This certainly would break plenty of valid use cases for a feature like this. More likely they ought to have policy in their developer docs to scope reasonable uses of the full contact list and start rejecting updates for applications that violate the new rule.

What's a valid use case for being able to read all contacts vs asking the user for a specific contact selection and choosing to approve sharing it?

Any application whose primary concern is something with contact lists. Maybe it offers a special view into it. Maybe special searches. Maybe a better management interface.

An alternate phone or texting app

I can't imagine it would be difficult to implement a "Select All Contacts" functionality, in addition to selecting individual contacts and/or selecting all then deselecting some. Automatically allowing access to future contacts also shouldn't be difficult. There is no need for apps to always have access to all contacts.

I’m not sure how that would be functionally different than the current situation. Instead, simply regulating how contacts are allowed to be used would remove the need to build a logically complex system, and since Apple already reviews every app submission it would just be one more thing for a reviewer to check.

How will apps like Whatsapp work then?

I don't give WhatsApp access to my contacts. Few enough people in my life use it, and they all have different profile pictures.

I find it very weird to find, for example, my boss, or certain specific coworkers, on any social app. I don't want them to be able to find me either. This design decision of giving apps your entire contacts book by default has to die, and individual users need more choice instead.

Whatsapp has 1.5B MAU. I don't think people are interested in adding each and everyone manually. I want to know how that would work for majority of those people and not you personally.

> I don't think people are interested in adding each and everyone manually.

If they are interested, then they'll find a way.

That's great for you, but whatsapp is de facto standard messaging app in a lot of countries. Memorizing hundred numbers, or profile pictures (assuming that everyone has one) is just not feasible.

An app (such as whatsapp) getting access to all contacts is a valid use case, even though it doesn't apply to you.

And sadly for him, it doesn't matter anyway, presumably most if not all his friends already uploaded their address books, so WhatsApp already knows his real name and phone number and network of friends...

No. When you want to chat with a new person, WA just needs the contact of that single person.

I use WhatsApp without allowing them access to my contacts. I have to just add people's numbers manually and I have to memorize who is who based on # and profile picture (thankfully the people I talk to with WhatsApp all have different area codes).

I don't use Facebook nor Instagram, and I only use WhatsApp for 3 Android users, the rest of the people I talk to I use iMessage.

> I use WhatsApp without allowing them access to my contacts.

That appears to be impossible for WhatsApp on Android. Someone wanted me to install it a bit ago, I refused to give it access to my contacts and it refused to do anything else until I did.

So I deleted it and we used Signal instead.

It is possible on Android, but if you do, you can't initiate any conversation - the remote party has to speak first.

We did try that and it supposedly claimed to the other party that I didn't have the app installed. Not that that would have been a scalable solution anyway, since then no pair of people could use it unless one of them gave it all their contacts.

Meanwhile the option remains available to use a different app that doesn't behave that way.

So why should iMessage get all of your contacts by default?

I made the choice for Apple to have my contacts by buying an iPhone. If I didn't want Apple to have my contacts (as I do not want Google or Facebook to have mine) I would have not bought an iPhone.

Personally, I made the choice for Apple NOT to have my contacts (by entirely disabling iCloud). The only company I accept handling my contacts is the one I paid (Fastmail).

Apple doesn’t get all your contacts.

Your local Apple device has a messaging app (iMessage) that can see all the contacts on it.

iCloud puts contacts on Apple servers.

Yes, you sound like a very typical whatsapp user, I can see how whatsapp could work fine without contacts access, since most users are like you. 3 total contacts, all with different area codes -- very typical, I don't know why whatsapp even asks for contact access, probably something nefarious.