Sync the Microsoft 365 GAL to Android contacts with Intune

Your users see colleagues in the Outlook and Teams global address list (GAL), but when one of them calls, the Android phone shows a bare number. As the Intune administrator, you want to fix it once, centrally, for every managed device, without asking users to import anything. This guide shows how to get the Microsoft 365 GAL into Android contacts with Microsoft Intune, step by step.

What Intune can and cannot do on its own

Intune deploys apps and settings; it does not copy the directory into the phone's address book. The built-in options all stop short of the GAL:

• Outlook contact sync. Outlook for Android can save contacts to the native Contacts app, and Intune app configuration can control it. But it only syncs the contacts of the user's own mailbox, not the company directory.

• GAL lookup in a mail app. Some Exchange mail apps let users search the directory by name. Nothing is stored on the phone, so an incoming call is still not recognised.

• CSV or vCard imports. They work on day one, then go stale with every hire, departure and number change, and Intune has no way to keep them up to date.

To see a colleague's name when the phone rings, the directory has to be in the native address book, and kept in sync. That takes an app that writes Entra ID users to Contacts, deployed by Intune like any other managed app.

Prerequisites

• Android devices enrolled in Intune with Android Enterprise, as work profile (personally owned) or fully managed devices.

• Managed Google Play connected to your Intune tenant.

• The Intune Administrator role, and a Microsoft Entra ID administrator for the one-time consent.

• Phone numbers filled in for users in Entra ID: only users with a number are synced to contacts.

Step 1: grant admin consent in Microsoft Entra ID

Calliente reads the directory with delegated Microsoft Graph permissions: User.Read.All to read user names and phone numbers, GroupMember.Read.All for group filtering, plus the standard sign-in scopes. An Entra ID administrator approves them once for the whole tenant; nothing is written to the directory and consent can be revoked at any time from Enterprise applications. The details are in Microsoft Entra ID permissions used by Calliente.

Step 2: approve the app in Managed Google Play

1. In the Microsoft Intune admin center, go to Apps > Android > Add.

2. Choose Managed Google Play app, search for Calliente and approve it.

3. Click Sync. After a few minutes, Calliente appears in the list of Android apps.

Step 3: assign it to your users

Open the app, then Properties > Assignments > Edit. Add the user or device groups that should receive the directory, as Required to install it automatically, or Available for enrolled devices for a pilot. Steps 2 and 3 are also detailed in Deploy the Calliente application on Android with Microsoft Intune.

Step 4: let work contacts identify calls

On work profile devices, the directory lands in the work profile's address book, which keeps company contacts out of personal backups and removes them with the profile. For the dialer to show their names, check your Android Enterprise work profile device restrictions: the setting Search work contacts and display work contact caller-id in personal profile must not be blocked. It is the most common cause of an "unknown number" when the contacts are there.

Step 5: users sign in once

Each user opens Calliente and signs in with their Microsoft 365 account. Colleagues then appear in the Android Contacts app, and the list refreshes automatically every day: arrivals, departures and number changes follow Entra ID with no action from IT.

Going further

• Sync only some groups. With the Business plan, group filtering limits each team to the contacts it needs.

• No copy of your directory elsewhere. The app reads Entra ID from the phone; Calliente does not store your contacts on its servers.

• Not on Intune? The same approach works with VMware Workspace ONE.

For the user-side view of the problem and what the work profile changes, read Microsoft 365 directory in Android contacts: the work profile guide.

Try it on your tenant

The 30-day free trial runs on your own Microsoft 365 tenant, for 2 users and with no credit card: deploy it to two test devices through Intune and watch real colleagues show up on a real call. After that, Calliente costs €6 per user per year (€8 for the Business plan).