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@Brian_Richardson and @Neil Egsgard , I believe I found another choice that works better.

Instead of using split text, use javascript. It's more robust and gets past all the errors previously brought up.

BRIDGE METHOD 2 (Pretty fast and doesn't error due to extra characters)

Key Value: fast and flexible and doesn't error out due to extra delimeters. Also works for both semicolons and comma separated values.

Key Drawback: I don't know of any besides what was brought up earlier. Works great and reliably for me.

Here's the setup:

IMPORTANT: The column name where you place the comma separated emails is called "Combined Emails". The column where the contacts will go is called "Combined Contacts". Combined Contacts must be a contact column with "Allow multiple contacts per cell" Selected.

1. Triggers:
   1. One trigger for when Rows are Changed in the "Combined Emails" column.
   2. One trigger for when Rows are Added
2. Add the Smartsheet: Get Sheet step to your workflow with the following settings:
   1. Sheet: {{runtime.sheetID}}
3. Add the Smartsheet: Get Row step to your workflow with the following settings:
   1. Sheet: {{runtime.sheetID}}
   2. Row ID: {{runtime.event.id}}
4. Add the Smartsheet: Run Script (Javascript) step to your workflow with the following settings:
   1. Script Name: Choose any script name. Eg. Build Multi Contact From Combined Emails
   2. Script Parameters:
      1. Key #1: columns
      2. Value #1: Reference from your "Get Sheet" step, copy reference to "Columns". Eg. {{states.Get Column IDs.smartsheet.get_sheet.sheet.columns}}
      3. Key #2: columns
      4. Value #2: Reference from your "Get Row" step, copy reference to "Row". Eg. {{states.Get Row IDs.smartsheet.get_row.row}}
      5. Key #3: emailColumnTitle
      6. Value #3: Combined Emails
   3. USE THE SCRIPT I WILL PASTE BELOW THIS LIST CALLED "SCRIPT"
5. Add the Smartsheet: Update Row step to your workflow with the following settings:
   1. Sheet: {{runtime.sheetID}}
   2. Row ID: {{runtime.event.id}}
   3. Cells:
      1. Key #1: Combined Contacts
      2. Value #1: Reference from the output of your Javascript step. Eg. {{states.Build Combined Contacts String.javascript.run_script.result}}

SCRIPT:

// Build Multi Contact From Combined Emails
// Returns a comma-separated email STRING for use in Smartsheet Update Row (multi-contact column).
// No limit on number of emails; uses all valid, deduped emails found.

function normalizeTitle(s) {
return String(s || "").trim().toLowerCase();
}

function isObject(x) {
return x !== null && typeof x === "object" && !Array.isArray(x);
}

function asColumns(columnsParam) {
if (Array.isArray(columnsParam)) return columnsParam;
if (isObject(columnsParam)) {
if (Array.isArray(columnsParam.sheet?.columns)) return columnsParam.sheet.columns;
if (Array.isArray(columnsParam.columns)) return columnsParam.columns;
}
throw new Error("columns must be an array (or an object containing sheet.columns)");
}

function asRow(rowParam) {
if (isObject(rowParam)) {
if (rowParam.cells) return rowParam;
if (isObject(rowParam.row) && rowParam.row.cells) return rowParam.row;
if (isObject(rowParam.result) && rowParam.result.cells) return rowParam.result;
if (isObject(rowParam.result?.row) && rowParam.result.row.cells) return rowParam.result.row;
}
throw new Error("row must be a row object (or an object containing row.cells)");
}

function getColumnIdByTitle(columnsArr, title) {
const wanted = normalizeTitle(title);
const col = (columnsArr || []).find((c) => normalizeTitle(c.title) === wanted);
if (!col || col.id == null) throw new Error("Column not found by title: " + title);
return Number(col.id);
}

function getCellValueByColumnId(rowObj, columnId) {
const cells = rowObj.cells;

if (Array.isArray(cells)) {
const cell = cells.find((c) => c && Number(c.columnId) === Number(columnId));
return cell ? (cell.value ?? cell.displayValue ?? "") : "";
}

if (isObject(cells)) {
for (const k of Object.keys(cells)) {
const cell = cells[k];
if (cell && Number(cell.columnId) === Number(columnId)) {
return cell.value ?? cell.displayValue ?? "";
}
}
}

return "";
}

function parseEmails(raw) {
const text = String(raw || "");
if (!text.trim()) return [];

// Handles extra commas, commas with spaces, semicolons, and newlines
const parts = text
.split(/[,;\n\r\t]+/g)
.map((s) => s.trim())
.filter(Boolean);

// Dedupe case-insensitively, preserve first occurrence casing
const seen = new Set();
const out = [];
for (const p of parts) {
const key = p.toLowerCase();
if (seen.has(key)) continue;
seen.add(key);
out.push(p);
}

return out;
}

function isValidEmail(email) {
return /^[^\s@]+@[^\s@]+.[^\s@]+$/.test(email);
}

// Script Parameters are variables directly in Bridge:
// columns, row, emailColumnTitle
if (!emailColumnTitle) throw new Error("emailColumnTitle is required");

const cols = asColumns(columns);
const r = asRow(row);

const emailColId = getColumnIdByTitle(cols, emailColumnTitle);
const combinedEmails = getCellValueByColumnId(r, emailColId);

const emails = parseEmails(combinedEmails).filter(isValidEmail);

// If blank, return empty string (Update Row will clear the cell if you pass empty)
if (emails.length === 0) return "";

// Return a comma-separated string (no spaces) for Update Row
return emails.join(",");

FYI, currently there's a bug with Datamesh that will update ALL rows in the target column, if only ONE row is updated, if the source emails are not in alphabetical order and the destination is a multi-contact.

This can be very bad if you have an automation that updates the source email list and notifies people when an assignment has been made.

"Overwrite cells" must also be checked so unchecking this is a good workaround if it's feasible for you. Or just use one of the other methods above.

Hopefully this will be resolved soon.

UPDATE - CORE OPTION!

@Joe Goetschel identified an option to combine contacts using the core app, no addons needed! It leverages cell linking to pull a text list of email addresses into a contact cell as contacts.

Note that this method requires manual intervention to set up, you cannot create cell links automatically in Smartsheet unless you use an addon like Control Center, Data Mesh, or Bridge; or you have a third party tool that can leverage the Smartsheet API or SDK.

Sheet 1: have your contacts listed as email addresses separated by commas, CHAR(10), or semicolon in a Text/Number column. You can use a formula to "piece together" your list of emails. For example, if you have three columns with emails in them, a simple =JOIN(Column1@row:Column3@row,",") will combine them and separate them with a comma.

You should have a text column cell with something like email1@email.com,email2@email.com,email3@email.com

NOTE - you must use email addresses here, not names. This won't work if you have names in the mix.

Sheet 2: in a Contact column, set to Allow multiple contacts, right click a cell and choose Link from Cell in Other Sheet. Choose the text cell from the first sheet that contains the list of emails.

That's it! It can take a few seconds, but you should see the contacts appear as working contacts in your second sheet.

Note that you could then use any number of methods to pull the resulting combined contact list back into your Sheet 1. An Index/Match, a Vlookup, another cell link, all would work to get the contacts back to the first sheet for use.