Pebble smartwatch will finally receive all iOS 7 app notifications
Today, smartwatch maker Pebble finally announced a long awaited feature that will allow users to receive all notifications from their iOS 7 device reliably. It also announced version 2.0 of its SDK with new features for developers.
First, we’re introducing a more delightful user experience for Pebble customers using iOS. Pebble is now fully integrated with iOS 7 and works seamlessly with Notification Center. This means that any notifications you’ve enabled in Notification Center on your iOS 7 device will appear on your Pebble — just like that. It’s easier than ever to pick and choose which updates you want to see on your watch.
Back in June, we noted that Apple was introducing Apple Notification Center Service to allow Bluetooth devices to reliably receive all notifications that hit Notification Center on a connected iOS device. Before integrating ANCS, Pebble could only receive SMS, Email and Call notifications reliably from iOS 6+ devices.
Pebble’s SDK 2.0 announced today for developers includes a number of new APIs for Javascript, Accelerometer, Data Logging and Persistent Storage:
These API allow developers to make Pebble apps that interface directly with the web (real-time weather, transit info, location check-in), access the accelerometer (health/fitness monitoring and gesture-based remote control), log data when disconnected from the phone (health/fitness tracking), and store info on the watch (high scores for games, settings). You can find out more about SDK 2.0 on the Pebble developer blog.
The notifications support will arrive via an update to the Pebble iOS app later today for iOS 7 devices. Pebble also announced that it’s offering free worldwide shipping through its website starting today and shared some numbers:
- Number of Pebbles on wrists worldwide: 190,000
- Number of apps and faces downloaded: 2 million
- Number of apps and faces on mypebblefaces.com: 2,200
- Number of watchfaces created on watchface-generator.de: 80,000
- Number of companion apps available on the iTunes and Google Play stores: 50+
- Number of developers: 10,000+
