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I have an unsupervised Windows Phone device connected to a 12 V battery -> cigarett socket -> micro USB. I would like this phone to notify me when the 12 V battery dies, i.e., when the phone's internal battery starts to run out of juice.

The device is connected to internet but can't send texts (but it can make phone calls with caller ID).

Are there any apps that can send an e-mail, make a a phone call (but not in the middle of the night) or similar when the battery reaches a certain level?

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This can be done with a custom app that doesn't use the built in phone email function I believe. I use the below vode in my .net desktop apps and i think similar will work on phone. But I don't think battery percent is available in Windows Phone 8. Only 8.1+. In Windows Phone 8 you can only detect whether it's charging or discharging iirc.

You can have the app query battery percent and then send an email via google or something. You an also email to text message. I'm writing this in my Lumia so excuse the formatting. I'm sending to a tmobile text recipient but I know the servers for major us carriers. Or we can send it to regular email recipient.

This example uses a Comcast server but should work for any provider you have info for. Vb.net

Dim txtmsg as new MailMessage()
Txtmsg.to.add("1234567890@tmomail.net")
Txtmsg.from = new MailAddress("fromemail@comcast.com")
Txtmsg.subject = "low bat"
Txtmsg.body = "at blah time the phone battery was blah percent"
Dim SMTP as new SMTPclient("smtp.w14d.comcast.net")
SMTP.credentials = new net.networkingcredentials("username","password")
SMTP.send(txtmsg)

If you want, assuming this method works fine on phone, I'm willing to write it for you and publish it on my dev acct, but I won't spend time making it pretty, it'll be very basic and just do it's thing.

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  • If you could publish a working app that would be most helpful. I'm fine with configuring it with a text editor or similar. Can you do adapt it for GMail? – d-b Dec 1 '15 at 9:08
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    Yes I know this works with GMail when I've used it in desktop apps, I'll test it in a Windows Phone app this weekend and if it works like I'm thinking, I'll comment a link to the app here when it's done. Is this for Windows Phone 7.8 or 8 or 8.1? – Gary Ritter Dec 1 '15 at 22:15
  • Currently it is 8.10.14234 – d-b Dec 1 '15 at 23:00
  • Making any progress with this app? – d-b Dec 12 '15 at 12:22
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Unfortunately this isn't possible since apps can't send an email, text message, or make a phone call without user permission.

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    true, they can't access those native phone functions, but apps could make use of services like Twilio to bypass those restrictions. – Thomas Nov 26 '15 at 17:23
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    That's true. I hadn't thought of that. Feel free to add your own answer including that. – RareNCool Nov 26 '15 at 19:17
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    problem is, I don't actually know of an app that can do those things ;-) – Thomas Nov 26 '15 at 19:44
  • What? You mean you can't schedule an e-mail due to system permissions? That is ridiculous! But apps should be able to (1) check the battery status, shouldn't they? (2) make an http call. If battery status fulfill certain conditions an app should then be able to do (2)!? – d-b Nov 26 '15 at 21:33
  • You can create an email with an app, but the user must physically hit "send", for security reasons. Yes, you're correct that it could be done, but I know of no app that does it, and it's such a rare use case that I doubt we'll see such an app any time soon. – RareNCool Nov 26 '15 at 23:02

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