Wear a Pebble, Pebble Time, or Pebble Time Round? Get ready for a few noteworthy software upgrades. The Pebble team on Monday announced revamped companion apps for iOS and Android and Pebble firmware version 3.10, which includes new emoji handling and streamlined fitness tracking.
One of the Pebble firmware’s more notable additions is a refined activity summary. In 3.10, if you’ve got Pebble’s Health feature enabled, you’ll get a succinct notification containing the amount of steps you’ve walked, distance you’ve covered, and calories you’ve burned at the end of each day. Emoji behavior’s a bit different now, too: when a chat partner sends you a single emoji, you’ll get a jumbo-sized image of that emoji (presumably for emphasis).
Significant as the smarwatch update is, though, the headliner of today’s announcement may be the improved Pebble smartphone apps. The iOS app’s getting the most attention: version 3.10 has a new layout, “smoother” navigation, and greater customization. Shortcuts to the watchface, app, and notification menus have been added to a new bottom tab, and notification controls are now a lot more granular: you can individually toggle which apps are allowed to forward notifications to your paired Pebble. Even better, you can customize rules for different days of the week. Only want Hangouts notifications during the week, or want to restrict Facebook pings to the weekend? Totally within the realm of possibility.
Both the Android and iOS app now support English, French, German, Italian, Portugese, and Spanish. Pebble says they’ll hit their respective app stores sometime today. As for the smartwatch firmware update, you can download it by tapping the “Update Your Pebble” button within the companion app.
Pebble’s stepped up its support and sales efforts in the face of increased wearable competition. The company announced a permanent price cut for the Time and Time Round earlier this month, and in February introduced fitness tracking platform Pebble Health.
