System tray/taskbar icon/notify icon with universa

Question

Is there any API I can use to create systray icons in universal apps, or is this a no-no? In that case, what should I use instead, can I somehow integrate my app into the action center or is that MS-only?

Answer 1

I'm sorry but I think that is not possible: the only option would be to develop a companion win32 program that creates the icon and establish some sort of communication between both (the win32 app could launch the UWP app, and the UWP could send status info to the win32 app). That would mean that one of the problems should have to install the other one, it is not trivial and many users won't like to have background tasks.

I think you should try to adapt to the W10 UX: use a live tile for any status/notification, allow to pin secondary live tiles that perform certain actions, and integrate with Cortana.

Integration in the action center is not possible, unless you want to create a permanent notification that performs some action when clicked, but that would probably annoy users.

Edit (6/24/2017): It is now possible to use Win32 extensions to add this functionality to a UWP app, see this tutorial for reference.