Key:contact:*

Prefix contact:*
Description
The contact:* keys describe contact information.
Group: annotations
Used on these elements
See also
phone=* fax=* mobile=* email=* website=* addr:*=*
Status: in use
taginfo: contact:*

This page describes a key prefix rather than a simple key.

The prefix for several contact:*=* keys to describe contact information.

Values

You should only add contact information to POIs and not to any private address!

Email-addresses which are only available on a website after solving a captcha, or which are in other ways obfuscated to protect against SPAM-bots should not be tagged in OSM. The same applies to fax and phone numbers.

This article or section contains questionable, contentious or controversial information. See the talk page for more information.

Some details below are incompatible with phone numbers outside of Germany or when written in languages other than German.

What is used here: phone and fax number format (DIN 5008): +<country_code> <national_destination_code> <subscriber_number>-<direct_inward_dialing>

Contact

Key	Value	Element	Comment	Taginfo	Photo
Contact details
contact:phone	+44 11223 456-789		Telephone number (DIN 5008 format: +<country_code> <national_destination_code> <subscriber_number>-<direct_inward_dialling>). See also the more popular phone=*.)
contact:website	http://example.com		Website-url (see also the more popular website=* and website:*=*)
contact:email	mail@example.com		E-mail address (see also the more popular email=*)
contact:fax	+44 11223 456-789		A dedicated telephone number connecting to a telefacsimile (fax) machine. See also the more popular fax=*).
contact:mobile	+44 11223 456-789		A telephone number connecting to a mobile phone. The more general tag contact:phone=* should be preferred.
contact:tty	+44 11223 456-789		A dedicated telephone number connecting to a teletypewriter (tty).
contact:sms	+44 11223 456-789		A dedicated telephone number that receives SMS text messages, but does not have voice-calling capability.
Key	Value	Element	Comment	Taginfo	Photo
Social media, messengers, web services
contact:facebook	full facebook URL or FacebookUserName		Facebook profile - preferably the full URL (because there are many different kinds of pages in facebook), though simply the public username is also used. (see also facebook=*)
contact:Instagram contact:threads	full Instagram URL or InstagramUserName		Instagram account name (also used on Threads) or full Instagram URL
contact:vk	VK.com		VK link to social network service
contact:twitter	OpenStreetMap		Twitter account name or full URL (see also twitter=*)
contact:youtube	Youtube account/channel URL		YouTube URL of account or channel officially used by the POI. Sometimes only the YouTube username is indicated.
contact:ok	ok URL		ok link to social network service.
contact:linkedin	Username		LinkedIn account name or full URL
contact:telegram	https://t.me/Example or Telegram number		Telegram account name or full URL or Telegram number officially used by the POI.
contact:whatsapp	WhatsApp number		WhatsApp number officially used by the POI.
contact:webcam	webcam URL		For denoting a webcam's location, use a node with the tag surveillance:type=camera. See also Webcams for more information
contact:viber	+44 11223 456-789		Viber account name (phone number) or full URL
contact:tiktok	Username		TikTok account name or full URL
contact:skype	SkypeName		Skype login name
contact:pinterest	Pinterest URL		Pinterest URL officially used by the POI.
contact:foursquare	https://foursquare.com/v/Example		Foursquare account name (hash) or full URL
contact:xing	Username		XING account name or full URL
contact:mastodon	@username@server.example		Mastodon social network handle or full URL
contact:line	Line ID		Line ID or URL
contact:flickr	Flickr URL		Flickr URL. Similar to all others, this is where the POI can be officially contacted, or where they broadcast information. This should not point to a self-taken photo depicting the POI.
contact:vhf	VHF Channel or Frequency		Of interest for maritime and airport services
contact:wechat	wechat ID		Wechat ID
contact:matrix	@username:server.example or #room:server.example		Matrix social network handle
contact:sip	sip@example.com		SIP address
contact:diaspora	username@server.example		Diaspora social network handle or full URL
contact:gnusocial	username@server.example		GNU Social social network handle or full URL
contact:xiaohongshu	Xiaohongshu URL		Xiaohongshu social network handle or full URL
contact:mobilizon	@username@example.com or https://example.com		Mobilizon social network handle or full URL
contact:user_defined	user defined		All commonly used namespace keys according to Taginfo
Key	Value	Element	Comment	Taginfo	Photo
Mail address
contact:street	street name		For use when the contact address is not the same as the address of the physical location. For denoting the street name where a POI is located, see also addr:street=*
contact:housenumber	housenumber		For use when the contact address is not the same as the address of the physical location. (Status: "draft" ) For denoting the housenumber where a POI is located, see also addr:housenumber=*
contact:postcode	postcode		For use when the contact address is not the same as the address of the physical location. For denoting the postcode number where a POI is located, see also addr:postcode=*
contact:city	city name		For use when the contact address is not the same as the address of the physical location. For denoting the city name where a POI is located, see also addr:city=*
contact:country	country		For use when the contact address is not the same as the address of the physical location. For denoting the country where a POI is located, see also addr:country=*
contact:pobox	Post Box Number		Companies and organizations sometimes have a post office box (P.O. Box) to receive mail instead of to their physical address. The value should contain the box number as well as a post office identifier, such as a post code. Note this may be different from addr:postcode=*.

