Pebble Technology Corp. shows users of its popular e-ink Pebble smartwatch some love in the latest version of the Pebble app, which now includes support for Android Wear notifications and a host of bug fixes and improvements.
The most notable feature of version 2.3 of the Pebble app is the ability to receive actionable Android Wear notifications. Developers who have created apps that are compatible with Android Wear don't have to do anything. If their apps are integrated with Android Wear, users of these apps will immediately receive notifications and interact with them.
Users, on the other hand, will also have to update the latest firmware update from Pebble to enable Android Wear notifications. If they haven't already, they must also download the latest Pebble app from Google's Play Store, or allow their devices to automatically update. They will also need to have Android devices running on Android Ice Cream Sandwich or higher, which shouldn't be much of an issue for Pebble since that is a good majority of the Android population. Once they have version 2.9 of the Pebble firmware along with the updated Pebble app for Android, they can start receiving notifications and act on them.
Aside from receiving notifications, Pebble users can now reply to SMS notifications using a set of up to five pre-determined messages. When they receive a message notification, they can tap the Reply button and choose which among the five messages they set earlier to reply. There is no option to reply via voice for now, since Pebble does not have a microphone just yet. While voice commands are cool, voice recognition technology still has a long way to go before smartwatches can recognize complicated commands.
Users will also find that the Pebble app and watchface will receive automatic updates when Pebble is idle. The update also includes fixes for a problem with WhatsApp notifications and a variety of bug fixes and stability improvements.
The integration of Android Wear into Pebble should prove to be an advantage for Pebble, which is already the world's most popular smartwatch to date. Figures presented by research firm Canalys shows out of the 4.6 million wearable devices shipped in 2014, 1 million of these devices were Pebble smartwatches, while some 720,000 are Android smartwatches, the most popular of which are the Moto 360 and the LG G Watch R.
With Android Wear now compatible with Pebble, users instantly have access to more apps, thus adding more reasons for customers to buy the $100 smartwatch.
