Latest Windows Phone update, called Windows Phone 8.1 will bring us a new app for managing podcasts. The Podcasts app, similar to what we previously had in Music+Videos hub’s podcasts section, will let users subscribe to their favorite shows to be played later on.
The good things for developers here is a fact that we’ll be able to integrate the new app in our applications’ workflow by launching the Podcasts app by one of the following URI schemes: itpc:, pcast: and podcast:.
For example, this is how you launch the Podcast app:
await Launcher.LaunchUriAsync(new Uri("podcast:"));
But it doesn’t end here. By specifying an Url pointing to a specific podcast feed, the app will fetch that feed and display podcast overview page and make it easy for the user to subscribe to that feed. Here’s an example of how to make it display the Hanselminutes feed:
await Launcher.LaunchUriAsync(new Uri("podcast:feeds.feedburner.com/HanselminutesCompleteMP3"));
Fun fact: the above screenshot was taken from my phone (device) using the Project my screen app, which was released today. Read more about it here.
Upon launching the app, the user has quick access to playing the latest episode (Podcasts app supports streaming) or subscribe to the series.
When user is done with subscribing or playing podcasts, navigating back will get her back to your app where she can continue her work with it.
Of course other apps can now move to supporting those URI protocols as well so, each user could choose her favorite podcast app to integrate with on her device.
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