Microsoft to stop support for Band apps and services, offers refund for hardware

Microsoft discontinued the Microsoft Band over two years ago. Now, the company plans to kill off the Microsoft Health Dashboard apps and services by May 31st. All these backend services will lose support and apps will be taken out of the Microsoft Store, Google Play, and Apple's App Store. Existing Band users can export their data before the end of May. Services powered by the cloud will stop working by June. But the fitness tracker can still record daily steps, workouts, heart rate, activities, sleep, and work as an alarm. However, if you reset the device, Microsoft says it will be "impossible to set up the device again."

Some Microsoft Band owners are eligible for a refund. Active users who synced data from a Band to the Health Dashboard between December 1, 2018, and March 1, 2019, can apply for a refund on their hardware. Microsoft is offering US$79.99 refund for Band 1 owners, and $175 for Band 2 devices. If your Microsoft Band is under warranty, the same refund values will be available.

Source: Microsoft

New Siri shortcuts help amplify fitness routines

Apple's focus on health tracking takes a big step with Siri shortcuts. Starting and maintaining health and fitness routines gets even easier as more apps offer Siri Shortcuts, joining the thousands that have integrated shortcuts since their introduction with iOS 12.

Using powerful on-device intelligence, Siri Shortcuts help people get things done faster across iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, HomePod, AirPods and CarPlay, allowing them to easily access and use their favourite apps with just a tap or by asking Siri.

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Trigger Facebook Messenger's Dark Mode with a moon emoji

There's a simple way to activate the Dark Mode feature of Facebook Messenger. All you need is one emoji: this 🌙 moon emoji. Send the crescent moon to anyone in Messenger, exit the app completely, and enter it again. Just head to your profile (the icon on your upper left) and the toggle for Dark Mode should be there. According to XDA-Developers, this works for both Android and iOS.

Google Clock now lets you use YouTube Music as your alarm

If you want to wake up to your favorite music from YouTube Music, then Google Clock will let you do just that. For US users, the feature also comes to Pandora. Last year, Spotify was the first streaming service to support this feature.

To use your streaming service of choice, you just need to head to the alarm section and tap on the sound option beneath any given alarm. Each music service gets its own tab. You can select from a popular playlist or select from Spotify's library of playlists.

Source: The Verge