Contact Store | Getting Started

A cross-platform library for accessing device contacts on Android and iOS. 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

• 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 both platforms
• 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

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 35 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 35 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