Samsung had announced at Mobile World Congress that they would opening up the SDK’s for their new Gear 2 and Gear 2 Neo smartwatches, and their Gear Fit smart fitness band. Living up to their word, multiple SDKs are now open for third party support which allows for developers to build apps for the three new devices. So far there were three new SDKs and one updated SDK, which should open up the capabilities of the three new Gear devices, along with Samsungs mobile devices. Samsung introduced a new SDK for the Gear 2 and the Gear 2 Neo, a new SDK for the Gear Fit, a new SDK for their S-Health software, and an updated SDK for Samsung mobile to version 1.5.
For the Gear 2 and the Gear 2 Neo, the new SDK provides a new set of tools for developers to create and design great apps for the new Tizen OS that will be powering both smartwatches. This gives the Gear 2 and the Gear 2 Neo a range of apps that can be used by consumers who decide this is the right smartwatch for them. Having an open SDK can give Samsung a little bit of a leg up when releasing these new smartwatches, because there won’t be such a limited selection of apps for use with the devices as if they had chosen to keep the SDK closed and work on everything themselves. As for the Gear Fit, Samsung has made a unique SDK just for the fitness band that is only available to certain developers, so it’s not as open as the SDK for both Gear 2 devices but we should see some good stuff come to it as well.
The last two SDKs are for the S-Health software, and the updated Samsung Mobile SDK. The S-Health SDK is an all new SDK with potentially huge benefits for the Galaxy S 5. The new SDK allows for more collected data through the sensors, which could mean more functionality, more apps, and better features for S-Health overall. The Samsung Mobile SDK isn’t new, but Samsung did update it to version 1.5, which did add support for the Finger Scanner, as well as support for the motion detection and multi-screen features on the Galaxy S 5. With the addition of new SDKs and updates for existing ones, Samsung is making a push to bring a more open and developer friendly environment to their products, something they haven’t really done in the past. Time will tell whether or not these new SDKs will make a huge difference, but if anything they should make Samsung’s line of wearables more functional.