howto.md

layout	title	date	permalink
text-page	HOWTO	2019-02-11 13:56:42 -0800	/howto/

Notice for iOS users: The iOS version of the Pebble app has been removed from the App Store as of August 3rd, 2019. Rebble has inside sources that say Fitbit are working on getting the app back up. Until then, do not delete the Pebble app from your iOS device, or you won't be able to get it again until (if/when) it's back up on the store. You might also want to turn off automatic uninstalling of unused apps if you still have the app, so it doesn't suddenly disappear from your phone. There are some workarounds, documented in this Google doc created by Rebble community member NightQuest, but your luck may vary. Feel free to pop into the Rebble Discord linked at the very bottom of this page for help and questions. (Updated August 30th, 2019)

Why Rebble Web Services?

The Pebble watch is called a smartwatch. That's because it's smarter than a normal watch. Part of that intelligence is incorporated into the watch, and part of it is being delivered through web services. Originally, these web services were provided by Pebble Technology, Corp. However, Pebble Technology, Corp. halted operation, and after some time these web services have disappeared as well. That made the Pebble watch a lot dumber. Not as dumb as a normal watch, but things that were possible before, aren't possible any more. Time to ditch your Pebble? No, because...

Enter Rebble! The Rebble Alliance has created Rebble Web Services, to fill in the void left by the disappearance of Pebble Technology, Corp. Most of the services that have disappeared, have replacements now. There's however one thing The Rebble Alliance cannot do: change every Pebble so it will use the Rebble Web Services. This needs some action by the user. No need to worry, we'll help you step by step! Read on...

Getting started using Rebble Web Services

So, you have a Pebble watch, and want to start using it. Let's go!

iOS

Part one: connect the watch to the phone.

Note: you can skip this part if you're already a Pebble user. Instead, you should check whether you have the latest version of the Pebble app installed on your phone.

• Connect your Pebble to the plugged in USB charging cable. You really don't want it to lose power in the middle of a firmware update! The watch powers up. Press the left button to dismiss the charging screen.
• If you now see a clock face, it means that your Pebble is still configured, maybe by the previous owner, maybe by you. If you used it before, now is the time to write down the watchfaces and apps you want to reinstall after this procedure is done.
• If you see a clock face, press middle right button, go to Settings, then System, and choose Factory Reset. This might take a few minutes.
• Get your iPhone and install the Pebble app from the App store. The Pebble app is missing from the iOS App Store right now. See the notice at the top of this page for more info and workarounds.
• Then, open the app.
• You'll be greeted by a Pebble Account page. Simply tap the Skip in the top left corner to continue.
• Choose your language for voice input.
• Choose the type of Pebble you have. iOS then asks for permission to use Bluetooth, tap OK.
• The app starts looking for nearby Pebbles. It should shortly see your Pebble, as Pebble xxxx. This same string can be seen on the Pebble, so you know the phone sees the right watch. Tap it.
• The watch asks to pair. Press the upper right button. Tap Pair on the phone.
• If the Pebble has an old firmware, it will now automatically be updated. Keep the watch on the charging cable, and close to the phone. This will take a few minutes to complete, after that the watch will reboot.
• In the Pebble app, choose the language of the menus, notifications and messages on the watch.
• Many Pebbles need to use a second Bluetooth connection. If you have one of those, the app now asks to pair the watch again. Tap Enable, press the upper right button on the watch to pair, and tap pair on the phone.
• Tap grant access, and tap accept if you want notifications from your phone to be sent to your watch.
• Tap grant access, and tap accept always if you want your watch and apps on it to know where you are.
• Tap grant access, and tap accept if you want you calendar items for the next couple of days appear on your watch.
• If you have a Pebble Time or newer: To enable health, tap Enable. Then, tap Agree.
• If you have a Pebble Time or newer: Choose your settings for health, then tap Continue, then enter your info and tap Complete.
• You're done. Well, the Pebble part is done. Tap done.

Part two: connect the Pebble app to Rebble Web Services.

• On the phone, open the Pebble app, tap Settings, Help and UPDATE YOUR PEBBLE, to make sure your Pebble is at the latest firmware.
• On the phone, open Safari, and go to auth.rebble.io.
• You are greeted with a number of ways to sign in. Choose one and sign in. Remember your sign in credentials! You will return to the Rebble site, and are greeted with You're all set! Read the page, then tap the get started now link in the first paragraph.
• You are redirected to boot.rebble.io, and are greeted with Here we go! Read the page, then tap the switch to Rebble button. Safari asks if you want to open it with Pebble. Tap Open.
• The Pebble app opens, and gives a popup Configuration Change. Tap Change.
• Now, wait at least 15 seconds before you go to the next step.
• Meanwhile, in the top left corner, a yellow exclamation mark appeared. Tap it.
• You get to a screen titled Fixes and Logged out. Tap log in.
• You get to a screen Pebble Account and Welcome to Rebble. Tap IT'S REBBLE TIME.
• You're done! Go to Watchfaces, choose Get Watchfaces and find and install watchfaces you like from the Rebble store.

