This article explains why MPChat asks for permission to access your phone contacts, exactly what we do (and don't do) with the data, and how to grant or revoke the permission at any time.
Why MPChat Needs Contact Access and How to Manage It
Why we need this permission
MPChat needs read access to your phone's address book for one and only one purpose: to power the Phone Contacts feature, which lets you find friends already on MPChat and invite contacts who aren't. Without permission, the matching cannot happen and the feature cannot show contacts.
The permission prompt reads:
"MPChat" wants to access your contacts
MPChat requires contact access to quickly find and add friends.
What we do with your data
We use phone numbers from your address book to match against registered MPChat users — and we only show you matches whose privacy settings allow it.
Matches you actually choose to add or invite are processed in the moment; we do not maintain a permanent server-side copy of your full address book.
Contact avatars fetched from your phone are cached locally only, never uploaded.
What we don't do
We do not message or call your contacts on your behalf.
We do not share your address book with third parties.
We do not infer relationships between contacts who haven't taken any action.
If you tap "Don't Allow" the first time
If you decline the system permission prompt, MPChat will show a follow-up dialog the next time you tap Phone Contacts:
Notice
MPChat requires contact access to quickly find and add friends.
[Cancel] [Open Settings]
Tap Open Settings to jump directly to MPChat's permission page in your phone's system settings, where you can toggle the contacts permission on.
How to grant or revoke permission later
The setting lives in your phone's system settings, not in MPChat itself:
iOS: Settings → MPChat → Contacts → On / Off
Android: Settings → Apps → MPChat → Permissions → Contacts → Allow / Deny
You can change this at any time. The next time you open the Phone Contacts page in MPChat, the new permission state takes effect automatically.
What happens if you don't grant permission
The Phone Contacts page cannot show Contacts on MPChat or Invite to Join MPChat — both lists rely on reading your address book.
Other ways of adding friends (My QR Code, Scan, Search by username) continue to work normally — see How to Add Friends from Your Phone Contacts on MPChat for the full feature overview.
You will not receive notifications when contacts join MPChat (because we cannot match them).
What happens if you revoke permission later
Existing friend relationships and invite relationships you've already created stay intact — they do not depend on the contacts permission staying on. Only the live Phone Contacts list and future contact-joined notifications are affected.
Got more questions?
See the Phone Contacts FAQ.