can’t change access to contacts for apps in settings

Hi,

I’m unable to modify which apps have access to my contacts. I recently downloaded telegram and signal and want to give them access to my contacts but in settings < privacy < contacts, the only app there is WhatsApp but even that is in grey so I can’t toggle it. In settings < telegram/signal, ‘contacts’ doesn’t show up either even though both apps directed me to settings. I have an iPhone 11 & latest iOS 14.3.

Any idea why this may be? could it be some setting somewhere other than privacy ?

update: I tried a hard restart & also reset my privacy settings to default but still have the problem - and now I can’t get WhatsApp to access my contacts either...