A method for adding contact information, comprising: receiving, by user equipment, gesture information input by a user on a communication interface of an instant messaging application; recognizing, by the user equipment, according to the gesture information, contact information in communication information corresponding to the communication interface; and adding, by the user equipment, the contact information to an address book of the user equipment; wherein the contact information comprises at least a first information element and a second information element, wherein the first information element is contact communication information, and the second information element is a contact name, wherein the contact communication information comprises at least one of the following: a contact instant messaging account, a contact phone number, or a contact email; and wherein the receiving, by user equipment, gesture information input by a user on a communication interface of an instant messaging application comprises: receiving, by the user equipment, first gesture information, second gesture information, and third gesture information that are consecutively input by the user on the communication interface of the instant messaging application, wherein the second gesture information is used to associate the first gesture information and the third gesture information; and the recognizing, by the user equipment, according to the gesture information, contact information in communication information corresponding to the communication interface comprises: recognizing, by the user equipment, the first information element in a range circled by the first gesture information; recognizing, by the user equipment, the second information element in a range circled by the third gesture information; and combining, by the user equipment, the first information element and the second information element as the contact information according to the second gesture information. receiving, by user equipment, gesture information input by a user on a communication interface of an instant messaging application; recognizing, by the user equipment, according to the gesture information, contact information in communication information corresponding to the communication interface; and adding, by the user equipment, the contact information to an address book of the user equipment; wherein the contact information comprises at least a first information element and a second information element, wherein the first information element is contact communication information, and the second information element is a contact name, wherein the contact communication information comprises at least one of the following: a contact instant messaging account, a contact phone number, or a contact email; and wherein the receiving, by user equipment, gesture information input by a user on a communication interface of an instant messaging application comprises: receiving, by the user equipment, first gesture information, second gesture information, and third gesture information that are consecutively input by the user on the communication interface of the instant messaging application, wherein the second gesture information is used to associate the first gesture information and the third gesture information; and the recognizing, by the user equipment, according to the gesture information, contact information in communication information corresponding to the communication interface comprises: recognizing, by the user equipment, the first information element in a range circled by the first gesture information; recognizing, by the user equipment, the second information element in a range circled by the third gesture information; and combining, by the user equipment, the first information element and the second information element as the contact information according to the second gesture information. receiving, by the user equipment, first gesture information, second gesture information, and third gesture information that are consecutively input by the user on the communication interface of the instant messaging application, wherein the second gesture information is used to associate the first gesture information and the third gesture information; and the recognizing, by the user equipment, according to the gesture information, contact information in communication information corresponding to the communication interface comprises: recognizing, by the user equipment, the first information element in a range circled by the first gesture information; recognizing, by the user equipment, the second information element in a range circled by the third gesture information; and combining, by the user equipment, the first information element and the second information element as the contact information according to the second gesture information. recognizing, by the user equipment, the first information element in a range circled by the first gesture information; recognizing, by the user equipment, the second information element in a range circled by the third gesture information; and combining, by the user equipment, the first information element and the second information element as the contact information according to the second gesture information.