Capture

[!TIP] This article covers Uno-specific information for the Windows.Media.Capture namespace. For a full description of the feature and its instructions, see Windows.Media.Capture Namespace.

The Windows.Media.Capture namespace provides classes for capturing photos, audio recordings, and videos.

CameraCaptureUI

CameraCaptureUI is currently only supported on Android, iOS, and WinUI. On other platforms, CaptureFileAsync will return null.

[!IMPORTANT] CaptureFileAsync should only be called from the UI thread. Calling them from a background thread will throw an InvalidOperationException.

Platform-specific

Android

If you are planning to use the CameraCaptureUI, your app must declare android.permission.CAMERA and android.permission.WRITE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE permissions, otherwise the functionality will not work as expected:

[assembly: UsesPermission("android.permission.CAMERA")]
[assembly: UsesPermission("android.permission.WRITE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE")]

iOS

On iOS, CameraCaptureUI uses the native UIImagePickerController to capture media. To request the necessary permissions, ensure that the NSCameraUsageDescription and NSMicrophoneUsageDescription keys are added to the Info.plist file.

[!NOTE] The NSMicrophoneUsageDescription key is required only if you are capturing videos. If you are only capturing photos, you can omit this key.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
    <key>NSCameraUsageDescription</key>
    <string>We need access to the camera to take photos.</string>
    <key>NSMicrophoneUsageDescription</key>
    <string>We need access to the microphone to record videos.</string>
</dict>
</plist>

[!IMPORTANT] iOS simulators do not have access to a camera. To test the camera functionality, you need to run the app on a physical device. When using a simulator, your app will open the Photo Library instead of the camera, but the functionality will work as expected once the app is deployed to a physical device.

WinUI

On WinUI, CameraCaptureUI provides a unified interface for capturing photos and videos, fully leveraging the platform's APIs. WinUI support is coming with v1.7+.

Example

#if __ANDROID__ || __IOS__ || __WINDOWS__
using Windows.Media.Capture;
#endif

public async Task CapturePhotoAsync()
{
#if __ANDROID__ || __IOS__ || __WINDOWS__
    var captureUI = new CameraCaptureUI();
    captureUI.PhotoSettings.Format = CameraCaptureUIPhotoFormat.Jpeg;
    
    var file = await captureUI.CaptureFileAsync(CameraCaptureUIMode.Photo);

    if (file != null)
    {
        // Handle the captured file (e.g., save or display it)
    }
    else
    {
        // Handle the cancellation or error
    }
#endif
}

You can also check out our sample for more details.