Part two can also be seen in our video.

Android

Part one: connect the watch to the phone.

Note: you can skip this part if you're already a Pebble user. Instead, you should check whether you have the latest version of the Pebble app installed on your phone.

• Connect your Pebble to the plugged in USB charging cable. You really don't want it to lose power in the middle of a firmware update! The watch powers up. Press the left button to dismiss the charging screen.
• If you now see a clock face, it means that your Pebble is still configured, maybe by the previous owner, maybe by you. If you used it before, now is the time to write down the watchfaces and apps you want to reinstall after this procedure is done.
• If you see a clock face, press middle right button, go to Settings, then System, and choose Factory Reset. This might take a few minutes.
• Get your phone and download the Pebble app from APKMirror. Open the APK and enable installing from unknown sources if it prompts you to. Tap install in the dialogue box. Then, open the app.
• You'll be greeted by a Pebble Account page. Simply tap Skip login twice to continue.
• Choose the type of Pebble you have.
• The app starts looking for nearby Pebbles. It should shortly see your Pebble, as Pebble xxxx. This same string can be seen on the Pebble, so you know the phone sees the right watch. Tap it.
• The watch asks to pair. Press the upper right button. Tap Pair on the phone.
• If the Pebble has an old firmware, it will check for updates. Tap Continue. Keep the watch on the charging cable, and close to the phone. This will take a few minutes to complete, after that the watch will reboot.
• In the Pebble app, choose the language of the menus, notifications and messages on the watch.
• To get get notifications on your Pebble, tap Open settings screen. Enable Pebble. Tap Allow.
• If you have a Pebble Time or newer: To enable health, tap Enable. Then, tap Agree.
• If you have a Pebble Time or newer: Choose your settings for health, then tap Continue, then enter your info and tap Complete.
• Choose a watchface. then tap the arrow in the upper right corner.
• Timeline doesn't work, so simply tap the arrow in the upper right corner.
• Don't grab apps yet, tap the arrow in the upper right corner.
• You're done. Well, the Pebble part is done. Tap done.

Part two: connect the Pebble app to Rebble Web Services.

• On the phone, open a decent browser (like Chrome), and go to auth.rebble.io.
• You are greeted with a number of ways to sign in. Choose one and sign in. Remember your sign in credentials! You will return to the Rebble site, and are greeted with You're all set! Read the page, then tap the get started now link in the first paragraph.
• You are redirected to boot.rebble.io, and are greeted with Here we go! Read the page, then tap the switch to Rebble button. The browser asks if you want to open it with Pebble. Tap Open.
• If it won't open with Pebble, you'll need to use another browser and restart from the first bullet of this part two.
• The Pebble app opens. One of three things will then happen:
  • A Rebble screen will appear. It may have an orange spinner above it; you can safely ignore this.
  • The old Pebble login screen will appear. If this happens, close the app from the app switcher and open it again. A Rebble screen should now appear.
  • Nothing. If this happens, tap "⋮" in the top right corner, then tap Settings. At this point, either:
    • A Rebble screen will appear, or
    • Nothing interesting. In this case, scroll down to ACCOUNT and make sure you are logged out. If not, tap it to log out. Now, tap to log in. A Rebble screen should appear.
• In any case, once you tap the button on the Pebble app's Welcome to Rebble screen, you are done!
• If your Pebble disconnects, just tap the usual connect button.
• You're done! Go to Watchfaces, tap the big red "+" in the lower right corner and find and install watchfaces you like from the Rebble store.

Weather and Dictation services

So, you started using the Rebble Web Services, but want to add the paid plan for Weather and Dictation services. There are a few things to consider, before you order it:

• On iOS, replying to text messages isn't possible. This is a limitation from iOS. So, dictation will NOT add spoken replies to text messages. Unless you jailbreak your phone...
• Weather services is solely for the native Pebble weather app and for weather info in timeline. Watchfaces and 3rd party apps that offer weather info, have their own means to fetch weather info. You don't need the Rebble paid plan for them.
• Payment is handled by Stripe, which only offers payment by credit card.
• Your money will help the Rebble Alliance to keep all Rebble Web Services (including the free ones) running.

