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I want to access the call log of the device in my application. I have R&D a lot and found some posts here on Stack Overflow as well (for example, this one), but none of them have clear vision whether we can do this.

When I look into these apps:

...it seems that they managed to get the call history in their app and customized it as well.

Any help/feasibility would be appreciated.

Glorfindel
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Manish
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  • Were you able to achieve access to call history? It seems that the answer below is for active calls only and not the history – Ali123 Jun 04 '23 at 19:19

1 Answers1

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It is not possible to extract the call log programmatically.

First of all Apple officially does not expose any public API to access the call log. That means you can hack all you want to access the call log(Using private API's) but when submitting your app to Apple by sure it will be rejected.

Regarding the app you have mentioned(quickRemainder)

It gets the call log using a cvs file or a text file. It is not taking the info via device calllog db.

Extract from their app description.

You can import text or cvs files containing phone calls into this app.

TrueCaller does not get the call log they just use the app to search the contacts and update the contacts with info they got. They are not reading the callogs

Update: Apple has introduced framework called Callkit. Though you cannot access all the call log, you can have some control over calls like

Identifying incoming calls

Blocking calls etc

https://developer.apple.com/reference/callkit

ipraba
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  • Thanks @iprabu, I guess I should look into enterprise level subscription where apple doesn't require review of my app. https://developer.apple.com/programs/enterprise/ Does this help me to get me started? – Manish Nov 17 '15 at 10:25
  • I got this link as well and will try this out to see if it's feasible as described: https://iosstuff.wordpress.com/2011/08/19/accessing-iphone-call-history/ – Manish Nov 17 '15 at 11:47
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    It seems some companies are downloading your call log from iCloud data backups – Augie Mar 27 '18 at 01:23
  • Were you able to achieve access to call history? It seems that the answer below is for active calls only and not the history – Ali123 Jun 04 '23 at 19:19