external

Hi @somebody! External contacts are your company contacts that are not Zoom Phone subscribers. When these contacts are added to the contacts directory, they become accessible to Zoom Applications. I don't believe you can disable it unless those contacts become Zoom Phone subscribers. 

This article also has some useful information about external contacts: https://support.zoom.us/hc/en-us/articles/360037050092-Creating-a-shared-directory-of-external-contacts  

Hope this helps!

Zoom's "External" Badges on Contact Names Are Distracting and Unnecessary

"External" badges next to contact names in Zoom are really more of a distraction than a helpful feature. While I understand the intent—distinguishing internal and external contacts—it feels like unnecessary visual clutter that makes the UI harder to scan.

At the very least, Zoom should give users an option to disable this feature if they don’t find it useful. Right now, it just makes the UI feel more cluttered and distracting.