At long last, the Pebble Time is finally getting step-tracking
You’ve got to hand it to Pebble. In the face of extreme (and growing) competition from the Apple Watch, the company hasn’t rolled over and given in. Instead, through continuing to develop new hardware and software, Pebble is staying in the game. Case in point: at long last, Pebble is bringing health and fitness functionality to its platform through the launch of a brand new app called Pebble Health.
Stop me if you’ve heard this one beforePebble Health: that’s right. The app, not to be confused with Cupertino’s application of the similar, if not same, name, brings both step- and sleep-tracking to the Pebble Time, Pebble Time Steel, and Pebble Time Round. This is something Pebble users have long been crying out for; to get their step-tracking fix, owners of the smart watch had previously been forced to rely on third-party applications (like Misfit, for instance) — a solution that would often yield inaccurate results. Pebble Health, then, brings a native health and fitness offering to the platform: it’s built into Pebble’s hardware and software, and has been developed in partnership with Stanford University.
According to Pebble:
We recognize that your best motivator is you, so instead of striving for an arbitrary step count your progress throughout the day is compared to your own personal average. At night, Pebble Health automatically tracks your sleep time to reveal your personalized patterns, and help you make better sleep decisions. Weekly graphs of both sleep and step totals make it a snap to see your trends and averages. And we’ve kept every part of it simple, automatic, and seamless, so it’s incredibly easy to use. Fully compatible with Google Fit and Apple HealthKit, Pebble Health helps paint a full picture of the fitness goals you’re working towards.
To access Pebble Health, users will need to be running Firmware 3.8 or above. This is definitely something compatible Pebble owners are going to want to check out, and it could position the lower priced smart watch as an even more viable alternative to the Apple Watch.
Pebble Health.
Timeline betaThis isn’t the only piece of news coming from Pebble today, however. Because Timeline, the newest version of Pebble’s OS, is now available for owners of the original (“Classic”) smart watch, and for owners of the Pebble Steel.
Timeline organizes relevant information like notifications, weather, news, travel, and reminders chronologically. Instead of having to open an app, everything is at-a-glance, helping you accomplish more throughout your day.
So, regardless of their model, Pebble owners have something to enjoy.
You can pick up a Pebble Time from Pebble’s website for $149.99, indeed making the smart watch far more affordable than the Apple Watch. And with the launch of Pebble Health, the Pebble platform is becoming less limited and more usable.