Pebble’s Software Update – Voice Text Replies
Pebble had recently released a software update to its Time line-up of smartwatches for Voice Text Replies, wherein the version 3.7 adds the skill of some Pebble Time owners of replying to text message through voice replies directly from the watch. Some Pebble users who link their smartwatch to an iPhone would now be capable of replying to text messages directly through their devices as voice replies.
This is because it is a beta release and the feature till now had been provided only to some who could take advantage of the same. In order to access, the user must have a Pebble Time, a Time Steel or a Time Round model which were launched this year. Besides this you should be an AT&T post-paid subscriber. Pebble had stated that its devices are the first non-Apple smartwatch, bringing about voice replies and text replies to iPhone users and that it is working on the addition of more features to other carriers. The feature tends to have a healthy list of warnings such as –
- Only users of AT&T Wireless on a post-paid plan are eligible
- The messages sent from the watch are sent as text messages, even when the recipient uses iMessage
- By using Pebble Time, the sent message will not appear in the text message thread
- Group message thread are not supported
Additional Info on Support Page/FAQ
For iOS Voice Text Replies on Pebble’s support page, users could also refer the FAQ page for additional information as well as some more warnings. To use voice replies with iPhone and Pebble Time, to begin with one needs to install the new firmware for the Pebble Time watch. You need to be prompted to install it the next time one tends to open the Pebble Time app. But one could check for update in Support by tapping on `Update Your Pebble’. After the firmware update is done, you could slide out the menu drawer, tapping on Settings. On Tapping on Text Replies, select `Continue’.
Pebble App Connected to User’s Phone – AT&T System
Thereafter the app will prompt you to accept Pebble’s terms and condition and provide the app with access to your contacts, (it is essential for Pebble to send a message on behalf of the user). Apple does not permit third party application in sending messages without the user physically tapping the send button in the Messages app on an iOS phone. For Pebble to send a message, the company tends to connect the Pebble app directly to the user’s phone number through AT&T system. The few screens tend to prompts you to give Pebble permission in sending text messages from your phone number –
- Tap Verify Now button that is at the top of the screen
- Message window is displayed; with text field and recipient filled already you could tap `send’.
- Few seconds thereafter, the Pebble Time app verifies the account and presents the confirmation screen.
No Timetable on the Features
To proceed, when the user receives a new message either an iMessage or text message on the Pebble Time, you could press the middle button in order to bring up a menu and then select `reply’, followed by `voice or templates’. If the user selects the option for voice, a microphone icon tends to be displayed waiting to dictate a Voice Text Replies.On the other hand, the template option tends to display a series of set text replies making it easy to choose from these options for a reply. Though Pebble has mentioned that they were working on adding features to the other carrier, they did not provide any timetable on when users could expect the features to expand.
