Background task updates live tile but has no need to appear on lock screen

Question

I have a background task using a TimeTrigger that updates the live tile every 15 minutes. I have no need for my app to display anything on the lock screen; however, as I understand it, I need to set the permissions in the App Manifest so the "Lock Screen notifications" is set to "Badge and Tile Text" and declare the background task as a "Timer" type.

My app is now designated as a "lock screen app": Start Screen>Settings> Change PC Settings

I have noticed that other apps that change their live tiles are not designated as a "lock screen app": i.e. Hulu Plus, Plex, MSN Money, Windows Store, Crackle, etc.

These apps seemingly also use background tasks to change their live tiles. If that is the case, then is there a way I can set a background task to run every 15 minutes w/o having to designate it as a "lock screen app"?

 

Answer 1

Those apps don't use background tasks. They push notifications from off of the system. This is much more efficient than polling from on system.

Another option if your tile update are is to schedule the updates. Lastly, you can define the updated to pool from the manifest.

Answer 2

Correction: Plex and Crackle both are under the "lock screen app" category, so they may be using the same timed background task method that I am using.

In response to Rob's reply, a push notification may not always be practical. I'm not sure what you mean by scheduling updates. Isn't that what a timed background task does? And as for the manifest update, I am assuming you are referring to setting the "URI Template" within the app manifest. This would be perfect; however, the problem with that is that it only displays one notification "slide" within a live tile. I am using the background task because I want to be able to cycle thru 4-5 notification slides. If Microsoft were to create new live tile templates that cycled thru 4-5 notifications, then this method would be perfect.

For better or for worse, the timed background task is the right one for me. Maybe in the future, Microsoft will allow the developer to distinguish if the background task will affect the lock screen.

 

Answer 3

Scheduled notifications do not (and generally should not) require background tasks.

Background tasks are expensive and deliberately restricted to lock screen apps so users know which are running and can easily disable rogue apps.