Manage game broadcasting

This article shows you how to manage game broadcasting for a UWP app. Users must initiate broadcasting by using the system UI that is built into Windows, but starting with Windows 10, version 1709, apps can launch the system broadcasting UI and can receive notifications when broadcasting starts and stops.

Add the Windows Desktop Extensions for the UWP to your app

The APIs for managing app broadcasting, found in the Windows.Media.AppBroadcasting namespace, are not included in the Universal API contract. To access the APIs, you must add a reference to the Windows Desktop Extensions for the UWP to your app with the following steps.

1. In Visual Studio, in Solution Explorer, expand your UWP project and right-click References and then select Add Reference....
2. Expand the Universal Windows node and select Extensions.
3. In the list of extensions check the checkbox next to the Windows Desktop Extensions for the UWP entry that matches the target build for your project. For the app broadcast features, the version must be 1709 or greater.
4. Click OK.

Launch the system UI to allow the user to initiate broadcasting

There are several reasons that your app may not currently be able to broadcast, including if the current device doesn't meet the hardware requirements for broadcasting or if another app is currently broadcasting. Before launching the system UI, you can check to see if your app is currently able to broadcast. First, check to see if the broadcast APIs are available on the current device. The APIs are not available on devices running an OS version earlier than Windows 10, version 1709. Rather than check for a specific OS version, use the ApiInformation.IsApiContractPresent method to query for the Windows.Media.AppBroadcasting.AppBroadcastingContract version 1.0. If this contract is present, then the broadcasting APIs are available on the device.

Next, get an instance of the AppBroadcastingUI class by calling the factory method GetDefault on PC, where there is a single user signed in at a time. On Xbox, where multiple users can be signed in, call GetForUser instead. Then call GetStatus to get the broadcasting status of your app.

The CanStartBroadcast property of the AppBroadcastingStatus class tells you whether the app can currently start broadcasting. If not, you can check the Details property to determine the reason broadcasting is not available. Depending on the reason, you may want to display the status to the user or show instructions for enabling broadcasting.

// Verify that the edition supports the AppBroadcasting APIs
if (!Windows::Foundation::Metadata::ApiInformation::IsApiContractPresent(
    "Windows.Media.AppBroadcasting.AppBroadcastingContract", 1, 0))
{
    return;
}

// On PC, call GetDefault because there is a single user signed in.
// On Xbox, call GetForUser instead because multiple users can be signed in.
AppBroadcastingUI^ broadcastingUI = AppBroadcastingUI::GetDefault();
AppBroadcastingStatus^ broadcastingStatus = broadcastingUI->GetStatus();

if (!broadcastingStatus->CanStartBroadcast)
{
    AppBroadcastingStatusDetails^ details = broadcastingStatus->Details;

    if (details->IsAnyAppBroadcasting)
    {
        UpdateStatusText("Another app is currently broadcasting.");
        return;
    }

    if (details->IsCaptureResourceUnavailable)
    {
        UpdateStatusText("The capture resource is currently unavailable.");
        return;
    }

    if (details->IsGameStreamInProgress)
    {
        UpdateStatusText("A game stream is currently in progress.");
        return;
    }

    if (details->IsGpuConstrained)
    {
        // Typically, this means that the GPU software does not include an H264 encoder
        UpdateStatusText("The GPU does not support broadcasting.");
        return;
    }

    // Broadcasting can only be started when the application's window is the active window.
    if (details->IsAppInactive)
    {
        UpdateStatusText("The app window to be broadcast is not active.");
        return;
    }

    if (details->IsBlockedForApp)
    {
        UpdateStatusText("Broadcasting is blocked for this app.");
        return;
    }

    if (details->IsDisabledByUser)
    {
        UpdateStatusText("The user has disabled GameBar in Windows Settings.");
        return;
    }

    if (details->IsDisabledBySystem)
    {
        UpdateStatusText("Broadcasting is disabled by the system.");
        return;
    }
    return;
}

Request that the app broadcast UI be shown by the system by calling ShowBroadcastUI.

broadcastingUI->ShowBroadcastUI();

Receive notifications when broadcasting starts and stops

Register to receive notifications when the user uses the system UI to start or stop broadcasting your app by initializing an instance of AppBroadcastingMonitor class and registering a handler for the IsCurrentAppBroadcastingChanged event. As discussed in the previous section, be sure to use the ApiInformation.IsApiContractPresent at some point to verify that the broadcasting APIs are present on the device before attempting to use them.

if (Windows::Foundation::Metadata::ApiInformation::IsApiContractPresent(
    "Windows.Media.AppBroadcasting.AppBroadcastingContract", 1, 0))
{
    m_appBroadcastMonitor = ref new AppBroadcastingMonitor();

    m_appBroadcastMonitor->IsCurrentAppBroadcastingChanged +=
        ref new TypedEventHandler<AppBroadcastingMonitor^, Platform::Object^>(this, &App::OnIsCurrentAppBroadcastingChanged);
}

In the handler for the IsCurrentAppBroadcastingChanged event, you may want to update your app's UI to reflect the current broadcasting state.

void App::OnIsCurrentAppBroadcastingChanged(AppBroadcastingMonitor^ sender, Platform::Object^ args)
{
    if (sender->IsCurrentAppBroadcasting)
    {
        UpdateStatusText("App started broadcasting.");
    }
    else
    {
        UpdateStatusText("App stopped broadcasting.");
    }
}

Related topics

• Gaming