RequestAccessKindAsync from Desktop Bridge

Question

I have Win32 desktop bridge application that uses background task to receive push notifications from WNS. I use UWP background task APIs over C++-WinRT

I'd like to be able to receive push notifications even when OS is in sleep so that it wakes up and the app handles push notification. By default OS does not wake up. It did only after manually changing settings value in System->Battery->See which apps are affecting your battery life->Click my app ->Uncheck Let Windows decide option (by default it is always checked) and check Allow the app to run background taks. Now I'd like to do this is manual work on code for better user experience.

RequestAccessKindAsync API allows to let user to change above setting value by showing popup notification to the user and I could do it without any problem in UWP C# sample app. But same code does not show pop notification from my desktop bridge over C++-WinRT. It simply returns false value for below code

auto result = co_await BackgroundExecutionManager::RequestAccessKindAsync(BackgroundAccessRequestKind::AlwaysAllowed, 
    L"App needs to use background to catch push notifications while device is in sleep");

Can anyone confirm that RequestAccessKindAsync API works from desktop bridge? If not then how I can make sure OS and the app will always be able to wake up from sleep when it receives push notification?

UPD: Raised request to enable this API from desktop brige here

While packaged apps can register background tasks, only fully UWP apps can run as a background task. So, if you call this API from desktop app, it will not work. — Xie Steven
@XavierXie-MSFT do you want to say I can run this API from my background task? I have tried to do so and got same result — miradham

Stefan Wick MSFT Stefan Wick MSFT · Accepted Answer · 2019-02-13T00:48:49

This is a missing feature. When we designed this API a couple of releases ago we didn't consider desktop bridge apps would be calling it - but clearly there is a use case for supporting this. I have notified the team about this gap, but I'd also encourage you to log a feature request here: https://wpdev.uservoice.com/

Two possible workarounds:
(1) you could add a dummy/empty UWP foreground app to your desktop bridge app. You can then launch this on startup and request the background access from there. This will be a bit ugly, but you could make it look like a splash screen :-) (2) you can instruct the user to go into the Settings app to set your app to always allowed. You can help them do that with a deep link to the battery save settings, but they will still need to manually flip the switch.

RequestAccessKindAsync from Desktop Bridge

1 Answers