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Fitbit to Keep Pebble Services Active Through 2017

Fitbit to Keep Pebble Services Active Through 2017

By Shekhar Thakran | Updated: 15 December 2016 15:46 IST

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Highlights

Pebble announced acquisition by Fitbit earlier this month
Updating mobile apps to reduce dependency on third-party cloud services
Company has asked developers to continue their work on Pebble apps

Earlier this month, popular smartwatch manufacturer Pebble announced that the company was being acquired by fitness wearables firm Fitbit. Along with the acquisition, it was announced that upcoming Pebble hardware, such as the Pebble Time 2 and Pebble Core smartwatches, were cancelled. Now, Fitbit has provided some respite to the Pebble customers as the company has announced that it will keep the software and services on Pebble hardware running through 2017.

The first step that Fitbit is taking towards preserving Pebble's software is updating its mobile apps to reduce their dependency on "a patchwork of cloud services," said Pebble developer Jan Barlow in a blog post. Barlow was earlier part of Pebble's development team and is now working on smooth transition of services.

"To be clear, no one on this freshly-formed team seeks to brick Pebble watches in active service. The Pebble SDK, CloudPebble, Timeline APIs, firmware availability, mobile apps, developer portal, and Pebble appstore are all elements of the Pebble ecosystem that will remain in service at this time. Pebble developers are welcome to keep creating and updating apps. Pebble users are free to keep enjoying their watches.

The company says that Pebble developers can continue to develop and update apps for the smartwatches. Now, the company is evaluating those Pebble features that are dependent on third-party services like dictation, messaging, and weather to figure out how long they can continue.

It is good to see the support continue for Pebble services as the company's smartwatches hold a special place in hearts of tech enthusiasts around the world and don't deserve to fade away in a brisk manner.

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