How to match a contact with a phone number that uses a country code using a search string that does not use the country code?

[mianaliasjad]

I want to find the details of a saved phone number. I have a phone number "03004481849" which is saved in my contacts. When I try to find it with broadQuery it returns null.

    val contact = Contacts(context)
        .broadQuery()
        .match(BroadQuery.Match.PHONE)
        .wherePartiallyMatches( "03004481849" )
        .limit(1)
        .find().firstOrNull()

But when I try to find this contact using ContactsContract.PhoneLookup.CONTENT_FILTER_URI i can find it.

   val filterUri = Uri.withAppendedPath(
        ContactsContract.PhoneLookup.CONTENT_FILTER_URI,
        Uri.encode("03004481849")
    )
    val projection = arrayOf(
        BaseColumns._ID,
        ContactsContract.PhoneLookup.DISPLAY_NAME,
        ContactsContract.PhoneLookup.NUMBER,
        ContactsContract.PhoneLookup.PHOTO_URI
    )
    val cursor = context.contentResolver.query(filterUri, projection, null, null, null)

It returns the cursor with the result and I can read it. Is it a bug in the library because it can't find it?

[mianaliasjad]

I just checked your source code you are using ContactsContract.CommonDataKinds.Phone.CONTENT_FILTER_URI to find the contact when we specify Match.PHONE in broadQuery on the other hand I used ContactsContract.PhoneLookup.CONTENT_FILTER_URI maybe that's the reason?

For more details you can look at this question

[vestrel00]

@mianaliasjad, I am currently unable to reproduce this issue using the following code you provided;

   val contact = Contacts(context)
        .broadQuery()
        .match(BroadQuery.Match.PHONE)
        .wherePartiallyMatches( "03004481849" )
        .limit(1)
        .find()
        .firstOrNull()

I created a contact with the phone number "03004481849" and I am able to get it.

on the other hand I used ContactsContract.PhoneLookup.CONTENT_FILTER_URI maybe that's the reason?

Maybe. I'm not sure until I can reproduce it.

There are a few things I want you to try to help me figure if this is a bug or not.

First, could you make sure that you have the android.permission.READ_CONTACTS when executing the broad query. Try using the permissions extensions. It would look something like this;

   val contact = Contacts(context)
        .broadQueryWithPermission()
        .match(BroadQuery.Match.PHONE)
        .wherePartiallyMatches( "03004481849" )
        .limit(1)
        .find()
       .firstOrNull()

If permissions is not the issue, please provide me more data. It would really help if you give me the logs to the Contacts Provider database tables. Before you copy and paste the logs here in public for everyone to see, please make sure there are no sensitive data there. You can make sure of this by using fake data.

Read this page on how to do this; https://vestrel00.github.io/contacts-android/debug/debug-contacts-provider-tables/

Essentially, you just have to use the Context.logContactsProviderTables() in the debug module of this project. Filter the Logcat with "ContactsDebug" to see all the logs.

[vestrel00]

Also, please tell me what device and API version you are testing on and see if you can reproduce the issue in a google pixel emulator/phone.

[mianaliasjad]

Yes, Contacts permission is granted.

I am testing on the Samsung s22 ultra
SDK_INT = 31

[vestrel00]

Okay good. It means there might be a bug! Please give me the debug logs when you can ^

[mianaliasjad]

Ok i found a hint for you:

Let's suppose a number with a country code is saved "+923123456789" but when i try to find it without country code "03123456789" the library is unable to find it.

But my method using ContactsContract.PhoneLookup.CONTENT_FILTER_URI i can find it.

[vestrel00]

This is a really good hint!!! I'll see if I can reproduce it.

[vestrel00]

Okay. So I am definitely able to reproduce it. So I will definitely create an issue for this!

However, I am not sure if the issue should be a bug or a new feature. I verified that the AOSP Contacts app, Google Contacts app, and Samsung Contacts app have the same "issue". The contact with a phone number of "+923123456789" will not be returned if the search string is "03123456789".

The BroadQuery API that this library provides is not using ContactsContract.PhoneLookup.CONTENT_FILTER_URI because it's purpose is to emulate the behavior of the other major Contacts app, which it is doing. I need to think of what to do in terms of "solving" this problem. Either;

• we consider it a bug in the BroadQuery API and patch it there
• or it will be a new feature that will be added in a new API, which I might call PhoneLookupQuery

For now, I will create the issue and include it in the next release; 0.2.4

I will mark this thread as the answer and post the issue link when I have created it. Thanks a lot for raising this discussion!

[mianaliasjad]

I think we should introduce it as a "new feature" because as you said the purpose of the BroadQuery is to emulate the behavior of the other major Contacts app.

[vestrel00]

I agree! Okay. Here is the issue; #259

It will be included in the next release; 0.2.4

Documentation and example usage of the new API will be included 😁

Thanks for all your help @mianaliasjad! This library will be better because of our discussion here!

[mianaliasjad]

For future readers, currently, there is no proper way in this library to find the details of contact with the given phone number. Let's suppose you want the details of contact with the number "0347".

val contact = Contacts(context)
        .broadQuery()
        .match(BroadQuery.Match.PHONE)
        .wherePartiallyMatches("0347")
        .limit(1)
        .find().firstOrNull()

It will return the details of all the numbers that end with "****0347" which is not desired because we want details for "0347" exact number. So as @vestrel00 described we should add a new feature called PhoneLookupQuery .

[vestrel00]

This is true. Again, it is most appropriately a missing feature more than a bug. The scenario you described with searching using "0347" and in turn matches "****0347" can be reproduced in the AOSP Contacts app, Google Contacts app, and Samsung Contacts app.

What is expected behavior for you may not be the expected behavior for others. I bet there would be other people that would create bugs/issues if the BroadQuery API did the things we talked about in this discussion.

As agreed upon, we will keep the BroadQuery API the way it is now. It will return the same results as the other major contacts apps.

A new, specialized API will be introduced for this type of phone number searches ❤️

[mianaliasjad]

This is true. Again, it is most appropriately a missing feature more than a bug. The scenario you described with searching using "0347" and in turn matches "****0347" can be reproduced in the AOSP Contacts app, Google Contacts app, and Samsung Contacts app.

What is expected behavior for you may not be the expected behavior for others. I bet there would be other people that would create bugs/issues if the BroadQuery API did the things we talked about in this discussion.

As agreed upon, we will keep the BroadQuery API the way it is now. It will return the same results as the other major contacts apps.

A new, specialized API will be introduced for this type of phone number searches ❤️

You are right BroadQuery is doing its job. BroadQuery can be used in a search bar functionality of a contacts app. But let's suppose I am creating a dialer app and there is an incoming call with the number "0347" and I want to find the name of the caller to show. in that case, I need the record of "0347" exact number not of numbers that end with "******0347" so yeah PhoneLookupQuery is the solution for this.

[vestrel00]

Yes. I 100% agree with you. This is a critical missing feature of this library. Thanks for bringing it up!