Expo Contacts

A library that provides access to the phone's system contacts.

Android

iOS

Included in Expo Go

Recommended version:

~56.0.14

expo-contacts provides access to the device's system contacts, allowing you to get contact information as well as add, edit, or remove contacts. On iOS, contacts have a multi-layered grouping system that you can also access through this API.

Installation

Terminal

- npx expo install expo-contacts

- yarn expo install expo-contacts

- pnpm expo install expo-contacts

- bun expo install expo-contacts

If you are installing this in an existing React Native app, make sure to install expo in your project.

Configuration in app config

You can configure expo-contacts using its built-in config plugin if you use config plugins in your project (Continuous Native Generation (CNG)). The plugin allows you to configure various properties that cannot be set at runtime and require building a new app binary to take effect. If your app does not use CNG, then you'll need to manually configure the library.

Example app.json with config plugin

app.json

{
  "expo": {
    "plugins": [
      [
        "expo-contacts",
        {
          "contactsPermission": "Allow $(PRODUCT_NAME) to access your contacts."
        }
      ]
    ]
  }
}

Configurable properties

Name	Default	Description
`contactsPermission`	`"Allow $(PRODUCT_NAME) to access your contacts"`	Only for: iOS A string to set the `NSContactsUsageDescription` permission message.

Are you using this library in an existing React Native app?

If you're not using Continuous Native Generation (CNG) (you're using native android and ios projects manually), then you need to configure following permissions in your native projects:

For Android, add android.permission.READ_CONTACTS and android.permission.WRITE_CONTACTS permissions to your project's android/app/src/main/AndroidManifest.xml:
```
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.READ_CONTACTS" />
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.WRITE_CONTACTS" />
```

For iOS, add the NSContactsUsageDescription key to your project's ios/[app]/Info.plist:

<key>NSContactsUsageDescription</key>
<string>Allow $(PRODUCT_NAME) to access your contacts</string>

Usage

Contacts Manipulations

const contact = await Contact.create({ givenName: 'John', familyName: 'Doe' });
// { givenName: "John", familyName: "Doe"}

await contact.setGivenName('Andrew');
// { givenName: "Andrew", familyName: "Doe"}

await contact.addPhone({ label: 'work', number: '+12345678912' });
// { givenName: "Andrew", familyName: "Doe", phones: [{label: "work", number: "+12345678912"}]}

const phones = await contact.getPhones();
// Changes only the defined fields, leaves the rest unchanged
await contact.patch({ phones: [...phones, { label: 'home', number: '+98765432198' }] });
/*
{
  givenName: "Andrew",
  familyName: "Doe",
  phones: [
    {label: "work", number: "+12345678912"},
    {label: "home", number: "+98765432198"}
  ]
}
*/

// Replaces all fields with the ones defined in the object
await contact.update({ givenName: 'John', familyName: 'Doe' });
// { givenName: "John", familyName: "Doe"}

Retrieving contacts

const contactDetails = await Contact.getAllDetails([ContactField.FULL_NAME, ContactField.PHONES], {
  limit: 20,
  offset: 10,
  sortOrder: ContactsSortOrder.GivenName,
});

// Contact instance can be created from fetched details
const contacts = contactDetails.map(item => new Contact(item.id));

const contactsFromGetAll = await Contact.getAll({
  limit: 20,
  offset: 10,
  sortOrder: ContactsSortOrder.GivenName,
});

Contacts infinite scroll example

import { Contact, ContactField, PartialContactDetails } from 'expo-contacts';
import { useEffect, useState } from 'react';
import { FlatList, Text, View } from 'react-native';

const FIELDS = [ContactField.FULL_NAME, ContactField.PHONES] as const;

export default function InfiniteContacts() {
  const [contactDetails, setContactDetails] = useState<PartialContactDetails<typeof FIELDS>[]>([]);

  useEffect(() => {
    loadMore();
  }, []);

  const loadMore = async () => {
    const newBatch = await Contact.getAllDetails(FIELDS, {
      limit: 20,
      offset: contactDetails.length,
    });
    setContactDetails(prev => [...prev, ...newBatch]);
  };

  return (
    <View style={{ flex: 1 }}>
      <FlatList
        data={contactDetails}
        keyExtractor={item => item.id}
        onEndReached={loadMore}
        onEndReachedThreshold={0.5}
        renderItem={({ item }) => (
          <View style={{ padding: 10, borderBottomWidth: 1, borderColor: '#ccc' }}>
            <Text>{item.fullName}</Text>
            <Text>{item.phones[0]?.number ?? 'No phone number'}</Text>
          </View>
        )}
      />
    </View>
  );
}

