Creating Your Own Microsoft Band Data Integration for Services that Don't Yet Support It

Microsoft continues to add additional integrations for fitness services. When Microsoft released the Microsoft Band late last year, it provided 3^rd party integration with RunKeeper and myfitnesspal out of the gate, but then recently added mapmyfitness and Strava. Others are coming, but the interim, what if you don't use any of these connected apps? What if you use something like Runtastic, SportTracks or Garmin?

Sometimes you have to think outside the box and devise your own solutions. There's a couple ways I've found that you can accomplish this on your own.

The first is to create a connection between an existing integration and one that hasn't been provided yet. A site called Tapiriik, provides connections between some of the more notable 3^rd party services, allowing you to synchronize from RunKeeper and Strava to a host of other services including Garmin Connect, TrainingPeaks, SportTracks.mobi, Endomondo, RideWithGPS, TrainerRoad, Motivato, Velo Hero, Epson RUNSENSE and Dropbox. When you enable the connection from Microsoft Health to RunKeeper or Strava, your collected fitness data is consumed and stored in these 3^rd party services. By making a connection between these and currently non-supported services, your data can flow back and forth, allowing you to keep the service you are already vested in.

Site: Tapiriik.com

One other method, and one that's not as glamorous as Tapiriik because it's a manual operation, is to use an application such as GoldenCheetah. GoldenCheetah is an installable application for Windows, Mac, and Linux. The primary function of the application is to pull in data from your tracking devices and provide fitness statistics for offline manipulation. But, the secondary, and in this case, the most rewarding feature is the ability to work with and convert most of the popular fitness output file formats. So, you can import your fitness tracking hardware data, convert it to a format recognized by your favorite service, and then import it directly. I use this periodically to deliver my RunKeeper data (collected from Microsoft Health) to Runtastic. RunKeeper will only export to a .csv file, but Runtastic requires .tcx files. So, in essence, I've found a way to make Runtastic work while waiting for the company to provide its own Microsoft Band integration.

Application: GoldenCheetah

So, if you've been waiting to purchase a Microsoft Band until your favorite service connection becomes available, these options give you some small incentive not to wait.

Incidentally, my Runtastic Gold subscription expires in July, and based on my experiences with Strava, I'll most likely not renew Runtastic and stick with Strava.