Support for your Pebble smartwatch will end on June 30. That means from the end of this month the app store will close, the voice recognition feature will break, and mobile app updates and a lot more won’t continue. Your watch will still work, but most of the things that make it great will no longer exist. We know this for sure because FitBit, which acquired Pebble, told us the end date at the beginning of the year.
However, there is an alternative and we’re not talking about buying a different smartwatch. Rebble is an unofficial spinoff of the Pebble platform, and aims to offer most, if not all, the services you’re enjoying on your watch after the Fitbit-imposed June 30 deadline. That means continued mobile app support, an operating application store, and firmware updates. Everything you need to keep your Pebble in good working order.
To take advantage of this, Pebble owners will have to switch over their Pebble accounts to the Rebble Web Services manually. Rebble is unofficial, and while Fitbit has apparently been helping the organization out, it won’t automatically migrate anything over. You’ve got to do that yourself. Following its last business update in February, Rebble now has its user accounts ready to go, and with only a couple of weeks left before the deadline, you’ll have to act fast to save your Pebble. Once the June 30 date passes, it’ll be too late.
It’s simple to do. Rebble has its own authorization site, where you sign-in and link your existing Pebble account to Rebble’s service, and that’s about all for now. Rebble’s app isn’t ready to go, and it’s not possible to switch over to the Rebble servers yet either. However, if you don’t complete these steps now, you won’t be able to in the future. Rebble warns that even when its service is up and running after the Fitbit shutdown, not everything will be in place and working. It’ll take time to get some of the more complicated features to an operational state.
Rebble will provide a basic Pebble watch service for free, but a monthly subscription will be used to access dictation and weather services. Costs will be announced in the future. Lending support to Rebble’s cause is Pebble CEO Eric Migicovsky, who alerted Pebble owners to the pressing need to sign up with Rebble through his Twitter account.
Rebble is great news for the vibrant and dedicated community that still exists around Pebble; but if you’re considering a new smartwatch instead, there are a few very cool alternatives out there that may tempt you away.