A vCard is a plain-text file format for contact details, published as an IETF standard and carried in files with a .vcf extension. It holds a name, phone numbers, email addresses, an organisation, a photograph and more, and every mainstream phone and mail client can import one.
The format, in numbers.
| Current version | vCard 4.0, defined in RFC 6350 (2011) |
|---|---|
| Still most compatible | vCard 3.0, defined in RFC 2425 and RFC 2426 |
| MIME type | text/vcard |
| File extension | .vcf |
| Structure | BEGIN:VCARD, a VERSION line, one property per line, END:VCARD |
| Line folding | Lines longer than 75 octets are folded onto continuation lines |
Write 3.0 when the file has to work everywhere. Some older Android address books and desktop clients still parse 4.0 imperfectly, and a contact that imports with a missing photo is worse than one written to an older version.
Where this shows up.
The save-to-contacts button on any digital business card produces one of these files. Its quality decides whether your name, company and photograph land in someone's phone correctly, or whether they end up with a contact called Untitled and a number they cannot place three weeks later.
The common mistake.
Emailing a .vcf as an attachment and expecting it to be opened. On a phone, an attachment is a detour; a link to a page with a save button is one tap. Send the page, and let the page hand over the file at the moment somebody wants it.
Sources.
Every figure above is from one of these. They are the standard, the registry or the platform’s own documentation — read them rather than take our word for it.