xamarin forms: Calling phone and sending email (IOS, Android and UWP) - email

Question

Currently using following code for calling and email features, but it is only working in Android and not working in IOS. Also, I need these features in UWP.
For call:
string phoneno = "1234567890";
Device.OpenUri(new Uri("tel:" + phoneno));
For mail:
string email = "sreejithsree139#gmail.com";
Device.OpenUri(new Uri("mailto:" + email ));
Any package available for this?

Answer 1

Xamarin.Essentials (Nuget) is available as a preview package and contains functionality to both open the default mail app and attach information such as the recipients, subject and the body as well as open the phone dialer with a certain number.
There is also a blog post about Xamarin.Essentials available on blog.xamarin.com.
Edit:
As for your mail issue, Xamarin.Essentials expects an array of strings as recipients so you are able to send mail to multiple people at once. Just pass a string array with one single value.
var recipients = new string[1] {"me#watercod.es"};
If you're using the overload that expects an EmailMessage instance, you are supposed to pass a List of string objects.
In that case, the following should work:
var recipients = new List<string> {"me#watercod.es"};

Answer 2

Updating the complete code for calling and mailing features using Xamarin.Essentials, this might help others.
For call:
try
{
PhoneDialer.Open(number);
}
catch (ArgumentNullException anEx)
{
// Number was null or white space
}
catch (FeatureNotSupportedException ex)
{
// Phone Dialer is not supported on this device.
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
// Other error has occurred.
}
For Mail:
List<string> recipients = new List<string>();
string useremail = email.Text;
recipients.Add(useremail);
try
{
var message = new EmailMessage
{
//Subject = subject,
//Body = body,
To = recipients
//Cc = ccRecipients,
//Bcc = bccRecipients
};
await Email.ComposeAsync(message);
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
Debug.WriteLine("Exception:>>"+ex);
}

Answer 3

Hello to make a call in UWP:
if (Windows.Foundation.Metadata.ApiInformation.IsTypePresent("Windows.ApplicationModel.Calls.PhoneCallManager"))
{
Windows.ApplicationModel.Calls.PhoneCallManager.ShowPhoneCallUI("123", "name to call");
}
To send a Text:
private async void ComposeSms(Windows.ApplicationModel.Contacts.Contact recipient,
string messageBody,
StorageFile attachmentFile,
string mimeType)
{
var chatMessage = new Windows.ApplicationModel.Chat.ChatMessage();
chatMessage.Body = messageBody;
if (attachmentFile != null)
{
var stream = Windows.Storage.Streams.RandomAccessStreamReference.CreateFromFile(attachmentFile);
var attachment = new Windows.ApplicationModel.Chat.ChatMessageAttachment(
mimeType,
stream);
chatMessage.Attachments.Add(attachment);
}
var phone = recipient.Phones.FirstOrDefault<Windows.ApplicationModel.Contacts.ContactPhone>();
if (phone != null)
{
chatMessage.Recipients.Add(phone.Number);
}
await Windows.ApplicationModel.Chat.ChatMessageManager.ShowComposeSmsMessageAsync(chatMessage);
}
as found in Microsoft documentation here: Compose SMS documentation
==> So you can make (If not already done) a shared service interface in your Xamarin app, then the implementation with these codes in your UWP app...
To send an email:
To send an email in UWP, you can refer to the Microsoft documentation too:
Send Email documentation (UWP)
Using a plugin
Else you can use a Xamarin plugin:
documentation: Xamarin cross messaging plugin
Nuget: Nuget plugin package

Answer 4

In our app, we are doing the phone calling with a DependencyService.
Therefore in our PCL, we have
public interface IPhoneCall
{
void Call(string number);
}
On the iOS side, the following method does the calling:
public void Call(string number)
{
if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(number))
return;
var url = new NSUrl("tel:" + number);
if (!UIApplication.SharedApplication.OpenUrl(url))
{
var av = new UIAlertView("Error",
"Your device does not support calls",
null,
Keys.Messages.BUTTON_OK,
null);
av.Show();
}
}

Answer 5

If don't want to wait for the Xamarin essentials that is still in pre-release as of today, you can use this open source plugin. It works on iOS, Android and UWP. There is a sample from the github documentation :
// Make Phone Call
var phoneDialer = CrossMessaging.Current.PhoneDialer;
if (phoneDialer.CanMakePhoneCall)
phoneDialer.MakePhoneCall("[phone]");
// Send Sms
var smsMessenger = CrossMessaging.Current.SmsMessenger;
if (smsMessenger.CanSendSms)
smsMessenger.SendSms("[phone]", "Well hello there from Xam.Messaging.Plugin");
var emailMessenger = CrossMessaging.Current.EmailMessenger;
if (emailMessenger.CanSendEmail)
{
// Send simple e-mail to single receiver without attachments, bcc, cc etc.
emailMessenger.SendEmail("to.plugins#xamarin.com", "Xamarin Messaging Plugin", "Well hello there from Xam.Messaging.Plugin");
// Alternatively use EmailBuilder fluent interface to construct more complex e-mail with multiple recipients, bcc, attachments etc.
var email = new EmailMessageBuilder()
.To("to.plugins#xamarin.com")
.Cc("cc.plugins#xamarin.com")
.Bcc(new[] { "bcc1.plugins#xamarin.com", "bcc2.plugins#xamarin.com" })
.Subject("Xamarin Messaging Plugin")
.Body("Well hello there from Xam.Messaging.Plugin")
.Build();
emailMessenger.SendEmail(email);
}