Delete Contacts¶

This library provides the Delete API, which allows you to delete one or more Contacts or RawContacts.

An instance of the Delete API is obtained by,

val delete = Contacts(context).delete()

ℹ️ If you want to delete the device owner Contact Profile, read Delete device owner Contact profile.

ℹ️ If you want to delete a set of Data, read Delete existing sets of data.

A basic delete¶

To delete a set of Contact and all of its RawContacts,

val deleteResult = delete
    .contacts(contactToDelete)
    .commit()

To delete a set of RawContacts,

val deleteResult = delete
    .rawContacts(contactToDelete)
    .commit()

You may specify contacts and rawContacts in the same delete operation.

You may also use IDs instead of entity references,

val deleteResult = delete
    .contactsWithId(1, 2, 3)
    .rawContactsWithId(4, 5, 6)
    .commit()

ℹ️ Contacts are deleted automatically when all constituent RawContacts are deleted. RawContacts are deleted automatically when the parent Contact is deleted.

An advanced delete¶

You may specify a matching criteria, like in queries, that will delete all matching contacts and RawContacts,

val deleteResult = delete
    .rawContactsWhere { Options.SendToVoicemail equalTo true }
    .rawContactsWhereData { Email.Address.isNotNullOrEmpty() and Phone.Number.contains("9") }
    .contactsWhere { Options.SendToVoicemail equalTo true }
    .contactsWhereData { Email.Address.isNotNullOrEmpty() and Phone.Number.contains("9") }
    .commit()

Executing the delete¶

To execute the delete,

.commit()

If you want to delete all specified Contacts and RawContacts in a single atomic transaction,

.commitInOneTransaction()

The call to commitInOneTransaction will only succeed if ALL given Contacts and RawContacts are successfully deleted. If one delete fails, the entire operation will fail and everything will be reverted prior to the delete operation. In contrast, commit allows for some deletes to succeed and some to fail.

Handling the delete result¶

The commit and commitInOneTransaction functions returns a Result,

To check if all deletes succeeded,

val allDeletesSuccessful = deleteResult.isSuccessful

To check if a particular Contact has been deleted successfully,

val contactDeleteSuccessful = deleteResult.isSuccessful(mutableContact)
val contactDeleteSuccessful = deleteResult.isContactDeleteSuccessful(mutableContact.id)

To check if a particular RawContact has been deleted successfully,

val rawContactDeleteSuccessful = deleteResult.isSuccessful(mutableRawContact)
val rawContactDeleteSuccessful = deleteResult.isRawContactDeleteSuccessful(mutableRawContact.id)

To check if a particular advanced delete managed to delete at least one matching Contact/RawContact,

val where = RawContactsFields.Options.SendToVoicemail equalTo true
val deleteResult = delete.rawContactsWhere(where).commit()
val advancedDeleteSuccessful = deleteResult.isSuccessful(where)

Performing the delete and result processing asynchronously¶

Deletes are executed when the commit or commitInOneTransaction function is invoked. The work is done in the same thread as the call-site. This may result in a choppy UI.

To perform the work in a different thread, use the Kotlin coroutine extensions provided in the async module. For more info, read Execute work outside of the UI thread using coroutines .

You may, of course, use other multi-threading libraries or just do it yourself =)

ℹ️ Extensions for Kotlin Flow and RxJava are also in the project roadmap.

Performing the delete with permission¶

Deletes require the android.permission.WRITE_CONTACTS permissions. If not granted, the delete will do nothing and return a failed result.

To perform the delete with permission, use the extensions provided in the permissions module. For more info, read Permissions handling using coroutines.

You may, of course, use other permission handling libraries or just do it yourself =)

Custom data support¶

The Delete API supports custom data. For more info, read Delete custom data.

Data belonging to RawContacts/Contact are deleted¶

When a RawContact is deleted, all of its data are also deleted.

RawContact deletion is not guaranteed to be immediate¶

RawContacts may not immediately be deleted. They are marked for deletion and get deleted in the background by the Contacts Provider depending on sync settings and network availability.

Contacts of RawContacts that are marked for deletion are immediately deleted!

ℹ️ For more info, read Sync contact data across devices.

Contacts are deleted automatically when all constituent RawContacts are deleted¶

Deleting a contact's Contacts row, RawContacts row(s), and associated Data row(s) are best explained in the documentation in ContactsContract.RawContacts;

When a raw contact is deleted, all of its Data rows as well as StatusUpdates, AggregationExceptions, PhoneLookup rows are deleted automatically.

When all raw contacts associated with a Contacts row are deleted, the Contacts row itself is also deleted automatically.

The invocation of resolver.delete(...), does not immediately delete a raw contacts row. Instead, it sets the ContactsContract.RawContactsColumns.DELETED flag on the raw contact and removes the raw contact from its aggregate contact. The sync adapter then deletes the raw contact from the server and finalizes phone-side deletion by calling resolver.delete(...) again and passing the ContactsContract#CALLER_IS_SYNCADAPTER query parameter.

Some sync adapters are read-only, meaning that they only sync server-side changes to the phone, but not the reverse. If one of those raw contacts is marked for deletion, it will remain on the phone. However it will be effectively invisible, because it will not be part of any aggregate contact.

TLDR

To delete a contacts and all associated rows, simply delete all RawContact rows with the desired Contacts id. Deletion of the Contacts row and associated Data row(s) will be done automatically by the Contacts Provider.