Windows 10 universal app cross app communication availability

0
votes

I am an WPF developer with little knowledge for the way "mobile" apps work but in general I believe that they work in some sort of sandbox way (meaning they should not be able to access each others process, info etc., I might be totally incorrect on this one). So I am wondering if such "limitations" are applied to the Universal Windows Platform (UWP) apps?

The reasoning for my question is that I would like to write and app that checks if another Universal App is in process and use some of its information. In WPF there are ways of doing just that but in UWP apps I am not sure if it is/should/will be possible.

Thanks.

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win-universal-appwindows-10uwp
That mythical sandbox is real, spying on other processes is strictly forbidden and actively blocked. - Hans Passant
While I understand how accessing other process data could be a portal to some illegal coding aren't there any "legal" ways of accessing for example what song or a movie a media player is paying etc. I have seen many Android apps (for example) that do just that and was hoping the API for UWP apps could also include something of that sort. - Vladimir Amiorkov

1 Answers

2
votes

There are a couple of solutions in Windows 10. Firstly, if you are building an enterprise app and can also side-load normal Desktop apps, you can use this technique to build your UI as a UWP but also be able to break out of the sandbox and do other things on the desktop.

Secondly, if the app you want to read from is cooperative (ie, is designed to provide information; you're not just grabbing it without permission) then you can use App to App services to send and receive information between two consenting applications.

Both links are to //build videos but you can download the slides too that should contain code samples.