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.?

In older Windows Phone versions there were such IDs: WP7: Device Status for Windows Phone

WP7.1: DeviceStatus Class

But they doesn't work anymore with SDK 8.0.

Why I ask: The idea is that a user gets some free credits with the first start of the the app and I want to avoid that the user just re-installs the app for getting new free credits. A registration with email or phone number could solve this, but if I can, I don't want do bother users at the first start with a registration.

---///---SOLUTION----------

I can confirm that DeviceExtendedProperties.GetValue("DeviceUniqueId") still works in WP 8.0. Got a little bit confused when I read the following text:

In Windows Phone OS 7.0, this class was used to query device-specific properties. In Windows Phone OS 7.1, most of the properties in DeviceExtendedProperties were deprecated, and the new DeviceStatus class should be used instead. However, where appropriate, you can still use any of the below properties that are not deprecated.

MSDN:DeviceExtendedProperties Class

I can run the following code, delete the app and re-install it and get the same ID:

byte[] myDeviceID = (byte[])Microsoft.Phone.Info.DeviceExtendedProperties.GetValue("DeviceUniqueId");
string DeviceIDAsString = Convert.ToBase64String(myDeviceID);
MessageBox.Show(DeviceIDAsString);

Answer 1

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")

Answer 2

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 3

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).