That being said, these are the steps to add the plan:

• On the phone, open your browser (Safari on iOS or Chrome on Android) and head to Rebble Account.
• Very important: make sure you are signed in with the same account you used when you first made the switch to Rebble!
• Choose your plan ($3.00/month or $33/year).
• You are forwarded to Stripe. Enter your card info and finish the payment.
• You are redirected to the Rebble site. Voice / Weather subscription should now be Active.
• In the last paragraph, tap the repeat the initial setup link. Then, follow the rest of the procedure for part 2 above.
• Thank you for supporting Rebble. Really!

In the Pebble app, under Apps, the app The Weather Channel should now be there. Tap the gear button to configure it to your needs.

Sideloading watchfaces or apps

Under very rare circumstances, installing watchfaces or apps through the app store within the Pebble app doesn't work. In this case, you could try if sideloading the watchface works.

• On the phone, open your browser (Safari on iOS or Chrome on Android) and head to the Rebble app store on the web.
• Find the watchface or app and tap it.
• On the bottom, tap download pwb.
• Open the file with the Pebble app.
• The Pebble app opens, and asks to install the watchface or app. Tap OK.

Now, the watchface or app gets installed on the phone and the watch.

Common issues

Cannot add watchface, store says its added, but it's not on the phone of watch

Sometimes, the locker can get out of sync with reality. Although this situation should resolve itself over time, it's easy to fix. Simply sideload the watchface (see above). The locker now is no longer out of sync for this watchface. You might have to repeat this for every watchface or app that shows this behaviour.

On Android (9.0+), incoming calls are displayed on the watch as "Unknown caller"

In order to fix "Unknown caller" or altogether missing notifications on incoming calls for Pebble paired with Android 9.0 devices, there is a workaround with Dialer for Pebble app:

• Install Dialer for Pebble companion app and a respective App for Pebble.
• Open the Pebble app on your phone, and go to Notifications. Then disable notifications for Phone Calls.
• Open the Dialer for Pebble app on your phone, and enable Call Popup for Incoming and Outgoing calls.
• Make sure Dialer for Pebble app has system permissions to access Contacts, Call Log, Dialer and SMS on your phone.

This should fix the issue. In case if Dialer for Pebble works inconsistently, make sure it runs in background both on your Pebble (Settings and then Background App) and on your phone.

I subscribed to the Weather and Dictation services plan, but the Weather Channel app and dictation isn't available

Check your Rebble account and payment info.

• Head to Rebble account
• Look at the line Voice / Weather subscription. If it's Active, go through boot.rebble.io again.
• If it's expired, the credit card used while subscribing might be invalid. You can simply subscribe again.
• If it's not active, you might be signed in with a different account than when you first subscribed. Delete the cookies from your browser (thus signing out), and sign in at Rebble account with the right account. Then, check your account and payment info again.

This watchface doesn't show weather info any more, or the info is wrong

Unfortunately, some often used weather services have folded, or changed their API. Watchfaces using those APIs now can't fetch their weather info any more. See if the watchface can switch API, or choose another watchface. Please note that this is unrelated to the Rebble Weather and Dictation services plan.

Dictation doesn't work: "Error occurred. Try again."

Open the Pebble app on your phone, and go to Settings. Tap Voice Language. Change it to any other language. Then, change it back to your preferred language.

I need to switch accounts, or I removed and reinstalled the Pebble app

To sign out from the Rebble website, simply go to the Your Account and click the "Log out" button. Then simply re-login with the authentication method used for the account you want to log into.

To configure the Pebble app to use the account you just signed in to, go through boot.rebble.io again.

Events from my calendars don't show up in Timeline or Quick View

Open the Pebble app on your phone, and go to Apps. Tap the gear next to Calendar. Here, you can choose the calendars from which events will appear in your timeline.

I want to add an original Pebble or Pebble Steel, but the firmware upgrade step displays "Migration Failed"

The update screen also shows Could not find any migration firmware to install. To resolve this, you need a device with a Pebble app that has not been switched to Rebble. You can use another device, or remove Rebble from the Pebble app by going into your phone's default browser and pasting pebble://custom-boot-config-url/default into the address bar. This should open the Pebble app and reset it to a non-Rebble configuration. Note that this will probably wipe your Pebble Health data. Or, alternatively, you can remove the Pebble app from your phone and reinstall it (Android users only, iOS users see the notice pinned at the top of this page). When you pair the watch again, it should now complete the firmware upgrade. After that, you can start using Rebble Web Services again, by following part 2 above.

General hints

• As many services on the watch are actually implemented in the phone and in web services, many issues are located there as well. A reboot of your phone has better chance to fix issues, than a reboot of your watch. Restoring your watch to factory settings is hardly ever needed.
• If you have issues with dictation, you should check the weather service to rule out issues with your subscription. If weather works in Timeline or through The Weather Channel app, then your subscription is working fine.

More help

Join us on the officially unofficial Pebble Dev Discord server, then head to #rebble-help and post your issue!