Pebble Founder Warns of Limited iPhone Compatibility for Revived Smartwatch

Pebble founder Eric Migicovsky has warned that the company's revived smartwatch line will face significant functionality limitations when paired with iPhones, blaming Apple's restrictive policies that favor its own Apple Watch. 'It's impossible for a 3rd party smartwatch to send text messages, or perform actions on notifications (like dismissing, muting, replying) and many, many other things,' Migicovsky wrote in a blog post, adding that the situation has 'actually gotten worse over the last 8 years.'

A 2024 class action lawsuit cited in the post claims Apple has added further restrictions since iOS 13, including requiring users to display full content previews on their lock screens for notifications to reach third-party watches. Pebble is still developing an iOS app because 40% of potential customers use iPhones, he said. Migicovsky warned that the watch will 'always appear to have less developed functionality on iOS than Android' and some features will arrive on Android first.

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