Contact Store | Getting Started

A cross-platform library for accessing device contacts on iOS, Mac Catalyst, macOS, and Android. Provides full CRUD operations, a fluent async query builder, Shiny’s AccessState permission model, and dependency injection integration. Built on Shiny.Core, so it runs in any Shiny host — with or without .NET MAUI.

GitHub
Downloads

Frameworks

.NET MAUI

.NET

Features

Feature	Description
Full CRUD	create, read, update, and delete device contacts
Fluent async queries	Query() returns a ContactQuery builder (Where/Search/OrderBy/Skip/Take → ToListAsync(ct)) with native translation on every platform
Shiny permissions	GetCurrentAccess() and RequestAccess() using Shiny.Core’s AccessState model
No MAUI required	built on Shiny.Core, so it works in any Shiny host
AOT compatible	trimmer and AOT safe
Dependency injection	register with a single AddContactStore() call

Platforms

Platform	Minimum Version
Android	API 24
iOS	15.0
Mac Catalyst	15.0
macOS	26.0

iOS, Mac Catalyst, and macOS share one implementation over the Contacts framework (CNContactStore), so queries, CRUD, and the notes/relations handling behave identically across all three.

Setup

Changed files

• MyApp/
  • ▸Platforms
    • ▸Android
      • AndroidManifest.xml
    • ▸iOS
      • Info.plist
      • PrivacyInfo.xcprivacy
  • MauiProgram.cs
  • MyApp.csproj

Platforms/Android/AndroidManifest.xml

AndroidManifest.xmlCopy

1<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>2<manifest xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android">3	<application android:allowBackup="true" android:icon="@mipmap/appicon" android:roundIcon="@mipmap/appicon_round" android:supportsRtl="true">4	</application>5	<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.RECEIVE_BOOT_COMPLETED"/>6	<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.BATTERY_STATS" />7	<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.ACCESS_NETWORK_STATE" />8	<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.INTERNET" />9	<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.READ_CONTACTS" />10	<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.WRITE_CONTACTS" />11</manifest>

Quick Example

// Request access (triggers OS prompt if needed)
var access = await contactStore.RequestAccess();
if (access != AccessState.Available)
    return;

// Get all contacts
var contacts = await contactStore.GetAll();

// Query with the fluent builder
var results = await contactStore.Query()
    .Where(ContactField.GivenName, "John")
    .OrderBy(ContactSortField.FamilyName)
    .ToListAsync();

// Create a contact
var contact = new Contact { GivenName = "John", FamilyName = "Doe" };
contact.Phones.Add(new ContactPhone("555-1234", PhoneType.Mobile));
string id = await contactStore.Create(contact);

// Update
contact.GivenName = "Jane";
await contactStore.Update(contact);

// Delete
await contactStore.Delete(id);

Photos vs Thumbnails

Bulk reads — GetAll() and Query() — populate only the lightweight Thumbnail. The full-resolution Photo is null on these results: decoding every contact’s full image into memory at once spikes memory and can get the app OOM/jetsam-killed on a real device with many photo contacts. Fetch a single contact with GetById(id) to get the full Photo (it also includes the Thumbnail).

Bind list rows to Thumbnail, and load Photo on a per-contact detail screen.

AI Coding Assistant

Claude CodeGitHub Copilot

Step 1 — Add the marketplace:

claude plugin marketplace add shinyorg/skills

Step 2 — Install the plugin:

claude plugin install shiny@shiny

One plugin installs all 48 Shiny skills. Your agent loads only the skill relevant to what you're building, so there's no cost to having them all available.

Step 1 — Add the marketplace:

copilot plugin marketplace add https://github.com/shinyorg/skills

Step 2 — Install the plugin:

copilot plugin install shiny@shiny

One plugin installs all 48 Shiny skills. Your agent loads only the skill relevant to what you're building, so there's no cost to having them all available.

View shiny-contactstore Skill

Next Steps

• Permissions — Shiny AccessState permission handling
• Querying — the fluent query builder and what translates natively
• Release Notes — Version history