Unigram: Tray icon does not appear in tray

[electronic-dk]

Tray icon doesn't appear in tray, even though the corresponding setting is "on".

Steps to reproduce:

1. Launch Unigram
2. Login if not logged in
3. Go to Settings > Advanced and turn on "Show tray icon"
4. Check the windows tray

Expected behavior:
Unigram icon is in the tray

Actual behavior:
Unigram icon is NOT in the tray

This was introduced by 3.11.2563, still reproducible in 3.11.2579
Windows 1903 Build 18362

[alex-fgsfds]

Can confirm

[FrayxRulez]

👋 will restore the tray icon asap!

[FrayxRulez]

Microsoft broken their tooling and it isn’t possible anymore to have the tray icon it seems (to have the tray icon I was using a separate win32 app bundled and hidden within Unigram setup).

I’m lazy to open a ticket on their side to ask for a fix to be honest.

[electronic-dk]

@FrayxRulez thanks for the update. Is it broken in a particular version of the SDK (read Windows version) or is it some say .NET thing which can be fixed without having to wait for a new Windows version?

[FrayxRulez]

It's actually broken starting from VS 16.3

[szedjani]

The official Windows store Telegram app does have a tray icon, so I am using that since then. Too bad, it doesn't support multiple accounts, so my secondary Telegram account is now in Unigram and I use my main one with the tray icon in the official.

[FrayxRulez]

You should provide this feedback to Microsoft and not to me, I can do really little to solve the issue.

[electronic-dk]

@szedjani the official Telegram app is a win32 app unlike Unigram which is a UWP app. AFAIK UWP apps don't have an API for tray, so usually they use "hacks" such as a companion win32 app which doesn't do much except maintains a tray icon which has been apparently broken "from VS 16.3".

[szedjani]

I am very unfamiliar with Windows app development (I am a data scientist / enterprise software developer). I installed the official app from Windows Store, I didn't download it from the website. Is it still the same win32 software?

[electronic-dk]

@szedjani yeah, if you're talking about this app: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/p/telegram-desktop/9nztwsqntd0s?activetab=pivot:overviewtab then it's the same app that can be downloaded from the telegram website, just packaged for distribution through the windows store.

It's pretty ok, I personally have two issues with it:

1. Terrible custom window header which doesn't respect high DPI scaling and looks out of place
2. Worse notifications support (no in-line reply for example)

That's what comes to my mind right away (I haven't used the official app in a while)
And I just think that Unigram is more visually pleasing than the official app, but that's subjective.

[rfgamaral]

Microsoft broken their tooling and it isn’t possible anymore to have the tray icon it seems (to have the tray icon I was using a separate win32 app bundled and hidden within Unigram setup).

Can't you share that win32 app separately? We could run that manually (or automatically at startup) instead of having it bundled with the Windows store app?

[rfgamaral]

Anyway, I'm using this AutoHotKey script as a workaround for now:

#NoEnv
#Persistent
#SingleInstance force

global AHK_NOTIFYICON = 0x404
global WM_LBUTTONDBLCLK = 0x203

SendMode Input

OnMessage(AHK_NOTIFYICON, "NotifyIconHandler")

Menu, Tray, NoStandard
Menu, Tray, Icon, %A_ScriptDir%\Default.ico
Menu, Tray, Tip, Unigram

Menu, Tray, Add, Unigram, UnigramHandler
Menu, Tray, Default, Unigram

Menu, Tray, Add

Menu, Tray, Add, Exit, ExitHandler

Return

NotifyIconHandler(wParam, lParam) {
    if (lParam = WM_LBUTTONDBLCLK) {
        Gosub, UnigramHandler
        Return
    }
}

UnigramHandler:
    Run shell:AppsFolder\38833FF26BA1D.UnigramPreview_g9c9v27vpyspw!App
Return

ExitHandler:
    ExitApp
Return

You can download the icon from the this repository here.

[soumyamahunt]

Reported the issue in feedback hub: https://aka.ms/AA6wooo

[FrayxRulez]

I think that opening a ticket to Visual Studio team would be more effective :/

[electronic-dk]

@FrayxRulez appreciate your work on the app and a quick response to this issue back in October. Could you, please, explain briefly what Microsoft broke that the previous workaround with a win32 companion app isn't working anymore? Is it something in the Windows SDK?

[sprite-1]

@FrayxRulez is the tray icon related to the delivery of notifications? Because I have sporadic notification issues (sometimes it comes, sometimes I have to open the app for all notifications to come)

[MarcAnt01]

Yes, it would allow in-app notifications when the window is closed

[sprite-1]

I thought the whole point of UWP apps is that it doesn't need to rely on an omnipresent tray icon already because it's tied to Windows' backend with receiving push notifs

[MarcAnt01]

I thought the whole point of UWP apps is that it doesn't need to rely on an omnipresent tray icon already because it's tied to Windows' backend with receiving push notifs

I don't know if it's Microsoft's or Telegram's fault, but I don't enjoy the experience with push notifications.

[sprite-1]

I don't know if it's Microsoft's or Telegram's fault, but I don't enjoy the experience with push notifications.

I think I just fixed it actually. On the _Settings app > System > Battery > See which apps are affecting your battery life > Show: All apps > Unigram_

Uncheck the _Let Windows decide when this app can run in the background_ and check _Allow the app to run background tasks_

After I did that, notifications seem to be coming in properly afterwards now. It doesn't seem to matter if your device has a battery or not, as long as you do the steps above

Of course, don't forget to make sure Unigram itself has background permission

[szedjani]

This ticket is not about that notifications are not coming properly, but about not having a tray icon.

[sprite-1]

I know, I was resolving my own comment/question that I stated here. As well as responding to @MarcAnt01

[szedjani]

Suddenly it just started working today.

[FrayxRulez]

🕺

[szedjani]

Since the last update, it broke again. The tray icon disappeared.

When I click on the Advanced settings I get an unhandled exception.

Then when I acknowledge it, I cannot see the relevant setting.

[MarcAnt01]

Tray icon has been removed and there's already an issue about the exception

[szedjani]

I haven't seen the removal of the tray icon in the release notes. Do you know the reason by any chance? Is it permanent or just temporary?

[FrayxRulez]

Hi @szedjani I have explained the reasons here: https://github.com/UnigramDev/Unigram/issues/1493
I will make sure you can download the tray icon as a external software in the future.

[MarcAnt01]

Furthermore we don't use release section to mention the changes in minor updates

[szedjani]

Thanks for the explanation. Yes please, send me as well the tray icon exe please :)