 <p>I have idea of how to do it, i think it will be helpful to you , but never implemented like this. First you have to go with custom table . For that table you can give all the contact names from your addressbook. you can use <a href="http://developer.apple.com/library/mac/#documentation/userexperience/Reference/AddressBook/Classes/ABAddressBook_Class/Reference/Reference.html" rel="nofollow">http://developer.apple.com/library/mac/#documentation/userexperience/Reference/AddressBook/Classes/ABAddressBook_Class/Reference/Reference.html</a></p> <p>just go through it you can understand .</p> <p>you have to use these methods. 1) - (NSArray *)people you will get all people records into returned array. each record will have unique id , you have to retrieve it</p> <p>ABRecord rec = [returnedArray objectAtIndex:0];</p> <p>NSString *pid = rec.uniqueId </p> <p>-(NSString *) uniqueId ( this is ABRecord property method )</p> <p>once you got it you can retireve from your array what you want by using that recordid/ unique id .</p>