How to launch a YouTube URL on Windows Phone 7

Question

I would like to launch directly to the YouTube player on Windows Phone 7.

I tried using WebBrowserTask and giving a YouTube URL, it opens up the browser and brings me t

Answer 1

No. Mabe in next version of OS will be custom choosers and lunchers.

Answer 2

Once you have the Youtube app installed, from within you application you can start the WebBrowserTask and do the follwing:

        Regex Youtube = new Regex("youtu(?:\\.be|be\\.com)/(?:.*v(?:/|=)|(?:.*/)?)([a-zA-Z0-9-_]+)");            

        Match youtubeMatch = Youtube.Match(YOUTUBE_VIDEO_URL);           

        string id = string.Empty;

        if (youtubeMatch.Success)
            id = youtubeMatch.Groups[1].Value; 

        WebBrowserTask webBrowserTask = new WebBrowserTask();


        webBrowserTask.URL = "vnd.youtube:"+ id +"?vndapp=youtube_mobile";
        webBrowserTask.Show();

That should launch the browser, then automatically launch the Youtube App. Cheers!

Answer 3

To display a video from YouTube, you will need the Video Player for YouTube. Otherwise, you will need to write a custom decoder that will receive the YouTube stream and display it in a MediaElement.

Answer 4

There is a solution for that now. You can use vnd.youtube protocol to launch the YouTube application from Microsoft and play.

C#

 Windows.System.Launcher.LaunchUriAsync(

 new System.Uri("vnd.youtube:9bZkp7q19f0")

 );

Unfortunately Launcher.LaunchUriAsync method only works with Windows Phone 8 devices and beyond.

Answer 5

Try to use following sample;

  WebBrowserTask webBrowserTask = new WebBrowserTask();
  webBrowserTask.Uri = new Uri("http://www.youtube.com/embed/V3oJR5IAMxM?autoplay=1");
  webBrowserTask.Show();

this should open video directly, but I think you will have to still double click to go back.

Answer 6

Finally I've worked out a clean solution (without browser task, and no "double back key pressing"):

http://mytoolkit.codeplex.com/wikipage?title=YouTube