Ideas for Band apps! Post your ideas, and devs, look here for suggestions

[several potatos]

Now that we see that devs are onboard with the Band, I figured that we could give voice to some ideas for developers to make a reality (and profit from). Post your ideas, non-dev users, and devs, if you're reading this, let us know what you think.

Off the bat, an app to store loyalty-card barcodes would be great. I'm sure people are saying "not enough space", but if the barcode jpg files were stored in the phone, and then the phone simply compiled a list of the right files, the app could have "click here for <userinput barcode name>" and then fetch that file temporarily. I believe that is how the band works with Cortana, I.E. sending the commands to the phone and then briefly displaying the response.

An app to add gesture control would be a potential hit, though I don't know if the SDK would allow this. The idea is pretty simple (though complex to execute, I grant)-map user created movements to a series of command choices.

Very general idea: games! Super-simple games, such as even an ascii-based tic-tac-toe might be simple enough for the band processor to handle

Stopwatch: self-explanatory

I'll post more when I can.

 

[Sam Swancutt]

I'd like a wrist gesture to pop it into watch mode for 2 seconds

 

[lovesurface]

what I REALLY think would be no less than awesome is an app that let the user have the phone ringing from the band.
I mean, imagine all the time you have your phone around, in the house or the office, but you dont know where it is... and usually you end up having the phone ringing from somebody else phone. Imagine you have a way to push the button on the band and have the phone ringing or anything that could help you locate it. that's the app I am looking for.
I think an app is impossible to make it, but there should be a workaround to have kind of a message or signal to send back to the phone and have the phone react in any audible way. what do you think?

 

[several potatos]

what I REALLY think would be no less than awesome is an app that let the user have the phone ringing from the band.
I mean, imagine all the time you have your phone around, in the house or the office, but you dont know where it is... and usually you end up having the phone ringing from somebody else phone. Imagine you have a way to push the button on the band and have the phone ringing or anything that could help you locate it. that's the app I am looking for.
I think an app is impossible to make it, but there should be a workaround to have kind of a message or signal to send back to the phone and have the phone react in any audible way. what do you think?

If you have Cortana enabled on the band, you can say "Play <playlist, music, album, artist, etc.>" and the phone will make plenty of sound.

 

[Red River]

1. shake to dismiss a call

2. phone camera remote

 

[astondg]

Now that we see that devs are onboard with the Band, I figured that we could give voice to some ideas for developers to make a reality (and profit from). Post your ideas, non-dev users, and devs, if you're reading this, let us know what you think.

Right now the SDK doesn't really allow for building Band apps at all. It only lets you create a 'tile' that you can push notifications to from your Windows Phone app. So essentially every 'app' that devs create with the current SDK will look similar to the existing Cortana tile. The SDK also allows apps to read sensors and data from the Band back to a Windows Phone app. Although this is valuable I was still very disappointed as I had plans to build my own Band apps.

 

[defante]

As far as loyalty barcodes. If they ever add more to the SDK, you could just add a tile on the Band with a list of your cards, when you choose the one you want, the phone will generate the barcode and then send it to the Band (kind of like how the keyboard uses the phone for figuring out what you're typing).

 

[ALpHa.Q.RoUgH]

A flashlight app. A flashlight on my wrist. It would help instead of holding my phone up I could just use my wrist.

 

[pechio]

Wallpaper changer

 

[rahul rustagi1]

Angry birds miniature

 

[calmelros]

Lots of apps to change background but how about one to allow you to use your own photos?

 

[mkg3]

Two suggestions:

1) Utility that allows Band to leave workout/run/bike mode without having to pause and resume. Cannot do anything else, while you're in one of these mode.

Yes as things come in, it displays for bit but if your working out and are in the middle of a set, cannot check fast enough. The only way to go back and check is to pause, then goto email/txt/notification, then return, resume. While it may not sound all that difficult to do, its actually quite annoying and a hassle. It would be great to just start a session and let it run in the background.

2) The other is a better timer/count down clock. Currently, the alarm is the first item on the timer tile and to get to set the countdown timer, you have to swipe left. In the process, almost always, you end up turning the alarm on. And if you leave the count down clock for any reason, you have to go through the whole motion again -- its a really a poor design layout. Additionally, the count down timer resets to zeros after each count down. Does not retain the previous time quantity (e.g., want to do 2x 10 mins but each time have to reset the timer to 10 mins). It should default to the previously set time.

 

[odgemotorsports]

Night mode. Similar to glance screen. In watch mode the time would change to a color of your choosing, like your glance screen. Late at night, the white numbers can be very bright. Maybe a movie theater mode?

 

[someone2639]

Flappy bird, Windows 98, and Pokemon. What else?

 

[Shad0wguy]

I'd really like to see a loyalty card app that lets you display the bar codes for loyalty cards similar to the starbucks app. That would really come in handy.

 

[Sam Swancutt]

more of a firmware update than an app but I'd like to set an alarm for Mon - Fri
e.g. 7am
and not have to enable it every night....

 

[ALpHa.Q.RoUgH]

Maybe I'm a noob or whatever, but is there no way to have sleep mode/track on and have the phone vibrate for a wake up alarm?

 

[several potatos]

Maybe I'm a noob or whatever, but is there no way to have sleep mode/track on and have the phone vibrate for a wake up alarm?

I believe it can be done

 

[randyoaks187]

I started another post with this question, but I would love an app to be able to flip/rotate the screen such that the button would be pointing towards the palm. It is more comfortable that way, wearing it on my left hand, but I just have to deal with everything being upside down.

 

[euphonic code]

Two suggestions:

1) Utility that allows Band to leave workout/run/bike mode without having to pause and resume. Cannot do anything else, while you're in one of these mode.

Yes as things come in, it displays for bit but if your working out and are in the middle of a set, cannot check fast enough. The only way to go back and check is to pause, then goto email/txt/notification, then return, resume. While it may not sound all that difficult to do, its actually quite annoying and a hassle. It would be great to just start a session and let it run in the background.

2) The other is a better timer/count down clock. Currently, the alarm is the first item on the timer tile and to get to set the countdown timer, you have to swipe left. In the process, almost always, you end up turning the alarm on. And if you leave the count down clock for any reason, you have to go through the whole motion again -- its a really a poor design layout. Additionally, the count down timer resets to zeros after each count down. Does not retain the previous time quantity (e.g., want to do 2x 10 mins but each time have to reset the timer to 10 mins). It should default to the previously set time.

1. Only Microsoft can add functionality to Microsoft's apps.

2. Same as above.

Night mode. Similar to glance screen. In watch mode the time would change to a color of your choosing, like your glance screen. Late at night, the white numbers can be very bright. Maybe a movie theater mode?

The Developer SDK exposes very few theming options, none of which allow the changing of system text color. This is not possible.

I'd really like to see a loyalty card app that lets you display the bar codes for loyalty cards similar to the starbucks app. That would really come in handy.

The Developer SDK in its current form does not allow for displaying of images. At most, a small icon can be displayed alongside a line of text.

Maybe I'm a noob or whatever, but is there no way to have sleep mode/track on and have the phone vibrate for a wake up alarm?

This would require Microsoft to make changes to the sleep app/Band OS.

I started another post with this question, but I would love an app to be able to flip/rotate the screen such that the button would be pointing towards the palm. It is more comfortable that way, wearing it on my left hand, but I just have to deal with everything being upside down.

This sort of functionality is completely impossible, as screen rotation is something regulated by the Band's OS and is not exposed through the Developer SDK.