Badge notifications for Windows apps
A notification badge conveys summary or status information specific to your app. They can be numeric (1-99) or one of a set of system-provided glyphs. Examples of information best conveyed through a badge include network connection status in an online game, user status in a messaging app, number of unread mails in a mail app, and number of new posts in a social media app.
Notification badges appear on your app's taskbar icon and in the lower-right corner of its start tile, regardless of whether the app is running. Badges can be displayed on all tile sizes.
Note
You cannot provide your own badge image; only system-provided badge images can be used.
Numeric badges
Value | Badge | XML |
---|---|---|
A number from 1 to 99. A value of 0 is equivalent to the glyph value "none" and will clear the badge. | <badge value="1"/> |
|
Any number greater than 99. | <badge value="100"/> |
Glyph badges
Instead of a number, a badge can display one of a non-extensible set of status glyphs.
Status | Glyph | XML |
---|---|---|
none | (No badge shown.) | <badge value="none"/> |
activity | <badge value="activity"/> |
|
alarm | <badge value="alarm"/> |
|
alert | <badge value="alert"/> |
|
attention | <badge value="attention"/> |
|
available | <badge value="available"/> |
|
away | <badge value="away"/> |
|
busy | <badge value="busy"/> |
|
error | <badge value="error"/> |
|
newMessage | <badge value="newMessage"/> |
|
paused | <badge value="paused"/> |
|
playing | <badge value="playing"/> |
|
unavailable | <badge value="unavailable"/> |
Create a badge
These examples show you how to create a badge update.
Create a numeric badge
private void setBadgeNumber(int num)
{
// Get the blank badge XML payload for a badge number
XmlDocument badgeXml =
BadgeUpdateManager.GetTemplateContent(BadgeTemplateType.BadgeNumber);
// Set the value of the badge in the XML to our number
XmlElement badgeElement = badgeXml.SelectSingleNode("/badge") as XmlElement;
badgeElement.SetAttribute("value", num.ToString());
// Create the badge notification
BadgeNotification badge = new BadgeNotification(badgeXml);
// Create the badge updater for the application
BadgeUpdater badgeUpdater =
BadgeUpdateManager.CreateBadgeUpdaterForApplication();
// And update the badge
badgeUpdater.Update(badge);
}
Create a glyph badge
private void updateBadgeGlyph()
{
string badgeGlyphValue = "alert";
// Get the blank badge XML payload for a badge glyph
XmlDocument badgeXml =
BadgeUpdateManager.GetTemplateContent(BadgeTemplateType.BadgeGlyph);
// Set the value of the badge in the XML to our glyph value
Windows.Data.Xml.Dom.XmlElement badgeElement =
badgeXml.SelectSingleNode("/badge") as Windows.Data.Xml.Dom.XmlElement;
badgeElement.SetAttribute("value", badgeGlyphValue);
// Create the badge notification
BadgeNotification badge = new BadgeNotification(badgeXml);
// Create the badge updater for the application
BadgeUpdater badgeUpdater =
BadgeUpdateManager.CreateBadgeUpdaterForApplication();
// And update the badge
badgeUpdater.Update(badge);
}
Clear a badge
private void clearBadge()
{
BadgeUpdateManager.CreateBadgeUpdaterForApplication().Clear();
}
Get the sample code
- Notifications sample
Shows how to create live tiles, send badge updates, and display toast notifications.
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