ios - Get contact images from Address Book -

ios - Get contact images from Address Book -

i'm looking show contact thumbnails in app based on email address, similar mail service apps email conversations. images shown in tableview.

i've tried searching address book , getting thumbnail each contact, slow use. i've tried lazily loading image, triggered cellforrowatindexpath, , searching in background thread in order not block main thread. testing 7,000 contacts, can take around 30 seconds per contact.

here short gist of general code - https://gist.github.com/eytanbiala/7456bfcd0c55be056720 can optimized load contacts once, sake of question doesn't matter.

some users may have 100,000 contacts on device, way slow.

one suggestion has come sync contacts ios address book app, , save them in core data. of course, adds perchance unnecessary complexity app.

what best way approach task?

ios contacts abaddressbook avatar abrecord