Following last week’s news that Fitbit is officially buying Pebble, more news on Pebble’s upcoming software plans have been revealed.
Jon Barlow, Developer Advocate at Fitbit, says that Pebble’s software and services will keep running through 2017. During that time, the Pebble SDK, CloudPebble, Timeline APIs, mobile apps, and the Pebble appstore will all continue to function. Developers can continue to create and update apps.
Pebble also plans on working to update its apps and lessen their dependency on cloud services. Pebble Health will continue to work as it does now, as the Health API data doesn’t rely on the cloud, instead feeding into the Pebble app as well as Apple HealthKit and Google Fit. Finally, Pebble is evaluating third-party services like dictation, weather, and messaging to figure out how long these services can remain active.
The news that Pebble is being acquired and that production of its smartwatches is ending is likely disappointing to the Pebble fans out there. The good news is that at least their watches should continue to function just as they do now through 2017. It’s unclear what’ll happen after that, but it doesn’t sound like watches that are already out there will suddenly become wrist-worn bricks.
Are you currently using a Pebble? If so, do you plan on keeping it for awhile or moving to another device?