Contacts Framework

Authorizing Contact Access

Importing the framework

Swift

import Contacts

Objective-C

#import <Contacts/Contacts.h>

Checking accessibility

Swift

switch CNContactStore.authorizationStatusForEntityType(CNEntityType.Contacts){
case .Authorized: //access contacts
case .Denied, .NotDetermined: //request permission
default: break
}

Objective-C

switch ([CNContactStore authorizationStatusForEntityType:CNEntityType.Contacts]){
case CNAuthorizationStatus.Authorized:
    //access contacts
    break;
case CNAuthorizationStatus.Denied:
    //request permission
    break;
case CNAuthorizationStatus.NotDetermined:
    //request permission
    break;
}

Requesting Permission

Swift

var contactStore = CKContactStore()
contactStore.requestAccessForEntityType(CKEntityType.Contacts, completionHandler: { (ok, _) -> Void in
    if access{
        //access contacts
    }
}

Accessing Contacts

Applying a filter

To access contacts, we should apply a filter of type NSPredicate to our contactStore variable which we defined it in Authorizing Contact Access example. For example, here we want to sort out contacts with name matching with our own:

Swift

let predicate = CNContact.predicateForContactsMatchingName("Some Name")

Objective-C

NSPredicate *predicate = [CNContact predicateForContactsMatchingName:@"Some Name"];

Specifying keys to fetch

Here, we want to fetch the contact’s first name, last name and profile image:

Swift

let keys = [CNContactGivenNameKey, CNContactFamilyNameKey, CNContactImageDataKey]

Fetching contacts

Swift

do {
    let contacts = try contactStore.unifiedContactsMatchingPredicate(predicate, keysToFetch: keys)
} catch let error as NSError {
    //...
}

Accessing contact details

Swift

print(contacts[0].givenName)
print(contacts[1].familyName)
let image = contacts[2].imageData

Adding a Contact

Swift

import Contacts

// Creating a mutable object to add to the contact
let contact = CNMutableContact()

contact.imageData = NSData() // The profile picture as a NSData object

contact.givenName = "John"
contact.familyName = "Appleseed"

let homeEmail = CNLabeledValue(label:CNLabelHome, value:"john@example.com")
let workEmail = CNLabeledValue(label:CNLabelWork, value:"j.appleseed@icloud.com")
contact.emailAddresses = [homeEmail, workEmail]

contact.phoneNumbers = [CNLabeledValue(
    label:CNLabelPhoneNumberiPhone,
    value:CNPhoneNumber(stringValue:"(408) 555-0126"))]

let homeAddress = CNMutablePostalAddress()
homeAddress.street = "1 Infinite Loop"
homeAddress.city = "Cupertino"
homeAddress.state = "CA"
homeAddress.postalCode = "95014"
contact.postalAddresses = [CNLabeledValue(label:CNLabelHome, value:homeAddress)]

let birthday = NSDateComponents()
birthday.day = 1
birthday.month = 4
birthday.year = 1988  // You can omit the year value for a yearless birthday
contact.birthday = birthday

// Saving the newly created contact
let store = CNContactStore()
let saveRequest = CNSaveRequest()
saveRequest.addContact(contact, toContainerWithIdentifier:nil)
try! store.executeSaveRequest(saveRequest)

Remarks

Useful Links

[Apple Documentation](https://developer.apple.com/library/watchos/documentation/Contacts/Reference/Contacts_Framework/index.html)

[Stack Overflow Related Q&A](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/32669612/how-to-fetch-all-contacts-record-in-ios-9-using-contacts-framework)

[WWDC15 Session Video](https://developer.apple.com/videos/play/wwdc2015/223/)