Does Azure Communication Services only work on UWP?

JamesBiz 1

So I'm trying to develop an application in Visual Studio (C#, .NET 4.7.2 framework) and I've added the azure.communication.calling NuGet package, but it appears that it requires UWP? I was under the impression that Azure Communication Services was not restricted to only UWP applications, or is that not so? It's surprisingly difficult to find further information on this.

Lex Li (Microsoft) 4,662 Reputation points Microsoft Employee

2022-11-02T07:12:43.233+00:00

You'd better explain clearly what is "it appears that it requires UWP". NuGet.org clearly states this package to be compatible with .NET Framework 4.6.1 and above.
JamesBiz 1 Reputation point

2022-11-03T03:18:10.58+00:00

So, if you setup a new project, say a WPF, .NET 4.7.2 for example (we're not using UWP here), and then try using Azure.Communication.Calling, you'll find errors pop up which don't appear in a UWP project.

So for instance, create a new CallClient, let's name it myCallClient.
Using "await myCallClient.CreateCallAgent(token, callAgentOptions)" gives you the error:
"The type IAsyncOperation<> is defined in an assembly that is not referenced. You must add a reference to assembly 'Windows.Foundation.FoundationContract, Version=255.255.255.255 ..." etc.

Okay, so I add in the references to Windows.winmd and System.Runtime.WindowsRuntime.dll to get around these problems.

However then something else will pop up, again, only in a WPF project. Trying to create an instance of Azure.WinRT.Communication.CommunicationTokenCredential for example, will give you a runtime error: "System.TypeLoadException: Requested Windows Runtime type is not registered / COMException: Class not registered"

Seems like I'm constantly battling all kinds of errors which don't show up when you create a UWP application. And I can't seem to find any examples anywhere of people using anything other than UWP with Azure Communication Services - so that leads me to believe it's the only option?
Lex Li (Microsoft) 4,662 Reputation points Microsoft Employee

2022-11-03T04:51:04.073+00:00

"The type IAsyncOperation<> is defined..." can be easily resolved by adding NuGet package of Microsoft.Windows.SDK.Contracts. However, those "Class not registered" exceptions remain, which seems to indicate that deep down inside those COM objects are not exposed for desktop apps (like .NET Framework WPF) to consume. That's normal, as desktop apps only only consume a small set of Windows Runtime based API. Alternatively, you might build the functionality upon the Azure Communication Services JavaScript SDK or UWP and then use inter-process communication to connect that separate component to your WPF app on .NET Framework.
JamesBiz 1 Reputation point

2022-11-04T09:11:28.77+00:00

Well, perhaps you're aware of some alternatives I can use for video calling?
Basically I just want to create an application that can use the computer's webcam and microphone and perform P2P video calls, but it has to be a C# .NET desktop application.
Any ideas?
ajkuma 22,086 Reputation points Microsoft Employee

2022-11-08T10:15:06.003+00:00

JamesBiz-3753, Apologies for the delay from over the weekend. I'm discussing on this internally and will get back to you shortly. Thanks for your patience!

1 answer

ajkuma 22,086 Reputation points Microsoft Employee

2022-11-12T17:31:37.53+00:00

@JamesBiz , Following-up on this from my internal discussion with our ACS PG team.

ACS does not support .Net 4 and WPF, we recommend upgrading to a newer version of .Net. Thanks for your patience and feedback.
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Bhathiya Bandara 0 Reputation points

2024-04-18T08:00:24.7966667+00:00

I tried to use Azure Communication Service for video calls in a WPF application built with .NET 6, and I encountered an error stating: 'The type 'IAsyncOperation<>' is defined in an assembly that is not referenced. You must add a reference to assembly 'Microsoft.Windows.SDK.NET, Version=10.0.22621.30, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31bf3856ad364e35'. Is this issue due to WPF or the .NET version?
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