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Pebble Founder Warns of Limited iPhone Compatibility for Revived Smartwatch (ericmigi.com)

(Thursday March 20, 2025 @12:07PM (msmash) from the deja-vu dept.)


Pebble founder Eric Migicovsky has warned that the company's [1]revived smartwatch line will face significant functionality limitations when paired with iPhones, blaming Apple's restrictive policies that favor its own Apple Watch. "It's impossible for a 3rd party smartwatch to send text messages, or perform actions on notifications (like dismissing, muting, replying) and many, many other things," Migicovsky [2]wrote in a blog post , adding that the situation has "actually gotten worse over the last 8 years."

A 2024 class action lawsuit cited in the post claims Apple has added further restrictions since iOS 13, including requiring users to display full content previews on their lock screens for notifications to reach third-party watches. Pebble is still developing an iOS app because 40% of potential customers use iPhones, he said. Migicovsky warned that the watch will "always appear to have less developed functionality on iOS than Android" and some features will arrive on Android first.



[1] https://tech.slashdot.org/story/25/03/18/1621244/the-first-new-pebble-smartwatches-are-coming-later-this-year

[2] https://ericmigi.com/blog/apple-restricts-pebble-from-being-awesome-with-iphones


Not for long (Score:2)

by pahles ( 701275 )

[1]https://apple.slashdot.org/sto... [slashdot.org]

[1] https://apple.slashdot.org/story/25/03/19/1857241/eu-orders-apple-to-open-ecosystem-to-rivals

Re: Not for long (Score:1)

by ArmoredDragon ( 3450605 )

The EU so far doesn't appear to do much, if anything, about malicious compliance, so I wouldn't count on that until something changes.

Anyways, cue well known appletologists like Archie Bunker and NoMoreAcs to go on about how it's better this way, the virtues of vendor lock-in and walled gardens as they flash their 8" apple logo tramp stamps.

The old days (Score:2)

by MachineShedFred ( 621896 )

I remember back in the old days of yesterday when people were saying "Apple isn't anticompetitive! Why is the EU blah blah blah"

THIS is why.

Things are looking up then! (Score:3)

by coofercat ( 719737 )

Things are looking up - I turn all that crap off on my watch. It's already all happening on my phone which is likely in my pocket or on the desk, I don't need it on my watch as well.

Now... what can the pebble do that a garmin can't? There are a few things I could think of:

- stand up reminders like apple do it (movement reminders on garmin are okay, but not very good - apple do it a bit better, pebble could do even better)

- running stride length measurement as you're running

- Make the 'stair climbs' counter alter the number required daily (like the step counter does)

I'd like to see the total activity time when it flashes up lap times too.

Re: (Score:2)

by dknj ( 441802 )

LG had a short-lived sport watch that could detect your workouts and quite accurately measure details about your workout. Including your stride length when running, but way more interesting was the ability to determine weight lifting activities AND accurately measure the weight you are lifting. I would love to find a similar watch, but I think patents are going to lock that up for another 5-10 years

Contrary Opinion (Score:2)

by cmseagle ( 1195671 )

Likely to be an unpopular opinion, but I understand some of this.

I personally wouldn't enjoy fielding the panicked tech support phone calls from family members when they grant the $5 Bluetooth speaker they bought on Temu permission to send SMS, and it phishes all of their contacts. The Apple Walled Garden is a feature for many of their customers, not a bug.

The notification stuff is harder to justify.

glibido:
All talk and no action.