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. There are some limitations to be aware of, though. For example, Text Reply for iOS is only available to postpaid AT&T customers. And because Text Reply for iOS works by sending messages via your carrier and not your phone, your sent messages will not use iMessage and they won’t appear in your iPhone’s Messages app. Finally, Text Reply for iOS is only available on the Pebble Time, Pebble Time Steel, and Pebble Time Round.
To enable the feature, you must update the iOS Pebble app to version 3.4, then update your Pebble Time smartwatch to version 3.7 or higher. You’ll then go to Menu > Settings > Actionable Notifications > Text Replies in your iOS Pebble app and follow the setup instructions. Once you’re done, you’ll be able to send messages using your voice or a canned text response.
While it’s somewhat limited at launch, Text Reply for iOS is a nice addition for Pebble wearers that use an iPhone. It’s kind of disappointing that Pebble has to go through AT&T, which results in the feature using SMS and not including sent texts in the Messages app, but it’s better than nothing. So if you’ve got a Pebble Time on your wrist and an iPhone connected to AT&T in your pocket, maybe give the feature a try.