One of Microsoft’s main commitments over the past year has been towards openness. In addition to a commitment to seeking and reacting upon user feedback in the development of its software, this has also meant a willingness to code for and work with other platforms, such as Android and iOS.
Now, as part of its continued relationship with Xamarin, as stated in an offical blog post, Microsoft has released the “Microsoft Band Web Tile Preview”, and the “Microsoft Health Cloud API Preview” to the wider developer community. This comes following a number of similar releases to the community at various points, such as during Build in late April.
The first of the two, the Microsoft Band Web Tile Preview, makes it possible to deliver ‘glanceable’ information to the Microsoft Band from throughout the web, much as with Windows Phone. This feature will work with all operating systems that the Band is compatible with.
It is the latter that may prove to make a more significant difference however. The Microsoft Health Cloud API Preview allows developers to access cloud fitness data stored by Microsoft, in order to enhance the experience delivered by their fitness apps, allowing for more powerful analysis among other things.
In addition to releasing the two previews, Microsoft has also acted upon developer feedback regarding the band, and as a result a number of changes have been made in order to improve the overall experience. These include the refreshing of 3rd-party tile contents in-place, Batter support for building icons as buttons and the ability to control the tile screen timeout.
Regarding the release, the tech giant stated,
“With this new preview, we are making it even easier for developers to create tiles for Microsoft Band, and are providing the first opportunity for developers to gain access to the rich fitness data that is stored in the Microsoft Health platform.”
As time goes by, and the Band platform continues to gain features and support, it will be interesting to see where Microsoft takes future iterations of the device.
What feature would you most like to see added to the Microsoft Band? Let us know in the comments below.
