Now Available: First Full Release of the Microsoft Band SDK

Today, Microsoft announced the availability of the first full release of its Microsoft Band SDK, enabling developers to create their own tiles in the wearable’s UI using icons, text, buttons, barcodes and other elements. This release follows a February beta SDK which provided some foundational capabilities such as access to Band’s sensors.

“Part of what makes Microsoft Band a great platform and product is the commitment we have made to our developer community by opening our SDK to develop third party apps,” Microsoft general manager Zulfi Alam wrote in a new post to the Lumia Conversations blog. “With the full SDK, developers will be able to take advantage of added functionality from our February preview launch to unlock the full potential of the Microsoft Band.”

The February SDK beta allowed developers to access the device’s sensors and create Band tiles with glanceable notifications. Today’s full SDK release completes the picture and adds the following new features:

• Build apps that support Windows.
• Create 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 the phone app. If you press a button on a page inside your tile, the app will know which button was pressed.
• Connect to the Band from background tasks.
• Tap into calorie subscription from the Microsoft Band.

The Microsoft Band SDK supports four platforms—Windows, Windows Phone, Android, and iOS—and can be downloaded now for free from the Microsoft Health for Developers web site.