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Migrate from the HockeySDK to App Center UWP

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Important

Visual Studio App Center is scheduled for retirement on March 31, 2025. While you can continue to use Visual Studio App Center until it is fully retired, there are several recommended alternatives that you may consider migrating to.

Learn more about support timelines and alternatives.

Follow this documentation if you're looking to update your application to use App Center SDK instead of HockeySDK.

1. Update the libraries

Note

Platforms like WinRT, Windows Phone 8.0 and 8.1, WPF and PCL aren't supported in App Center SDK. You can continue to use the HockeySDK with them.

Replace HockeySDK.UWP NuGet package with the App Center ones in all projects in your solution.

Visual Studio for Windows

  • Open Visual Studio for Windows.
  • Click File > Open and choose your solution.
  • In the solution navigator, right-click References and choose Manage NuGet Packages.
  • Remove the HockeySDK.UWP package.
  • Search for App Center, and install Microsoft.AppCenter.Analytics, and Microsoft.AppCenter.Crashes packages.

Package Manager Console

  • Open the console in Visual Studio. To do this, choose Tools > NuGet Package Manager > Package Manager Console.
  • If you're working in Visual Studio for Mac, make sure you've installed NuGet Package Management Extensions. For this, choose Visual Studio > Extensions, search for NuGet and install, if necessary.
  • Type the following command in the console:
Uninstall-Package HockeySDK.UWP
Install-Package Microsoft.AppCenter.Analytics
Install-Package Microsoft.AppCenter.Crashes

The App Center SDK uses a modular approach – you can integrate only those services that you're interested in. You must add each SDK module as a separate dependency in this section.

2. Update the SDK setup code

2.1 Convert the application identifier

The App Center SDK uses application identifiers in the globally unique identifier (GUID) format. Your HockeyApp App ID can be used by App Center but you need to convert it to a different format. To convert the identifier you must add four hyphens to get 8-4-4-4-12 representation.

Before (HockeyApp):

00112233445566778899aabbccddeeff

After (App Center):

00112233-4455-6677-8899-aabbccddeeff

2.2 Replace SDK initialization in the application code

  1. Remove the old HockeyApp registration code.

    In the using statement declaration, remove the following line:

    using Microsoft.HockeyApp;

    In the beginning of the App class constructor, remove the following line:

    HockeyClient.Current.Configure("Your_App_ID");

  2. Start the App Center SDK.

    Add the appropriate namespaces before you use our APIs.

    using Microsoft.AppCenter;
using Microsoft.AppCenter.Analytics;
using Microsoft.AppCenter.Crashes;

    Add the following call to your application's constructor:

    AppCenter.Start("{Your App Secret}",  typeof(Analytics), typeof(Crashes));

3. Services and feature comparison

Core

Feature HockeyApp App Center
Adjust the log level Yes AppCenter.LogLevel

Analytics

Feature HockeyApp App Center
Automatically track sessions Yes Session and Device Information
Custom events with properties HockeyClient.TrackEvent Analytics.TrackEvent

Crashes

Feature HockeyApp App Center
Automatically send crashes Enabled by default Crash Reporting
Attach additional meta data Yes Not supported
Track handled exceptions HockeyClient.Current.TrackException Not supported

Distribution

App Center SDK doesn't support distribution for UWP apps yet.

Feedback Service

The feedback service won't be supported in App Center. See HockeyApp feedback.