Pebble Time updated with automatic activity tracking, 'Send Text' feature

Smartwatch maker Pebble on Tuesday released a pair of matching firmware and iOS app updates, enhancing its Time series devices with a variety of health-related features, plus iPhone access to a "Send Text" option.

Time owners updated to the 3.12 firmware and iPhone app can now have Pebble Health track runs and longer walks automatically, complete with notifications and timeline pins. On an iPhone, this data (along with sleep tracking) is displayed in new interactive charts.

On the sleep front, Pebble has introduced "Smart Alarms," which will detect when a person is in a light stage of sleep and wake them up to 30 minutes before their target time. In theory this should leave a person more rested than if they woke up exactly on time from a deeper sleep.

Send Text — which was previously Android-only — can be used to deliver a voice note or canned text message to favorite or recent contacts, or reply to an incoming call in the same way. For full functionality people must not only have a Time however, but compatible cellular service, which at this point is limited to AT&T's post-paid plans and Verizon. People with an older Pebble model are limited to replies.

In a blog post Pebble said it's working to enable texting functions with more carriers, but couldn't say when that might arrive.

To get today's upgrades, people must first update the iPhone app, then navigate to its Support menu to launch the firmware download.