Why Aircall Creates Duplicate Contacts in HubSpot and How to Fix It

If you use Aircall with HubSpot, you may have seen duplicate contacts appear when calls are logged.

This usually happens when Aircall can’t confidently match the incoming or outgoing call to an existing HubSpot contact. Instead of linking the call to the right record, it may create a new one. In some cases, that new contact shows up with a placeholder name like “Aircall new contact.”

Over time, this can lead to a few common problems:

• duplicate contacts for the same person
• split call history across multiple records
• messy reporting
• extra manual cleanup

The good news is that these duplicates are manageable.
In this guide, we’ll cover:

• why Aircall creates duplicate contacts in HubSpot
• what “Aircall new contact” means
• how to detect Aircall duplicates
• how to merge them safely
• how to prevent more duplicates in the future

Why Does Aircall Create Duplicates in HubSpot?

Aircall tries to match calls to existing HubSpot records. That process works best when the data in HubSpot is clean and stored in the right place. When it isn’t, duplicates can happen. Aircall tries to match records in this order:

1. Email Match:
   If an Aircall Contact has a saved email, it will look for a HubSpot Contact with the same email address.

2. Phone Number Match:
   If there's no email match, Aircall checks the number calling or being called against the Phone Number and Mobile Phone Number fields in HubSpot. Supported formats include:

   • Original: 33176360695

   • National: 01 76 36 06 95

   • E164: +33176360695

   • International: +33 1 76 36 06 95

   • IDD: 0033176360695

3. Company Match:
   If no Contact is found, Aircall searches for a Company in HubSpot with a matching phone number.
   
   

4. Create New Contact:
   If no matches are found and your Aircall settings allow it, a new Contact is created with:

   • First Name: Phone number (E164 format)

   • Last Name: "Aircall new contact"

   • Phone Number: Phone number (E164 format)

That’s when Aircall may create a new record instead of matching an existing one, which can lead to a duplicate.

Here are the three most common reasons this happens:

1. Existing phone numbers aren’t in the correct format: They include special characters like -, ., (, or ), which prevent proper matching.

2. Phone numbers are stored in custom fields: Instead of the default Phone Number or Mobile Phone Number fields, they might be saved in custom properties like a WhatsApp or secondary phone number field.

3. The existing HubSpot record is missing a phone number: If the existing contact does not have a phone number stored in one of HubSpot’s standard phone fields, Aircall has nothing to match against and may create a new contact instead.

How to Detect Aircall Duplicates in HubSpot

The best way to detect Aircall duplicates is to focus on the signals that matter most for this integration: phone numbers, placeholder records, and field usage.

Step 1: Normalize phone formatting before matching

If your duplicate logic treats punctuation, spacing, or local formatting as meaningful differences, you’ll miss a lot of Aircall duplicates. Fuzzy Rules in Koalify help you find duplicate phone numbers even when they are stored in different formats.

• Special characters:  Ignore special characters (e.g. !, @, #, $, -, /)   

• Phone numbers:  Only match the last 9 digits of phone numbers.

Alternatively you can make sure all phone numbers in your CRM follow HubSpot-supported formats.
By removing special characters like -, ., (, or ) wherever possible.

Step 2: Compare phone numbers across multiple fields

Phone numbers aren’t always stored in the same field. Use Koalify Duplicate Rules to match numbers across multiple phone number fields and detect more duplicates in HubSpot.

• Phone Number

• Mobile Phone Number

• WhatsApp Phone Number

• Any Custom Phone Number property

How to Merge Aircall Duplicates Automatically

Once you’ve found duplicates, the next step is deciding which record should stay.

In most cases, the best record to keep is not the Aircall-created placeholder contact.
It’s usually the original HubSpot contact, because that record is more likely to contain:

• the correct contact name
• owner assignment
• lifecycle stage
• source data
• company association
• notes, activity history, and property values your team actually uses

Step 1: Set Non Aircall Contacts as Primary Records

A good rule of thumb is to avoid keeping contacts with placeholder values like Aircall new contact as the surviving record.
To ensure this, apply this filter in your Koalify primary duplicate rules:

• Original Traffic Source Drill-Down 2 is not equal to any of 36503 (App ID of Aircall)

Step 2: Merge Aircall Duplicates with a Workflow

Once your primary record logic is in place, set up a workflow using Koalify’s Merge Duplicate Record action.
Your enrollment criteria should include:

Once these rules are in place, Koalify can automatically detect and merge likely Aircall-created duplicates.

Finetune Last Name Duplicate Rules

If you have a duplicate rule that relies only on last names, it’s a good idea to exclude Aircall-created records to prevent accidental merges. Add this filter:

• Last Name doesn't contain exactly Aircall new contact

This keeps your naming-based rules clean and prevents unintended matches.

How to Prevent Future Aircall Duplicates

A few small changes can help reduce future duplicate creation:

• Keep phone number formatting consistent across HubSpot
• Store key numbers in HubSpot’s standard phone fields
• Avoid saving the same number in both Phone Number and Mobile Phone Number
  
  

Final Thoughts

If Aircall is creating duplicate contacts in HubSpot, the root cause is usually not the call itself. It’s the matching logic around phone data.

When phone numbers are inconsistent, stored in the wrong fields, or duplicated across standard properties, Aircall may create a new contact instead of matching the right existing one.

The good news is that this is fixable.

Once you identify the placeholder records, improve phone-based matching, and set clear primary-record rules, Aircall duplicates become much easier to manage. And if you want to automate that process, Koalify can help you detect and merge those records more efficiently.

Looking for more deduplication tips? Check out:

• How to merge duplicate HubSpot contacts

• Merging HubSpot companies the right way

• HubSpot deduplication best practices

FAQ about Aircall duplicates in HubSpot