Apple restricts iPhone functionality on smartwatches other than its own
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Eric Mizicovsky, creator of the smartwatch 'Pebble,' claims that 'Apple's restrictions make it difficult to develop a Pebble smartwatch for the iPhone.' In his blog, Mizicovsky said that because Apple restricts many functions for third-party smartwatches, the Pebble iOS app cannot offer as many features as the Android version.
Apple restricts Pebble from being awesome with iPhones
https://ericmigi.com/blog/apple-restricts-pebble-from-being-awesome-with-iphones
The Pebble is a smartwatch that was released in 2012 and became a hot topic due to its simple yet long battery life achieved by using an E-Ink (electronic paper) display.
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According to Mizikovsky, Android allowed developers to develop apps relatively freely, so the integration between Pebble and Android smartphones went smoothly. However, Apple's restrictions on iOS meant that they faced many challenges.
For example, on iOS it was impossible to send iMessages or SMS from third-party smartwatches. Features that are easily supported on Android could not be implemented due to Apple's restrictions, which caused inconvenience to users. Also, although it was possible to check received notifications, it was not possible to take actions such as replying, deleting, or muting them.
In addition, Android was capable of inter-process communication (IPC), which made it easy to share data between apps, whereas iOS did not have this feature, making it difficult for Pebble to directly work with other apps. Therefore, Pebble had to provide its own SDK and each app had to incorporate Bluetooth connection individually, but this method was tedious for developers and made it difficult to maintain the stability of the app, says Mizikovsky.
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In addition, iOS had a problem where the Pebble app could not run in the background, and communication with Pebble was cut off when the user closed the app. This background operation restriction was intended to save power on the iPhone, but it resulted in a significant limitation of the Pebble user experience.
In addition, the original Pebble had a problem where notifications would be sent even while the user was operating the iPhone. For example, if the user was browsing social media on the iPhone, the same notification would also arrive on the Pebble, causing duplicate notifications to be displayed. This was because Apple did not share iPhone usage information with external devices.
The worst part is that side-loading, which is possible with Android, was not possible with iOS. This means that all Pebble apps had to be distributed through Apple's App Store and had to go through Apple's review. 'Apple's review was strict and sometimes rejected for unclear reasons, so it had a big impact on the development speed of Pebble,' says Mizikovsky.
Despite these restrictions, Pebble has been trying to work with the iPhone. In particular, to avoid Apple's restrictions on sending messages, the company made a special deal with AT&T to send SMS over the Internet. However, this was only a 'hacky solution' and ultimately could not be fully integrated with the iOS Messages app.
by Orde Saunders
In addition, in order to run the JavaScript engine within PebbleOS, Pebble had to use complex techniques to overcome iOS restrictions, which required advanced techniques such as 'embedding a compiler within an iOS app and cross-compiling it into JavaScript,' Mizikovsky said.
'Our watches (Pebble) appear to be less functional on iOS than on Android. This is Apple's fault, not ours,' Mizikovsky said. 'Apple is clearly using its market power to lock consumers into their own walled ecosystem. This reduces competition, drives up prices, and reduces innovation.'
Pebble was acquired by Fitbit in 2016 and no new devices were developed. However, Mizicovsky announced that the company will announce the successor models to Pebble, the Core 2 Duo and Core Time 2, in March 2025, and that apps for Android and iOS are also in development.
Smartwatch pioneer 'Pebble' revived by founder, two models will be released soon - GIGAZINE
But Mizikovsky said, 'iOS is still very restrictive, and we're facing the same problems we did back then. Apple is never going to change its ways unless iPhone users who are interested in Pebble complain loudly or switch to Android. That's difficult, too, because Apple is doing everything in its power to lock users into its platform.'
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