Digital Trends

A new application can automatically backup your vital contact information on a daily basis, keeping it safe from disasters and everyday mishaps.

It doesn’t matter whether your mobile phone slipped out of your pocket on the bus, fell into a public toilet in a moment of clutziness, or even ended up whipped against a wall in anger. Your contacts are gone. AT&T announced a new mobile backup service on Wednesday that aims to eliminate this scenario by making the process of saving contact information much easier.

While it’s already possible to backup contact information on a computer, many users don’t bother with the hassle of installing the software to do it, and those who do often don’t perform backups frequently enough. AT&T’s Mobile Backup is an application that can be downloaded directly to your phone – with no wires – and automatically backup phone data at regular intervals, without you having to remember to do it.

As an added convenience, it stores your data remotely on AT&T’s servers, rather than a personal computer. This means you can restore the data from anywhere, and in the event of something truly catastrophic that destroys your home computer and your cell phone, all the data is still there.

“Most people have contact information on their wireless devices that they do not have stored anywhere else,” said Carlton Hill, vice president of voice products and devices for AT&T's wireless unit, in a statement. “Because of this, we are excited to offer a secure backup option to protect this important information.”

AT&T will charge $1.99 per month for the service, but there is a no additional data charge for backing up or restoring files. The actual technology for the service will come from Asurion, a provider of enhanced services to mobile carriers.