3.18. Contacts

Android includes Contacts Provider APIs to allow applications to manage contact information stored on the device. Contact data that is entered directly into the device is typically synchronized with a web service, but the data MAY also only reside locally on the device. Contacts that are only stored on the device are referred to as local contacts.

RawContacts are “associated with” or “stored in” an Account when the ACCOUNT_NAME, and ACCOUNT_TYPE, columns for the raw contacts match the corresponding Account.name and Account.type fields of the account.

Default local account: an account for raw contacts that are only stored on the device and not associated with an Account in the AccountManager, which are created with null values for the ACCOUNT_NAME, and ACCOUNT_TYPE, columns.

Custom local account: an account for raw contacts that are only stored on the device and not associated with an Account in the AccountManager, which are created with at least one non-null value for the ACCOUNT_NAME, and ACCOUNT_TYPE, columns.

Device implementations:

• [C-SR] Are STRONGLY RECOMMENDED to not create custom local accounts.

If device implementations use a custom local account:

• [C-1-1] The ACCOUNT_NAME, of the custom local account MUST be returned by ContactsContract.RawContacts.getLocalAccountName
• [C-1-2] The ACCOUNT_TYPE, of the custom local account MUST be returned by ContactsContract.RawContacts.getLocalAccountType
• [C-1-3] Raw contacts that are inserted by third party applications with the default local account (i.e. by setting null values for ACCOUNT_NAME and ACCOUNT_TYPE) MUST be inserted to the custom local account.
• [C-1-4] Raw contacts inserted into the custom local account MUST not be removed when accounts are added or removed.
• [C-1-5] Delete operations performed against the custom local account MUST result in raw contacts being purged immediately (as if the CALLER_IS_SYNCADAPTER param was set to true), even if the CALLER\_IS\_SYNCADAPTER param was set to false or not specified.