Share content via whatsapp in wp8 apps

Question

Just implemented sharing via SMS, Mail Twitter and Facebook with the from the WP8 SDK provided ShareStatusTask:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windowsphone/develop/microsoft.phone.tasks.sharestatustask(v=vs.105).aspx

Whatsapp does not seem to be supported here - do you guys know a trick to get around this?

Answer 1

Technically no, not yet, but something may come in the future using Uri Schemes.

For now, it seems that you can only run the WhatsApp app by doing this:

await Windows.System.Launcher.LaunchUriAsync(new Uri("whatsapp:"));

but on iPhone, you can use this form of Uri

whatsapp://send?text=Hello%2C%20World!

so I expect the same functionality to appear in the near future in WhatsApp for Windows Phone. There's no reason why they wouldn't implement it.

In fact, maybe they already have, but I haven't found it publicly documented. See on Nokia Developer website for other Uri Schemes

Answer 2

My understanding is that you can only make your App available as a means of photo sharing. (See here: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windowsphone/develop/ff967563%28v=vs.105%29.aspx)

There is no way to share to a particular third party App, unless it has "Extended the share picker" as seen at the link above.

Answer 3

You can share text with whatsapp friends by using following URI scheme:

await Windows.System.Launcher.LaunchUriAsync(new Uri("whatsapp://send?text=Hello"));