Pebble rolling out Text Reply for iOS feature

Pebble Text Reply for iOS iPhone screenshot 001

Pebble today announced a new messaging feature for iOS users designed to make it possible to send text messages through a carrier.

Dubbed Text Reply for iOS, this feature is in beta and available on the Pebble Time, Pebble Time Steel and Pebble Time Round family of smartwatches.

In addition, Text Reply for iOS is currently an AT&T exclusive though Pebble says it’s working on bringing this capability to Pebble fans on other carriers.

“Pebble is excited to introduce Text Reply for iOS, a beta feature making us the first non-Apple smartwatch to bring voice and text replies to our iPhone users,” notes the company. This feature allows you to respond to incoming items with a voice reply or canned text replies from the iOS Messages app.

Any text reply gets sent as an SMS through AT&T directly, and not the Messages app. As a result, sent text replies do not appear in Apple’s Messages app on your iPhone.

You need a postpaid AT&T data plan to take advantage of Text Reply for iOS.

Here’s how to get started:

  • Update your Pebble Time iPhone app to version 3.4 or higher.
  • After updating the iPhone app, update your Pebble Time’s firmware to version 3.7 or higher. Select Menu → Support → Update Your Pebble if you aren’t prompted automatically.
  • From the iOS app, navigate to Menu → Settings → Actionable Notifications to set up Text Replies for the first time.
  • Follow the setup instructions.
  • After successful setup, notifications received from the Messages app will have the option to reply with voice or a list of pre-defined responses.

“We are working to enable additional carriers and services to provide actionable notifications to more and more iPhone users,” said Pebble.

In addition to support for Text Reply, the freshly updated Pebble Time 3.4 iPhone companion app includes better support for the Pebble Time Round smartwatches and Pebble Time 3.6 and older firmwares, as well as bug fixes and stability improvements.

More information about Text Reply for iOS is available in this FAQ.

Source: Pebble