Pebble Smartwatch Gains Support For Android Wear Apps
The underlying message today from Pebble is "if you can do it with Android Wear, you can do it with Pebble." That's because the smartwatch maker just graduated Android Wear compatibility from beta to public release, thus allowing Pebble hardware to act on and respond to notifications from its monochrome display.
First things first -- to prep your Pebble smartwatch for Android Wear compatibility, you need to update the device's firmware to version 2.9 and then snag the latest version of the Pebble Android app (version 2.3.0) from the Google Play Store (or just click here).
Pebble said that those who beta tested Android Wear offered positive feedback and especially liked actions that even Android Wear devices don't perform, such as user-defined responses (you can configure up to five custom replies), a feature Pebble added during the beta phase.
You can also reply to a Hangouts message with an emoji, send cash to friends who pass a Square Cash request, reply from Pebble using most Android-compatible SMS messaging apps, and more.
"Integrating Pebble with Android Wear is thanks to the open approach Google built into Android’s notification system. Openness is a value Pebble shares and appreciates. We hope more mobile operating systems follow suit so all Pebblers—no matter their smartphone choice—can take advantage of all the delightful features we introduce now, and in the future," Pebble stated in a blog post.
In addition to the new functionality that comes with the latest update, Pebble also squashed a few bugs and made some stability improvements, both within the latest firmware and accompanying app.
First things first -- to prep your Pebble smartwatch for Android Wear compatibility, you need to update the device's firmware to version 2.9 and then snag the latest version of the Pebble Android app (version 2.3.0) from the Google Play Store (or just click here).
Pebble said that those who beta tested Android Wear offered positive feedback and especially liked actions that even Android Wear devices don't perform, such as user-defined responses (you can configure up to five custom replies), a feature Pebble added during the beta phase.
You can also reply to a Hangouts message with an emoji, send cash to friends who pass a Square Cash request, reply from Pebble using most Android-compatible SMS messaging apps, and more.
"Integrating Pebble with Android Wear is thanks to the open approach Google built into Android’s notification system. Openness is a value Pebble shares and appreciates. We hope more mobile operating systems follow suit so all Pebblers—no matter their smartphone choice—can take advantage of all the delightful features we introduce now, and in the future," Pebble stated in a blog post.
In addition to the new functionality that comes with the latest update, Pebble also squashed a few bugs and made some stability improvements, both within the latest firmware and accompanying app.