This table is a wiki template with a default description in English. Editable here.

Overpass Turbo query (2022-02-04) showing the use of contact: keys on POI addresses in France: nearly 18000 locations listed.

Addressing scheme in France

Note that in France (especially), contact:housenumber keys are mostly used on POIs to add their addresses without consideration of whether the physical address is different from the postal address but instead of addr: keys reserved for mapping addresses as unique features.

This usage is relatively widespread, mostly in France (+65000 POI's), it has not yet (2025-02-13) been approved by the community.

contact:housenumber=*

More details at taginfo

More details at taginfo

More about this practice:

• A draft about this usage called "Schéma de Charlieu" can be found on the OSM wiki.
• cartes.app, Organic Maps or CartoVrac displays POI's contact: addresses when they exist.
• A JOSM user preset called "Charlieu Schema for POI's" exists for easy addition of POI's addresses and other contact information with contact: prefix keys.

Existing tagging schemes

For the most common keys, the shorter version outside the 'contact' scheme is used more frequently: phone=*, fax=*, email=* and website=*, with other contact tags used rarely outside the namespace scheme. Both schemes have been in use for a long time and still exist in parallel. Many applications are able to use both of them.

At the same time a proposal to deprecate contact:phone=* was not successful - Discussions/tagging/contact:phone or phone. Idea of deprecating either tags without contact: prefix or ones with contact prefix is repeatedly suggested, often triggering huge discussion and ending with conclusion that there is no consensus. Please, read past discussion before starting a new one.

Popularity of phone=* and contact:phone=* indicating ongoing and uninterrupted preference of simple tagging scheme over contact: prefix, see also which is most probably induced by editor presets.

There were also attempts to deprecate, mechanically retag or promote either version of many other contact tags

See also

• phone=* - A telephone number associated with the object
• website=* - Specifying the link to the official website for a feature
• email=* - An email address associated with the object
• url=* - Specifying an url related to a feature
• fax=* - A fax number associated with the object
• Bremen Schema - A schema that proposes to add contact information about a POI to the node via using contact:* instead of adding addr:*
• Charlieu Schema - Like the Bremen Schema, quite popular in France and Western Europe.
• Key:operator#Further details - subkeys used to add further detail about the operator
• emergency:phone=* - A phone number for emergencies associated with the object
• addr:*=* - addr is the prefix for several addr:* keys to describe addresses
• object:*=* - Used to describe the position of man-made features where nothing will be delivered at. Address tagging for those features that shouldn't be tagged with the `addr` prefix

External Links

• OpenLinkMap - A slippy map, making this tag's data available as clickable POIs. (Dead link. Latest archived copy on Web Archive, retrieved on 2024-07-15)
• JOSM preset
• wikipedia:Telephone numbering plan
• wikipedia:List of country calling codes
• wikipedia:E.164 (ITU-T recommendation on how to save phone numbers)
• OmniROM devs will use OSM phone numbers (Dead link. Latest archived copy on Web Archive, retrieved on 2024-07-15)