In an attempt to calm the fears of Pebble smartwatch users, the company has reassured them that existing software and services will continue to operate through 2017. The smartwatch maker was recently purchased by activity tracker company Fitbit, which purchased the firm for its software assets, and is shutting down the hardware division.
Pebble Development Evangelist Jon Barlow:
Fitbit is going out of its way to keep Pebble software and services running through 2017. To be clear, no one on this freshly-formed team seeks to brick Pebble watches in active service. The Pebble SDK, CloudPebble, Timeline APIs, firmware availability, mobile apps, developer portal, and Pebble appstore are all elements of the Pebble ecosystem that will remain in service at this time. Pebble developers are welcome to keep creating and updating apps. Pebble users are free to keep enjoying their watches.
Barlow went on to explain apps will be updated in the near future to lessen their dependency on Pebble cloud services. The update will be available “in the coming months.” Barlow says the mobile app updates will ensure the operation of core functionality, even with cloud services discontinued—they won’t break functionality.
Pebble Health will continue to work following the upcoming updates, as “Health API data is not dependent on cloud services—it will feed directly into the Pebble smartwatch mobile app, Apple HealthKit, and Google Fit.”
The company is also evaluating features dependent on third-party services, such as dictation, messaging, weather, and more, to determine how long those experiences can be continued.
MacTrast will keep Pebblers posted as we learn more, so stay tuned.
