The Contacts app on OS X isn’t very interesting, but if you can use it to display your Gmail contacts, it’ll get a little bit better. Luckily it’s pretty easy to add your Google / Gmail contacts, but you’ll have to click the mouse a few times and maybe poke at the old keyboard once or twice to type in your email address and password.

It’s worth noting that if you set up Gmail in the Mail app you shouldn’t have to do this. Since we prefer Gmail in a browser, that’s why we’re writing this. Or just because we’re procrastinating the book editing that we’re supposed to be doing. Don’t judge.

Start by opening the Preferences for the Contacts app by heading up to the Menu bar. Go to Accounts and then click the + sign to add a new one.

Choose CardDAV for the account type, use your Gmail username and password, and put google.com as the server address. If you are using two-factor authentication, you’ll need to create a specific password for this account.