So I have spent the whole night looking like a zombie in the morning trying to figure out how the OS handles an NFC tap for an NDEFLaunchApp Record and I have known the following.
I'm pretty sure that there is a workaround which lets you launch a system app / third party app (if you know the product Id / GUID) from your app. As there are apps in the Windows Phone Store which I have somehow figured out what I've been trying to.
I have come up with the following code:
NdefLaunchAppRecord appLaunchRecord = new NdefLaunchAppRecord();
appLaunchRecord.AddPlatformAppId("WindowsPhone", "{App GUID}");
appLaunchRecord.Arguments = "_default";
// Creating a new NdefMessage from the above record.
var message = new NdefMessage { appLaunchRecord };
// Getting the record from the message that we just created
foreach (NdefLaunchAppRecord record in message)
{
var specializedType = record.CheckSpecializedType(false);
if (specializedType == typeof(NdefLaunchAppRecord))
{
var x = String.Join(" ", record.Payload);
// Getting the payload by GetString gets a formatted Uri with args
string result = System.Text.Encoding.UTF8.GetString(record.Payload, 0, record.Payload.Length);
// result = "\0\fWindowsPhone&{5B04B775-356B-4AA0-AAF8-6491FFEA5630}\0\b_default";
// result = "(null)(form feed)WindowsPhone&{App GUID}(null)(backspace)_default
// So this will be sent to the OS and I believe the OS will then launch the specified app by an unknown protocol
// like xxx://result
// and the app will be launched?
// So is it then possible to somehow call the following:
await Windows.System.Launcher.LaunchUriAsync(new Uri("OUR MAGIC RESULT?", UriKind.RelativeOrAbsolute));
If anyone has / can figure out a way for this, it would be a REAL Service to the WP Community as developers are restricted by Microsoft to open certain settings / apps which are actually needed by those apps. For instance (speech settings, audio settings, about settings, alarms, region settings, date+time);
APPS that possibly have a workaround:
- Music Hub Tile (Launches the old Music+Videos Hub)
http://www.windowsphone.com/en-gb/store/app/music-hub-tile/3faa2f9e-6b8d-440a-bb60-5dd76a5baec1
- Tile for Bing Vision