Open Contacts

Open Contacts is a privacy-focused, free, and open-source Android app designed to keep your phone book secure from third-party tracking. Core Purpose & Privacy Focus

When you install social media, delivery, or banking apps, they frequently request permission to read your device’s contact list. If granted, your friends’ and families’ private numbers are uploaded to external servers.

Open Contacts solves this by creating a completely separate, isolated database for your contacts that sits entirely outside the standard Android system framework. Because other apps only have access to the default Android system database, they cannot see, read, or harvest any contact information stored within Open Contacts. Key Features

Isolated Local Database: Contacts are saved locally on your device’s storage and never sync with a Google Account or external cloud services.

Alternative Dialer & Call Log: The app features its own built-in dialer and handles its own call history.

Caller ID Overlay: When an incoming call arrives, Open Contacts uses a secure overlay window (“draw over apps” permission) to display the caller’s name, even though your core Android system treats the incoming call as an unknown number.

Easy Migration: You can mass-import your existing contacts into the app using standard VCF (vCard) files. Once imported, you can safely wipe your default Android contact book.

Automatic Backups: The app can be configured to automatically export your contact data to a designated folder on your local storage (e.g., weekly) to prevent data loss.

Ad-Free Experience: Because it is community-driven, the software contains zero advertisements or hidden monetization trackers. Where to Find It

Because it actively bypasses standard Android ecosystem syncing, you won’t find it promoted on mainstream platforms like the Google Play Store. Instead, it is hosted on privacy-respecting repositories:

Distributed safely through the open-source Android app repository F-Droid.

The underlying source code is fully transparent and available for auditing on GitHub.