a new label for the address field called “Car plate” by tapping “Add Custom Label”. 
Those of you who use lots of custom labels, will be unpleasantly surprised by the fact that the list of previously-created labels does not appear in alphabetical order like it used to in iOS 6. You will now also be unable to delete any of the previously-created custom labels. This makes selecting a custom label from the list time consuming especially if you’ve got a couple of dozen label entries. Many users have voiced complaints over the nuisance and some have even found workarounds until a fix is issued.
Interacting with Contact entries
Go to a contact entry and you can instantly call, message, or FaceTime by tapping on the respective symbols. You can also share the contact via a text message, email, or AirDrop. If you added a street address, you can tap on it to look up the location via the native Maps app. 
Blocking intruders from contacting you
Ever since the introduction of FaceTime and iMessage, there was a steadily growing list of iOS users who complained over the inability to block people. Apple have finally introduced the new feature with their latest iOS. All you need to do in order to block a contact from calling or texting you is to tap “Block this caller”. The option is only available if you access the contact entry via the Phone or Messages app. 
NOTE: you can’t block people who haven’t yet called or texted you.
Managing your iPhone address book
There are a number of ways to manage contacts on the iPhone. You can sync the entire address book to a cloud account such as iCloud, Gmail, or Yahoo. You can also opt out and keep the contacts offline, locally on the iPhone. To access the iPhone contact sync settings, navigate to Settings > Mail, Contacts, Calendars.
If you are on a Windows PC, you can transfer and back up the iPhone address book to Windows Contacts. If you have a Mac computer and are using Mavericks, the latest Mac OS X, you can unfortunately not keep iPhone contacts offline on the Mac. You can only sync the iPhone address book with iCloud. The reason: Apple has quietly removed the “Sync Address Book Contacts” feature beginning from iTunes 11.1.2 for Mac.
Here’s what the the Mac Help Center has to say about Mac OS X’s switch from offline sync to cloud-based sync. 
Delete auto-complete contact entries
Ever wondered how to delete contact entries from the auto-complete when composing emails or typing text messages? iOS 7 makes this possible. To stop a contact from showing under auto-complete simply tap the “i” symbol next to the list entry once auto-complete pops up. From the next screen, tap “Remove From Recents”. 
NOTE: Auto-complete entries are not necessarily contacts saved to your address book. These are simply numbers or email addresses you have contacted in the past via a text message or email.
The new iOS Calendar and Contacts apps are as useful and practical as ever and with streamlined look. Apple this time made sure to include long requested features such as contact block and deleting contact entries from auto-complete. Do you like the new look of the Contacts and Calendar apps? Let us know in the comments section below.
