Smartwatch company Pebble on Monday announced a new feature for its lineup of Pebble Time smartwatches. The feature allows users of the company’s Pebble Time, Pebble Time Steel, and Pebble Time Round wearables to send abbreviated text messages to others via iOS.
Called “Text Reply for iOS,” the beta feature will mark Pebble as the first non-Apple Watch smartwatch to introduce voice and text replies linked with an iPhone.
The feature, currently limited exclusively to AT&T customers, allows users to send voice messages and “pre-defined” text messages to other iPhone users. Pebble says it is working with other wireless carriers to expand support for the feature.
Eligible Pebble Time owners can do the following to take advantage of the feature:
- 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.
Pebble offers a full Q&A page covering the new Text Reply for iOS feature, and interested users can learn more about it there.
