VCard File Photo URI Support

Question

I love how Apple products will open up a VCF File in the Contacts App and import nearly all of the information successfully.

However at the moment, the only format accepted for the PHOTO field is Base64.

This can make for much larger VCF Files when the VCard Specification also includes an option for a Photo URI, allowing the data to be stored elsewhere and retrieved on opening of the VCard.

It would be awesome if Apple Devices could recognize and retrieve Photos located at the VCF File's specified PHOTO URI Location to allow for more compact VCF files to be distributed in various formats.

Here's an example of a VCard who's PHOTO option specifies a remote URI for the image

BEGIN:VCARD

VERSION:3.0

N:Gump;Forrest;;Mr.;

FN:Forrest Gump

ORG:Bubba Gump Shrimp Co.

TITLE:Shrimp Man

PHOTO;TYPE=JPEG;VALUE=URI:https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/87/My_Dog_%2861220578%29.jpeg

TEL;TYPE=WORK,VOICE:(111) 555-1212

TEL;TYPE=HOME,VOICE:(404) 555-1212

ADR;TYPE=WORK,PREF:;;100 Waters Edge;Baytown;LA;30314;United States of America

LABEL;TYPE=WORK,PREF:100 Waters Edge\nBaytown\, LA 30314\nUnited States of America

ADR;TYPE=HOME:;;42 Plantation St.;Baytown;LA;30314;United States of America

LABEL;TYPE=HOME:42 Plantation St.\nBaytown\, LA 30314\nUnited States of America

EMAIL:forrestgump@example.com

REV:2008-04-24T19:52:43Z

END:VCARD

Thank you!

Contacts

8.2k

Posted by

hugh_phoria

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Answer 1

Yes! This would be helpful as people want to make these cards have more human centered design. Bringing this feature will improve VCard experience.

Posted by

vgardiner21

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Answer 2

Any changes that we know about? I'm running into this problem now myself.

Posted by

bthomas0144

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Answer 3

Forgive me if this is too editorialized for this environment but from my perspective, the urgency of this issue is growing exponentially as the images that must be stored entirely in Base64 inline with the entirety of the metadata also grow out of quality expectations. I have been a firsthand witness to the sort of chaos caused by syncing any substantial amount of these files over iCloud in a migratory context. Even just a frank, user-facing notice of warning regarding risk/reward of making a point to add a profile image to every single new contact would resolve a huge amount of the general confusion resulting from the sort of disruptions this can cause.

Posted by

extratone

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Answer 4

Adding to this there is also a use case of storing the VCARD in a QR code. This is impossible to add the photo as base64 due to the size limitations of QR codes

Posted by

abaker444

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Answer 5

So, is there a way to include at least a low res image via base64 to the qrcode? I'm trying for quite some time now and am not sure whether this works or doesn't. At l.east on my iPhone 7 (+ 7 plus) the image isn't included in the vcard.

Can somebody please state whether this is possible or not. Loading the image via URI doesn't seem to work either. The rest of the vcard gets added properly. The image unfortunately not.

Anybody with some insights?

Cheers Tom

Posted by

The_Real_Tom

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VCard File Photo URI Support

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