Redmond’s smart wristband now displays emoticons

Jul 7, 2015 12:39 GMT  ·  By

Microsoft Band has recently received a firmware update that has brought support for golf and some other improvements, and one of the new goodies that have been silently implemented by the Redmond-based tech giant is support for emoji.

The Band is becoming more than just a smart wristband, and every single update that’s released by Microsoft brings plenty of improvements that enhance its standard functionality, so seeing emojis on its display is not at all surprising.

Microsoft has quietly rolled out this feature with the latest update, and as spotted by some Band owners, whenever you receive a message, email, or notification that has emojis included in the text, the device automatically displays the emoticons and no longer the code.

This isn’t the kind of update that would make you buy a Band, but it’s clearly a neat addition to its feature lineup, especially because Microsoft is already testing the second generation, and introducing such features and trying them out before the release of the new model is pretty important.

Word has it that the Microsoft Band 2 could debut in the fall of 2015, as the company is already testing it in several European countries, which could be a sign that Redmond is aiming at an international launch from the beginning. The first Band was initially launched in the US and Canada in limited numbers.