Update 1.22: What's next?

Hi there!

This post is a continuation of our release announcement of update 1.21. Read it first to learn about our latest features.

We were not in contact for really long time since release 1.20, so today I want to share with you on my thoughts about the future features for "Bind Mi Band".
Firstly, this wasn't right that it took so much time to make an update from the previous release. That's why I believe that next updates should be more granular and more often. Another thing is that it's better to work on one thing at a time. But there are so many of them! And you will help me to choose what to do!

Further, you will find a poll where you can leave your vote and share your opinion on what should be done next.


Here are the options.

1. Removing activities and full OneDrive sync

Originally, it was in a plan for this release to have a possibility to remove activities, like incorrectly detected sleep. But to make everything work really great, we need to improve our OneDrive sync feature, so practically all the data app has, will be synchronized with the cloud (right now it's only day's summary, not individual activities).

We have a pretty good plan on how to do this, but it was decided not to delay the release even further, so this feature was postponed. 

On the side note: our users love our OneDrive sync since they know that their data is not stored anywhere else (especially, in China :D). For us it's also good: we don't need to maintain a backend (though, it would be really fun to do!) and don't need to make users pay for it. So, extending OneDrive sync is a way forward for us. The only question is "when: now or later?".

2. Training mode

It is possible to utilize Mi Band's HR sensor in continuous measurement mode for a short period, like training. So we can do that and will measure calories you burnt while knowing your HR. Also, we will send a notification when your HR peaks. Not really sure here what is possible, but something like this seems to be doable.

What we cannot do: continuous HR measurements 24/7. Mi Band does not have such mode itself, so it should be the app which asks it to measure pulse every 5 minute or so. The problem is that the app should be active to access Bluetooth. And, of course, we can't/won't have our app active all the time. Background tasks on Windows do not allow such access too. At least, when we tried last time.
The same thing concerns Live Tile, by the way.

What we don't want to do: running mode with GPS. There are plenty of decent apps for running with GPS tracking, based on phone's sensor, and we don't even want to start to compete with them. That would be another story if Mi Band had GPS sensor, but otherwise, it does not make much sense.

3. UWP and "Notify Mi Band" merging

Many people ask to convert app's UI to UWP or even Fluent Design. Well, I can confess here of being a bit lazy and having now app compiled for 8.1 only. We can make a separate app package for UWP.

Pros:
- we can integrate "Notify Mi Band" back into it
- UI will be looking fresher
- some new features might become available

Cons:
- two versions of the app should be supported
- two versions of the app should be tested
- at some point, 8.1 might be abandoned...

Right now everything new coming from Microsoft is UWP-only. But it's very unfair to all the 8.1-folk, IMO. Their numbers are lowering every month, but there are still many of them. But maybe it's time to move forward now?

Btw, when talking about making UWP app, I don't mean creating a desktop version and let me explain why. In this case, a new segment of users appears - people who use Mi Fit on their Android/iOS and Windows as their desktop. From one side it's good, but from the other - it puts on us requirements to be 95% compliant with Xiaomi's protocols, authentication, and cloud (which all are closed source and non-documented). Why will we need this? To offer a seamless multidevice synchronization user experience, which you would expect. Reverse-engineering Xiaomi's cloud and authentication is doable, but not something I would like to do. Also, I wouldn't want to have a strong dependency on their services, so it means that we have to be flexible about this. This implies even larger amount work, so I'm very skeptical about this direction.

4. Incoming calls notifications investigation

Recently, while checking Microsoft's docs, I noticed that some of the APIs, which were previously locked for OEMs-only, are available now for the public. So phone call and SMS notifications might work now. Only for Windows 10, unfortunately. 

I haven't yet given it a try, but it's an investigation which can pay off with some new features for Notify Mi Band and make it non-beta, finally. Sounds interesting, but no promises here.

5. Remake steps history

That's a thing which is bothering me for a long time now. Current displaying of walking activity in list view is not representative at all. It would be much better to have some hourly graph like Google Fit has (see the link). But not so many people ask about it, so maybe this does not matter?

6. More statistics 

Do you want to see more stats and history views? Monthly/yearly history view, average steps/sleep minutes? Personal records? Walking days strike length? BMI index? All those numbers that you look at first and never use after? If yes, let me know!

Time to vote

I believe that all of these options are equally good. That makes it so hard to choose. Please, proceed by this link to participate in the poll.

I won't promise that idea with most of the votes will be my next thing to do, the right of final decision still stays with me. But your opinion matters. Thanks!