Microsoft’s last update to its Band 2 involved adding . Now, the company is back to bring even more functionality to its second-generation smart band. The new update adds four new features that you’ll find useful: 1) a Tournament Golf Mode, 2) Connect to Cortana, 3) Distance Tracking with Guided Workouts, and 4) additional social sharing.
The new Tournament Golf Mode helps you “golf like a pro” with its in-built United States Golf Association rules that help you stick to a regulated game. The new mode will track your heart rate, distance, step count, as well as your golf game (whether it’s good or bad), and provide a summary at game’s end of your performance.
Connect to Cortana is, as you can expect, designed to help connect your health information to Microsoft’s voice assistant so that you can bring up your health information via the assistant any time you wish. Once you connect your Microsoft Health account to Cortana, you can then say, “Cortana, how’s my health?” (or something to that effect) and see her bring up your latest health stats. Distance Tracking with Guided Workouts is designed to keep track of how much you move and alert you when you’ve reached 50% of your goal (10,000 steps, for instance), while decreasing the number of steps remaining. The new distance tracking is a normal feature on current smartwatches such as the Samsung Gear S2 and even the Samsung Gear S (2014).
The new update should be rolling out as you read this, with many Microsoft Band 2 owners having already received it or soon to receive it this week. Did you get the Microsoft Band 2 update yet? If so, let us know, and tell us your favorite feature in the new update.