These features help you create great experiences for every form factor and every viewing option your users have.
- Flexible layouts: Design for different form factors and let users manipulate the content to fit their needs and preferences. Think of landscape view first so that your app will run on all form factors, but remember that some screens rotate, so optimize the layout of your content for a taller-than-wide view that retains functionality. See Guidelines for layouts.
- Snapped and fill views: Design for your users' multi-tasking needs. Users want to use your app while they chat, surf the web, watch a movie, or whatever, so make your snapped view useful and maintain context when going between snapped and unsnapped views. See Guidelines for snapped and fill views.
- Scaling to screens: Design an app UI that looks great on devices of various sizes—from a small tablet screen, to a medium laptop screen, and all the way up to a large desktop or all-in-one screen. See Guidelines for scaling to screens.
- Scaling to pixel density: Make sure the images in your app look great when scaled. Windows scales your app to ensure consistent physical sizing regardless of the pixel density of the device. See Guidelines for scaling to pixel density.
- Resizing: Make sure your app looks great when Windows needs to resize it. Windows automatically resizes your app when the user changes the view state or calls up the soft keyboard. See Guidelines for resizing.
Contracts, charms, and capabilities
Contracts are the glue that binds Windows Store apps together and to the system UI. Two apps that have implemented the same contract can work together to complete a broad or complex scenario. Some contracts are represented by charms. See a complete list of app contracts.
Capabilities identify the device features your app uses.
- Search: Let your users search through your app's content quickly from anywhere in the system. See Guidelines for search.
- Share and data exchange: Let your users share your app's content with other people they care about, receive shared content from other apps, and display it to your users. See Guidelines for sharing content, Guidelines for clipboard commands, and Guidelines for creating custom data formats.
- File pickers: Let your users load their files from and to the local PC, connected storage devices, HomeGroup, and other apps into your app. You can also provide a File picker extension so that other apps can load your apps' content. See Guidelines for file pickers and Guidelines for file picker contracts.
- Location-awareness: Ensure a clean, non-disruptive, privacy-respectful experience with geolocation. See Guidelines for location-aware apps.
- Device-awareness: Microphones, cameras, location providers and text messaging services can access the user's personal data or cost the user money, so Windows Store apps have features to ensure the user has control over these sensitive devices. If your app accesses sensitive devices, design it to account for how a user may enable and disable device access. See Guidelines for using sensitive devices and Guidelines for building a device picker.
- Print dialog: Create a custom UI when your users print content from your app. See Guidelines for a custom print UI.
- Proximity gestures: Let your users connect two or more devices together with a "tap." This gesture lights up experiences where you expect multiple users to be physically close, as with multiplayer games. See Guidelines for tapping.
- Multimedia: Ensure your app works well with multimedia. See Guidelines for developing audio-aware apps and Guidelines for the camera UI.
Tiles and notifications.
Provide fresh content through live tiles and notifications to let people feel connected to your app. Make sure you help your users connect with the people and devices that they care about.
- App tiles and secondary tiles: Use your app's tile to engage users, to encourage them to use your app, and to keep your app feeling fresh and relevant. You can promote interesting content and deep links from your app on the Start screen and let your users launch your app directly into a specific experience within your app. See Guidelines for tiles and badges and Guidelines for secondary tiles.
- Notifications: Help your users be aware of time-sensitive or personally relevant content through toast notifications, and invite them back to your app when it is not in the foreground. See Guidelines for toast notifications, Guidelines for push notifications, Guidelines for periodic notifications, Guidelines for scheduled notifications.
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