Add contacts from business cards and save files

Take a photo of a business card and Mesy AI, the AI you chat with in Mesy, turns it into a new contact. You can also send it photos and documents to keep in Files. This works in Mesy on the web, and from your phone through Mesy on Telegram or WhatsApp.

Before Mesy AI adds anything, it shows you a confirm card: a box listing the records it adds. A record is one entry in Mesy, such as one person or one company. Mesy adds them only when you confirm.

Scan a business card on the web

To scan a card:

1. Open Mesy AI (the Chat item in the sidebar), or click the bar at the bottom of any other page. It reads “Ask Mesy anything…”, or the title of your current conversation.
2. Click the camera icon (Scan a business card) beside the message box.
3. Choose a photo of the card.
4. Wait while Mesy reads the card. A confirm card headed Review changes appears above the message box.

The confirm card shows the photo, a View in Files link, and one row for each record Mesy adds:

• a new contact for the person on the card
• a new company, if the card names a company that isn’t in Mesy yet

If the company is already in Mesy, there’s no company row. Mesy links the new contact to the company you already have.

Check each row before you confirm:

• Click the arrow at the end of a row to see its fields. A field is one piece of information, such as the name, email or phone. Correct anything Mesy misread.
• Untick a row to leave it out.
• Read any warning under a row. For example, “A contact matching ‘Jane Tan’ may already exist” means this person may already be in Mesy. If your business calls contacts something else, such as Clients, the warning uses that word.

To add the records, click the confirm button. It counts the ticked rows, so it reads Confirm 2 changes for a contact and a company. To drop the confirm card, click Discard.

If a required field is empty, the confirm button is greyed out. The confirm card tells you what to fill in, for example “Fill in Email to confirm”.

After you confirm, the heading changes to Changes applied. Each row has an Undo button in case something went wrong. See Review, approve and undo AI actions.

Until you confirm or discard it, the confirm card also waits on the Approvals page. Mesy keeps the photo in Files whether you confirm or not. Its Source column shows Web scan. When you confirm, Mesy links the photo to the new records.

Ask Mesy AI about a photo or document

To ask a question about a file:

1. Click the paperclip icon (Attach a file) beside the message box.
2. Pick the file. It shows as a small chip above the message box.
3. Type your question.
4. Click the send arrow. Mesy AI reads the file and answers.

You can also paste a file into the message box, or drag it onto the conversation. Mesy keeps every file you attach in Files, with the source Chat.

For size limits and which files Mesy AI can read, see Chat with Mesy AI.

Send a business card from Telegram or WhatsApp

You need Mesy on Telegram or Mesy on WhatsApp set up first. See Talk to Mesy on Telegram or Talk to Mesy on WhatsApp.

To send a card:

1. Take a photo of the business card.
2. Send the photo to Mesy with no caption. Mesy replies with a confirm card for the new contact.

On Telegram, the reply starts with “Business Card Extracted” and lists what Mesy found, such as the name, title, company, email and phone.

Tap ✓ Confirm to add the contact, or ✕ Discard to drop it. For the other buttons you may see, such as Review in Mesy, see Approve AI actions from a chat app.

Save photos and documents from Telegram or WhatsApp

Mesy treats a photo with no caption as a business card. To save any other photo, add a caption to it.

Mesy saves each photo and document to Files. It replies “Saved to Files:” with the file’s name. What comes next depends on what you sent:

• A PDF, or a picture sent as a document instead of a photo (JPEG, PNG, WebP or GIF): the reply includes a short summary of what’s in it.
• Any other file, such as a Word or Excel file: Mesy keeps it but doesn’t read it. The reply says “The file is kept, not read”.
• A photo with a caption: Mesy doesn’t summarise it. It saves the photo, then answers your caption.

A caption tells Mesy what to do with the file. For example, send a quotation with the caption “Link this to the Acme deal”. Mesy saves the file, then answers your caption as if you’d typed it. With no caption, the reply ends with “Ask me to link it to a record if you want it on one.”

Each file can be up to 20 MB on Telegram and 25 MB on WhatsApp.

In Files, these files show the source Telegram or WhatsApp assistant. They wait under Needs review until someone links them to a record or dismisses them.

Link saved files to a record

Files waiting under Needs review also show on the Approvals page, as a line such as “3 captures need review”. To link them to a record or clear them, see Clear the Needs review shelf.

If something doesn’t work

• If the web scanner says “Image type not supported”, use a JPEG, PNG, WebP or GIF photo. Some iPhone photos are in a format Mesy can’t read. Take a screenshot of the photo and scan that instead.
• If the web scanner says “Image too large”, use a photo under 25 MB.
• If scanning stops working on the web, wait a minute and try again. Each person can scan up to 10 cards a minute.
• If Mesy says “Could not extract contact info from this image.”, take a clearer photo with the whole card in view. On WhatsApp, the message reads “I couldn’t extract contact information.” Mesy still keeps the unclear photo in Files. From Telegram or WhatsApp, it waits under Needs review.
• If Mesy replies “This doesn’t look like a business card.” on Telegram or WhatsApp, it doesn’t add a contact. The photo waits in Files, under Needs review.
• If Telegram says “That photo is too large”, send a photo under 20 MB.
• If Mesy says “File type not allowed” when you attach a file on the web, Mesy doesn’t take that kind of file. It takes photos, audio, video, text files, PDFs, and Word, Excel, PowerPoint, ZIP and RTF files. It refuses programs, scripts, web page files, and SVG and XML files.