The official Pebble appstore officially debuted with version 2.0 of the Pebble Smartwatch app for iOS back at the beginning of February, but at the time, Pebble said that its Android equivalent would be held back for a bit to iron out some issues. The company has since been providing beta versions of the Android app to address those bugs. The good news is that today's the day that the Android and iOS Pebble apps are finally made equal once again, as Pebble has officially released version 2.0.12 of its official app.
The most notable feature of this updated Pebble app for Android is the Pebble appstore, which is a Pebble owner's one-stop shop for apps and watchfaces to install on the wearable. In addition to its official appstore, Pebble has packed its updated Android app with goodies like a refreshed user interface, a watchapp locker and a list of prior notifications that gets stored on the Pebble smartwatch. Pebble's full release notes for the 2.0.12 update are as follows:
- Pebble watchapp directory: browse, find and install the latest watchapps for Pebble.
- The list of prior notifications is now stored on your Pebble.
- Watchapp locker: keep track of your favorite apps and manage the apps on your Pebble.
- Completely revamped and improved user interface design.
- Using Pebble watchapps that connect to the internet to fetch data such as location or weather requires the Pebble Android app to be running on your phone.
- This release supports a single Pebble watch. We are aware that some users may have multiple Pebble smart watches, and will add support in a future release.
- Users of the Beta release of the Android 2.0 application will only see the old app in the play store. Delete the Beta version of the app to see the public version in the Google Play store.
- Sideloading apps from the “Downloads” app or Gmail may fail, this is a known issue and the user will have to use another method (e.g. dropbox, try and different browser to download with, copy manually to SD card and load from file manager…)
- If the user turns off their phone or Pebble (e.g. at night), or their watch is disconnected from their phone for a long period of time, the user may have to manually re-launch the Pebble app and select reconnect.
- If a user is experiencing difficulty connecting their Pebble and phone: (1) we suggest the user first try using (device) Home button then launching the Pebble app again via the Android launcher, then attempting to connect again; (2) if that does not work, we suggest the user navigate to the Bluetooth settings menu, un-pair on both the android and pebble devices, and turn Bluetooth on Android off then on.
Obviously it's kind of a bummer that Android-toting Pebble owners had to wait longer than their iOS counterparts to gain access to the Pebble appstore, thankfully the delay only turned out to be a month long. Now they've got easy access to a repository of apps and watchfaces right on their device.
Speaking of apps, Pebble also announced that its formed three new partnerships to create Pebble apps. There's an eBay app that lets users access their feed and add products to their Watch List, an Evernote app that supports viewing notebooks and checklists and a Time Warner Cable app that enables Intelligent Home subscribers to control their appliances using their smartwatch.
Via Pebble blog, Google Play: Pebble
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