The Windows 10 Fall Creators Update includes My People, a new people-centric user experience that lets you access your favorite contacts directly from the Windows taskbar.

Note: This article contains information from the Windows 10 Field Guide. This book is now being updated for free with a ton of new content describing new Windows 10 features from the Fall Creators Update. –Paul

As you may recall, My People was originally scheduled for inclusion in the Creators Update. But Microsoft delayed its release to the Fall Creators Update so that more third-party services would be available.

My People lets you pin up to three contacts directly to the taskbar, where they will appear as buttons next to the People button.

Note: The People button resembles two Weeble-like heads. If you don’t see the People button in the taskbar, right-click an empty area of the taskbar and select “Show People button” from the pop-up menu that appears.

If you pin more than three contacts, the others will appear in My People, which is a pop-up pane that displays when you select the People taskbar button.

Note: My People makes the most sense on a traditional form factor PC, and not on a tablet or other touch-first device where you might use Tablet Mode. The reason? Those pinned contacts don’t appear in the taskbar in Tablet Mode, so you need to perform an extra step to access them.

Here’s what you can do with My People.

Pin a contact to the taskbar. To pin a favorite contact to the taskbar, open My People and use the Suggested pins list or the search box to find the contact. When you select the contact you want, a button for that contact will appear in the taskbar to the left of the My People button. And a contact sheet for that contact will open.

Note: You can also pin a contact to the taskbar from within the People app. To do so, open People and find a favorite contact in the Contacts list. Then, right-click on their name in the Contacts pane, and then choose “Pin to taskbar” from the pop-up menu that appears.

Remove a contact from the taskbar. To remove a pinned contact—from the taskbar or from the My People pane—right-click it and select “Unpin from taskbar” in the pop-up menu that appears.

Use an app to communicate with a contact. My People lets you use apps to interact with your contacts. To do so, select the contact from the taskbar (or from within My People) to display their contact sheet. Then, select the app you’d like to use. By default, People, Mail, and Skype are available, and if you install a compatible app from the Windows Store, it will appear here as well. For example, you can use Mail to send that contact an email message, and this interaction will occur directly in the contact sheet; there’s no need to find and open Mail first.

Note: You can use Skype integration with My People to chat with your favorite contacts directly from the taskbar. People integration lets you access the timeline and contact details for that contact.

See which apps are available. Compatible apps are automatically added to My People as they’re installed or updated by Windows Store. You can see which apps you have that are compatible by opening My People and selecting the Apps view. (Mail, People, and Skype are included with Windows and are compatible, so you should at least see these three choices.

Link contacts. While this job is perhaps better done in the People app, My People does provide an interface for linking (or unlinking) contacts from multiple accounts. To access this, open a contact with My People and then select the “Combine duplicate contacts for this person to see all the apps you have in common.”

Edit a contact’s details. To edit a contact’s details with My People, open that person’s contact sheet and then select More (“…”) and then “Edit contact.”