In or On Contacts?

Question

I'm making a chat application and when the user chooses to delete someone I need to show a confirmation window, but I'm unsure which to use.

Option 1

Are you sure you want to delete? You will no longer see this person in your Contacts.

Option 2

Are you sure you want to delete? You will no longer see this person on your Contacts.

Is one more correct or more often used than the other?

My vote is for "IN." Contacts in this case acts as a container that contains many individuals. I have never heard a sentence like this constructed with "ON" rather than "IN." For context, I am native American English speaker in the northeast United States. — Lumberjack, Jul 24 '14 at 18:12
Really that sounds like a contextual question based on your implementations and preferences. Either works just fine. What makes the most sense to you? I have people IN my contacts. I have people ON my contacts list — MegaMark, Jul 24 '14 at 18:19
There is a question which is often cited as a duplicate: Should I use "in" or "on". The answer depends on how you visualise your Contacts: as a container/group/collection, or a list. — Andrew Leach, Jul 24 '14 at 18:19
@MegaMark I concur. I have heard the usage you shared as well. However, without the word "list," the sentence would be awkward to my ears. — Lumberjack, Jul 24 '14 at 18:24

score 0 · Accepted Answer · answered Jul 24 '14 at 18:15

"In your Contacts" sounds like it would be more appropriate. Since your contacts are a group of people and this person will not longer be in that group.

I feel this is somewhat similar to when deciding whether you "Sign in/on" or "Log in/on". It seems like the more acceptable approach is the word "in" for the reason that you are dealing with a collection of objects.

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Jul 24 '14 at 19:48

The concept of "Contacts" on the internet works a lot like a physical address book and has many of the same expressions.

So someone would be in your contacts, since information shared by books is said to be in a book.

However, if you change that to "contact list," then it becomes on.

"Did you find Brad in your contacts?"

"No, he wasn't on my contact list."

*In* or *On* Contacts?

2 Answers2

In or On Contacts?