Edit contact form example

import { Contact, ContactField, ContactPatch } from 'expo-contacts';
import { useEffect, useState } from 'react';
import { Alert, Button, ScrollView, Text, TextInput, View } from 'react-native';

export default function ContactForm() {
  const [contact, setContact] = useState<Contact | null>(null);
  const [contactPatch, setContactPatch] = useState<ContactPatch>({});
  const [newPhoneInput, setNewPhoneInput] = useState('');

  useEffect(() => {
    Contact.getAll({ limit: 1 }).then(async ([first]) => {
      if (first) {
        setContact(first);
        setContactPatch(await first.getDetails([ContactField.GIVEN_NAME, ContactField.PHONES]));
      }
    });
  }, []);

  if (!contactPatch && contact) {
    return <Text style={{ marginTop: 50 }}>Loading details...</Text>;
  }

  const handleChangeName = (text: string) =>
    setContactPatch(prev => ({ ...prev, givenName: text }));

  const handleAddPhone = () => {
    if (!newPhoneInput) {
      return;
    }
    setContactPatch(prev => ({
      ...prev,
      phones: [...(prev.phones || []), { label: 'mobile', number: newPhoneInput }],
    }));
    setNewPhoneInput('');
  };

  const handleRemovePhone = (idx: number) =>
    setContactPatch(prev => ({
      ...prev,
      phones: prev.phones?.filter((_, i) => i !== idx),
    }));

  const handlePatch = async () => {
    if (contact) {
      await contact.patch(contactPatch);
    }
    Alert.alert('Contact patched successfully');
  };

  if (!contact) {
    return <Text style={{ marginTop: 50 }}>Loading...</Text>;
  }

  return (
    <ScrollView style={{ padding: 20, paddingTop: 60 }}>
      <Text style={{ fontWeight: 'bold', marginBottom: 10 }}>Edit ID: {contact.id}</Text>

      <Text>Name:</Text>
      <TextInput
        style={{ borderWidth: 1, padding: 5, marginBottom: 10 }}
        value={contactPatch.givenName || ''}
        onChangeText={handleChangeName}
      />

      <Text>Phones:</Text>
      {contactPatch.phones?.map((phone, index) => (
        <View key={index} style={{ flexDirection: 'row', alignItems: 'center', marginBottom: 5 }}>
          <Text style={{ flex: 1 }}>{phone.number}</Text>
          <Button title="Remove" onPress={() => handleRemovePhone(index)} />
        </View>
      ))}

      <View style={{ flexDirection: 'row', marginBottom: 20, marginTop: 10 }}>
        <TextInput
          style={{ borderWidth: 1, flex: 1, padding: 5, marginRight: 5 }}
          value={newPhoneInput}
          onChangeText={setNewPhoneInput}
          placeholder="New phone..."
        />
        <Button title="Add" onPress={handleAddPhone} />
      </View>

      <Button title="PATCH CONTACT" onPress={handlePatch} />
    </ScrollView>
  );
}

API

import { Contact } from 'expo-contacts';

No API data file found, sorry!

Permissions

Android

This library automatically adds READ_CONTACTS and WRITE_CONTACTS permissions to your app:

Android permission	Description
`READ_CONTACTS`	Allows an application to read the user's contacts data.
`WRITE_CONTACTS`	Allows an application to write the user's contacts data.

iOS

The following usage description keys are used by this library:

Info.plist key	Description
`NSContactsUsageDescription`	A message that tells the user why the app is requesting access to the user’s contacts.