Microsoft Releases a New SDK for Its Band Fitness Tracker

Developers who want to create software apps for Microsoft’s Band fitness tracker will be glad to know that the company recently released a brand new SDK. The software development kit facilitates the creation of apps that provide notifications to the user from a paired smartphone or directly from the Band’s sensors. The ability to customize notification tiles in-depth as well as accessing the caloric data stored in the fitness tracker are some of the most important functions offered by the full release of the kit.

The SDK was previewed for the first time back in February, when developers learned that it allows direct access to the Band’s accelerometer, gyroscope and heart rate monitor. Powered by a cloud-based service named Microsoft Health, Band can be paired with Android, iOS and Windows Phone-based devices, while variants of the SDK are available for each OS.

By giving more power to developers, Microsoft hopes to create better competition for the Apple Watch, which is currently enjoying great success. Focusing on making the devs’ jobs easier never a bad idea, and I’m really looking forward to seeing what this new SDK can do.

Do you own a fitness tracker, and if so, are you satisfied with its performance and user interface?

Thank you Pcworld for providing us with this information.