fix empty contact filter
prevent NPE in MMS logic

Fixes #1434
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Merge pull request #1354 from agrajaghh/fix_empty_contact_filter

Fix empty contact filter not working properly
Merge pull request #1437 from mcginty/mms-npe

prevent NPE in MMS logic
fix receiving utf-8 characters in multimedia push messages

Throw AssertionError instead of logging and trying to recover
use apply for preferences instead of commit

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