Microsoft Band just massively improved with third-party support

One of the key weaknesses of Microsoft’s fitness tracker is set to be squashed when third party support is integrated.

Microsoft’s Band has been well received since it launched back in October, despite the lack of a solid selection of third-party apps and diet tracking. Thankfully that will soon change as Microsoft has opted to release a complete version of the device’s SDK to developers.

Up until now a skeleton version of Microsoft’s SDK has been available, which only allowed devs to send notifications to the Microsoft Band and create tiles. But now the full version will allow for the complete development of new applications, making full use of all of the device’s sensors, which enable the Band to monitor things like heart rate, skin temperature and calorie data.

Devs will also be able to deliver custom personalisation options to the Band, including new themes and backgrounds.

Given that the Microsoft Band works with Android, iOS and Windows handsets, Microsoft has put out three separate SDK’s. So expect to see Band-supported apps emerging on all three platforms in the coming weeks.

Detailing the SDK release on its Devices blog, Microsoft stated that the SDK will give developers the ability to:

• Build apps that support Windows.
• Create your own custom layouts for pages on third-party tiles using icons, text, buttons, and barcodes for payment options.
• Receive events and button-click callbacks from the Microsoft Band to your phone app. If you press a button on a page inside your tile, your app would know which button was pressed.
• Connect to the Band from background tasks.
• Tap into calorie subscription from the Microsoft Band.

Developers can head over to the Microsoft developer site to download a copy of the SDK now, and there’s some sample code available too to give you a head start.