Pebble releases Watch Only mode for extending battery life of smartwatches

Pebble has released version 3.9 of the firmware for its recent watches. One of the most important changes is the Watch Only mode, which should extend the battery life by turning off Bluetooth and turning down the vibration motor.

The new mode allows users to keep reading the time for longer. In addition to the vibrating motor, the backlight also remains active, but the pedometer, among other things, turns the watch off. In addition, the battery notification on the watch now shows the remaining time instead of the remaining battery percentage.

Pebble has also thrown open its Health API, allowing watchfaces to integrate information from Pebble Health into apps and watchfaces. Pebble introduced Health late last year. The feature only works on Time series watches.

In addition, some minor improvements have been made, such as being able to answer a call with a text or voice message via Android phones, according to the release notes. For the update, users need to update the app for iOS or Android, after which that app will perform the update on the watch. Pebble is unclear whether the update will be available on and what features will work on the first generation Pebble and Pebble Steel.