Enlarge / Pebble's e-ink smartwatches, like the Pebble 2 HR pictured here, can now work on 64-bit Android phones like the Pixel 7, following a surprising official app update from Google. (credit: Valentina Palladino)
When Pebble, an early, quirky, crowdfunded smartwatch, was acquired in a fire sale by Fitbit in December 2016, the company noted that while existing watches would work for the time being, "functionality or service quality may be reduced in the future." You'd maybe get some bug fixes, but no software updates or features would arrive for the pioneering e-ink wearables.
Nearly six years later, a new Pebble app for Android has been released by the Rebble Alliance, a group that has kept Pebble viable for its users since Fitbit shut down Pebble's servers in mid-2018. Pebble version 4.4.3 makes the app 64-bit so it can work on the mostly 64-bit Pixel 7 and similar Android phones into the future. It also restores a caller ID function that was hampered on recent Android versions.
Most notably, the app is "signed using the official Pebble keys," with Google Fit integration maintained. Google acquired Fitbit for $2.1 billion, making it the steward of Pebble's remaining IP and software pieces. Katharine Berry, a key Rebble coder and leader, works on Wear OS at Google and was one of the first to tweet news of the new update, "four years after 4.4.2." That was the last Play Store update to the Pebble app, one that freed up many of the app's functions to be replaced by independent servers. That's exactly where Rebble picked up, providing web services to Pebble watches, including (for paying subscribers) voice dictation.
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