API for "People" contact data

Question

I'm working on a Win8 metro signup flow and would like to be able to seamlessly pull, using the user-provided phone #, a photo and display name from the built-in "People" app. I'm having trouble finding documentation/code outside of ContactPicker (which isn't what I need).

Couple questions:

• Is there an API to pull contact data that would be present in the "People" app?
• If so, is there a way to configure capabilities to avoid interrupting the user with a modal "Ok for app xyz to access your address book"?

Thanks.

Answer 1

You can't pull contacts without permission, it's a security feature. You CAN interrogate the contact data users pick via the Contact Picker though.

You therefore have to ask the user to pick contacts relevant to your task, call the single / multiple contact picker then once picked, you can interrogate the contacts as much as you want. They have phone numbers, emails, locations all the data you might want hanging off those.

As far as I can tell, there's no way to maintain a persistent link to them though, so store that data while you can.

Answer 2

Confirmed that there is no API to pull contacts programmatically.