Roger Fingas
Pebble has introduced a new beta feature for its Pebble Time smartwatches called Text Reply, allowing iPhone owners to send voice or preset replies in reaction to text messages.
Initially the feature is being restricted to AT&T post-paid subscribers, Pebble said. Qualifying people must first download version 3.4 of the Pebble Time iPhone app, and use that to download the watch's v3.7 firmware update. At that point users can navigate to the app's Actionable Notifications option under Settings to manage text replies.
Pebble cautions that replies sent via a Pebble won't appear in the iOS Messages app, as they're actually being sent directly through AT&T.
The company is "working to enable additional carriers and services to provide actionable notifications to more and more iPhone users," according to a statement, though it didn't elaborate on any details.
It did however claim to have the first non-Apple watches with voice and text replies for iPhone owners. There are other third-party watches with iOS support, but only the Apple Watch has full integration.
Text Reply works with all models of the Time, including the Time Steel and Time Round.
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1 Comment
I'm not sure I'd want a beta voice answering my business messages. I'd much prefer a nice confident alpha male voice... or at least a spunky female voice like Siri.