Chapter 14. Leveraging Built-In Apps via Launchers and Choosers

Windows Phone apps execute within a sandbox and lack direct access to phone services such as email and messaging. Launchers and choosers allow your app to reach outside the sandbox in a safe and system-friendly way to give indirect access to a set of built-in system applications.

Launchers and choosers are fundamental to Windows Phone development. They enable users to perform common tasks in the same way across all apps, providing a consistent user experience.

This chapter begins by looking at the two types of tasks: launchers and choosers. It then explores the execution model of choosers, the internal workings of event subscriptions that span across application lifetimes. It then examines each launcher and chooser in detail.

Finally, the chapter examines how to programmatically retrieve contact and appointment information in a read-only manner.

Many launchers and choosers are presented in this chapter, so do not think that you need to absorb them all at once. You may want to skim over them, just to get a feel for what is on offer, and then refer back to this chapter when you are implementing a particular launcher or chooser in your app.