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Microsoft Band: Building Custom Notifications

 

Since the launch of Microsoft Band, many people have stepped forward looking to create custom notifications on a device where the SDK has yet to launch.  Is there a way to receive a custom text like “Hello World” based on a feed from a local or remote app?

The answer is not only yes, it’s been tested already.  This a simple solution involving both Azure Mobile Services and a custom developed-app on any phone such as iOS, Android or Windows.  For our test we leveraged Windows Phone and built a custom app that simply takes in a text prompt from any data source (it could be from the app itself through a command line interface).  We wanted something a bit more sophisticated, and instead went with a remote PC with a Windows 8.1 app that pushed commands to a remote Windows phone via Azure Mobile Services.  The custom phone app would easily push these notifications to the Band. 

There is a minor caveat – Microsoft Band comes out-of-the-box with disabled push notifications, and simply requires a minor change on Windows Phone under settings. 

The application works great if you’re looking to build business solutions that push custom alerts, messages or reminders.

 

Comments

  • Anonymous
    November 26, 2014
    Hi the post is missing the image! Also I take it this is GDR1 specific as the Accessory Application API doesn't exist on phones that are pre GDR1?

  • Anonymous
    November 27, 2014
    Did see an image here: microsoft-news.com/developers-can-build-business-solutions-that-push-custom-alerts-to-microsoft-band Any chance that the source code will be made available? Would love to try this out.

  • Anonymous
    December 04, 2014
    Any chance you'll post some source code examples?

  • Anonymous
    December 07, 2014
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  • Anonymous
    December 28, 2015
    Good sharing