Is it possible to hide or archive a contact?

Hey ryanrhinkle,

Sounds like you're looking to hide some contacts. We'd be happy to help out.

If all you're looking for is a shorter list of contacts and don't want to remove any contacts incase you need them later, place the contacts you want to hide in a new contact group and then hide that group.

To do so, complete the following steps:

"Create a group

Groups are listed in alphabetical order, with All Contacts at the top of the list.

1. In Contacts on iCloud.com, click  in the sidebar, then choose New Group.
2. A new group is added, with a placeholder name.
3. 
4. Type a name for the group, then press Return or Enter.
5. To change the group name, double-click it and type a new name in the text field.

Add contacts to a group

When you add a contact to another group, the contact also remains in the All Contacts group.

1. In Contacts on iCloud.com, click All Contacts.
2. Drag one or more contacts to another group on the left.
3. You can add a contact to more than one group. Drag the contact to each group you want to add it to."

All this and more is available here: Create and manage groups of contacts on iCloud.com

Once complete, you can then hide the contact group on your device by going to Contacts app > Groups (top-left corner) and unchecking the group you don't want to appear in your Contacts list.

We hope this helps out.

Take care!