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Pebble smartwatches have long offered more functionality with Android phones than they do with iOS devices, but today iOS Pebble users are gaining a nifty new feature.
Pebble has announced Text Reply for iOS, a beta feature that lets iOS users reply to incoming text messages from their Pebble smartwatch.
Replies can be dictated by voice or selected from a set of preset responses. The Pebble Time has has this feature Android devices for some time, but this is a first for when it’s used with an iPhone.
Due to the way that iOS restricts third-party accessories and doesn’t allow them the same access to messages as the Apple Watch, Pebble’s solution is to route the responses directly through the wireless carrier instead of through the iPhone’s Messages app. That means that the feature is only available to AT&T post-paid customers right now, and that messages sent from the Pebble watch will not show up in messaging app on the iPhone. (It also means that replies to iMessages will be sent as SMS messages, so the recipient will see a green bubble instead of blue.) The feature also does not currently work with group messages. Pebble says it is working on support for other carriers, but it is not providing a timeline for when it will be available.
Adding the option to reply to messages from the watch addresses one of the biggest limitations of using a Pebble (or any non-Apple smartwatch) with an iPhone and potentially makes the device much more useful. Though the Time still doesn’t have as many options to take action on notifications from an iPhone as it does on Android, quick message replies are one that many people find useful on a smartwatch.
Pebble says that the message reply feature is available to anyone with a Pebble Time, Time Steel, or Time Round and an iPhone on AT&T starting today.
To get started with iOS Text Reply, follow these steps:
Update your Pebble Time iPhone app to version 3.4 or higher.
After updating the iPhone app, update your Pebble Time’s firmware to version 3.7 or higher. Select Menu » Support » Update Your Pebble if you aren’t prompted automatically.
From the iOS app, navigate to Menu » Settings » Actionable Notifications to set up Text Replies for the first time.
Follow the setup instructions.
After successful setup, notifications received from the Messages app will have the option to reply with voice or a list of pre-defined responses.
Note: Successfully sent Pebble replies will NOT appear in the iOS Messages app. The reply is sent as an SMS through AT&T directly, and not the Messages app.
The Pebble Time Round, Pebble’s latest and most attractive smartwatch to date, is coming to Canada on Friday, December 4th exclusively through Best Buy.
Agencies/Canadajournal
