Windows Phone - Double Width Tile

In this short article I will talk about how to create double tile like picture shown below.

Read Essential Graphics, Visual Indicators, and Notifications for Windows Phone, Double width tiles are available only to Microsoft and its partners.

This article can not be implemented by independent software vendor (ISV) because the app certification won't pass in Apphub.

I am just writing it to make you aware how double width tile can be done.

Let's see how we can do this.

Open WMAppManifest.xml in Properties folder of Windows Phone project. You will notice PrimaryToken has TemplateType5 element and if  enter "<" you will get another option TemplateType6 like shown below.

Create a double width tile image of 356 X 173 like shown below.

Comment TemplateType5 and add TemplateType6 like below.

<Tokens>
   <PrimaryToken TokenID="Windows_Phone___FAS_and_TSToken" TaskName="_default">
      <TemplateType6>
         <BackgroundImageURI IsRelative="true" IsResource="false">DoubleTile.png</BackgroundImageURI>
         <Count>0</Count>
         <Title>Double Tile Sample</Title>
         <Animation></Animation>
      </TemplateType6>

      <!--<TemplateType5>
         <BackgroundImageURI IsRelative="true" IsResource="false">Background.png</BackgroundImageURI>
         <Count>0</Count>
         <Title>Tile Sample</Title>
      </TemplateType5>-->
   </PrimaryToken>
</Tokens>

You will notice all the elements of TemplateType5 and TemplateType6 are same except Animation element. Microsoft hasn't provided any documention around it so far.

Now run the application and pin the application on start menu. You will notice double width tile as shown below.

This ends the article of how to create double width tiles in Windows Phone.