My new Inreach Messenger added some random people from my contacts. I want to delete them but they appear with a 'locked' icon in the iOS app. How do I edit the contacts?

Where exactly do you see this in the Messenger iOS app?

If you are looking at Device > Contacts, those are not "random" people. At least to start with, those are the contacts which you have on the Contacts tab at explore.garmin.com (for the account associated with the Messenger device). At least in my case, the only that has the lock icon is the one that corresponds to "me". That is, the contact associated with the device itself.

on the device menu there is a contacts icon. when i click on it, there's some random dude i knew 6 years ago.

About an hour ago I turned off InReach access to my iOS contacts in iOS settings. Now I see the random dude has disappeared. That must be the answer.

You may have tangled things up with contacts on your phone (by importing them into Messenger). However, I don't know why that would end up locked. 

Unlike other Garmin apps, I am pretty sure that Messenger "automatically" syncs among the app, the device, and explore.garmin.com. I don't know of any way to FORCE a sync on demand.

I don't know what to suggest except to open a support ticket. If you get any satisfaction from support, please post back with the result.

I have a locked contact too. It is from someone I tried to send a message to a year ago, but it didn't go through. The unsent message is now in the messenger app when I click on the contact. And because I can't delete the unsent message, the contact is locked and I can't delete it from the app.

This didn't work for deleting my locked contact. Both remain after I restart the app.

I will send you a private message

All of this is fine, but why do you have to lie when you clearly have a bug?  Just call it a bug.  It's a bug.  Also, it's still happening.  When are you going to fix the bug?

This workaround works for SOME contacts, not all.  Some delete and stay deleted.  Some come back with lock icons over and over and over.  What is the true fix and when can I actually put in real emergency contacts like what this device is designed for??????  I'm leaving on a foreign hiking trip in 3 days.