Reading Phone Contacts with JavaScript
Not so long ago, accessing data from the phone using JavaScript was unimaginable. Now, using the Contact Picker API, things like reading the contact list are possible—and really simple.
The technologies and processes described in this article are experimental and will only work in a few browsers. At the moment of writing, the Contact Picker API was only supported by Android Chrome (from version 80) and iOS Safari (from version 14.5, but only behind a flag). If you want to review the functionality, you can check a running demo on my website.
Reading entries from the contact list on a phone or tablet has traditionally been limited to native apps. But with the Contact Picker API, we can do just that using JavaScript.
This feature can be interesting in apps that need contact information like phone numbers or VoIP, social networks where we want to discover known people, or apps that require filling in form information without swapping applications to view the data.
The API and the device will limit which properties will be available. There are five standard ones that developers can select:
- Names
- Phones
