Pebble update brings better fitness tracking

Just in time for summer, Pebble has launched version 3.12 of their smartwatch’s software, and the spotlight is on the expansion of health-tracking services. Previously, your Pebble device has been able to count steps and monitor your sleep, but with the new tools in this update you can get a much more comprehensive perspective of your fitness life and better metrics to determine if you are meeting your goals.

Pebble Health, the fitness focused smartphone app that accompanies your smartwatch, now shows a larger picture of your achievements. You can look back over your weeks and determine long-scale patterns in both activity and sleep. One interesting feature is that your watch will now detect long walks and runs and automatically determine when your exercise is finished. It will then send a summary of your activity to the Pebble Health app on your phone.

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However, the coolest thing here is the app’s ability to work in tandem with your smartwatch to determine how deeply asleep you are prior to your alarm going off. If you’re in a light segment of your sleep cycle, the app will sound your alarm up to 30 minutes earlier than it was set. This prevents you from diving back into deep sleep just before your alarm goes off, which always guarantees a groggy morning.

The update also brings watch-based texting support to iOS users. This function was already available to Android users, so this addition probably isn’t applicable to the majority of our readers, but hey, some people run both operating systems. To get the update now, go into the Pebble app and navigate to Menu > Support > Update Your Pebble. Let us know what you think of these changes in the comments!