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Quickstart: Sending an SMS message Windows Phone Store app using C++, C#, or Visual Basic

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[This article is for Windows 8.x and Windows Phone 8.x developers writing Windows Runtime apps. If you’re developing for Windows 10, see the latest documentation]

This topic shows you how to launch the compose SMS dialog to allow the user to send an SMS message. You can pre-populate the fields of the SMS with data before showing the dialog. The message will not be sent until the user taps the send button.

Prerequisites

  • We recommend that you be familiar with Microsoft Visual Studio and its associated templates.
  • We recommend that you be familiar with C# development.

Launch the compose SMS dialog

Create a new ChatMessage object and set the data that you want to be pre-populated in the compose email dialog. Call ShowComposeSmsMessageAsync to show the dialog.

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);
}

Summary and next steps

This topic has shown you how to launch the compose SMS dialog. For information on selecting contacts to use as recipients for an SMS message, see Quickstart: Selecting user contacts. For information on using PickSingleFileAndContinue to select a file to use as an SMS attachment, see How to continue your Windows Phone app after calling a file picker.

Quickstart: Selecting user contacts

How to continue your Windows Phone app after calling a file picker