Get Unique Device ID (UDID) under Windows Phone 8

Question

Is there any unique device ID (UDID) or any similar ID I can read out on Windows Phone 8 (WP8) that doesn\'t change with hardware changes, app-reinstallation etc.?

I

Answer 1

I've had this issue with returning the null value. Then remembered that it needs to be switched on.

In WMAppManifest.xml -> Capabilities tab -> switch on ID_CAP_IDENTITY_DEVICE

Answer 2

There's a twist to this DeviceUniqueId - it is unique only for one publisher. So it is not really device-wide unique identifier but unique device id for one publisher. We have noticed when we worked on some customer project where we tried to identify the same phone from different accounts (customer publishes under two different accounts).

Answer 3

I used this:

    private static String getDeviceId()
        {
            byte[] id = (byte[])Microsoft.Phone.Info.DeviceExtendedProperties.GetValue("DeviceUniqueId");
            return BitConverter.ToString(id).Replace("-", string.Empty);
        }

But the key is to Check the ID_CAP_IDENTITY_DEVICE in WMAppManifest, or else it throws error.

Answer 4

By not providing DeviceUniqueId in Windows Phone 8 and Windows 8, Microsoft tried to avoid User Tracking but with increased pressure from Dev community, they are bringing it back again.

In Windows 8.1, Microsoft has introduced a new AdvertisingId API and may also bring similar Id to identify a unique user across apps in subsequent Windows Phone 8.1/9 versions.

Answer 5

The answers above work for Windows Phone 7 and 8 Silverlight. However, they will not work for Windows Phone RT (Universal) or Store Apps since the SDK does not have this dll library (Microsoft.Phone).

This is how you get the device ID and Name (and possibly other info) on Windows Phone 8.1 RT (Universal/Store Apps).

private string GetHardwareId()
{
    var token = HardwareIdentification.GetPackageSpecificToken(null);
    var hardwareId = token.Id;
    var dataReader = Windows.Storage.Streams.DataReader.FromBuffer(hardwareId);

    byte[] bytes = new byte[hardwareId.Length];
    dataReader.ReadBytes(bytes);

    return BitConverter.ToString(bytes);
}

More details about reading the device info on Windows RT can be found here

Answer 6

I haven't yet started to develop for Windows Phone 8, still on 7, but you still should be able to use the original DeviceExtendedProperties class to pull back the Device Unique ID.

DeviceExtendedProperties.GetValue("DeviceUniqueId")