His brother, Ibrahim Nashid, said doctors were happy with Nasheed's recovery.
“He is out of life support and breathing on his own,” he said in a tweet. “Managed to exchange a few words. Promised to come back stronger. I believe him.”
The medical team that treated Nasheed told reporters on Saturday that the metal ball bearings used in blast had caused significant internal damage, but had missed major organs and arteries.
One projectile that hit Nasheed's lungs had narrowly missed his heart because it had struck a rib, doctors said.
Nasheed is now conscious and receiving critical care at the ADK hospital in Malé.
Nasheed, the Maldives' first democratically-elected president, is an outspoken critic of Islamic extremism in the Sunni Muslim island archipelago.
The country has a reputation for political unrest.
Nasheed was deposed and exiled in what he called a coup in 2012, while in 2015, former President Abdulla Yameen escaped unharmed after an explosion on his speedboat.
In 2007, a blast blamed on Islamist militants targeted foreign tourists and injured 12 people.