Pebble smartwatches could soon become even better alternatives to the Apple Watch and Pixel Watch thanks to a new series of plugins that Pebble founder and Core Devices CEO Eric Migicovsky says will be integrated into the wearable’s SDK. The new plugins will work “a bit like Apple Watch complications,” Migicovsky writes on Bluesky, but with even more flexibility and uses that extend to Core Devices’ Index smart ring, too.
Pebble devs – we're working on something big for you 👀The biggest change to the SDK since…forever. Plugins: headless apps that provide data (eg weather, finance, traffic) or offer actions (home control, music, webhooks) to other apps, watchfaces and the Index agent.
In the past, if a Pebble watch face developer wanted to include functionality that went beyond telling the time (like showing the current weather, for example), they had to hard-code that functionality (and the APIs that make it possible) into the watch face itself. Migicovsky says the new plugin system will enable developers to avoid that step and instead call on plugins that run locally in the Pebble app. These essentially work as mini-apps that can pull information from services already running on your smartphone, like Apple’s Notes or Reminders apps, or take action, like adjusting a connected smart home device.
The change should be an improvement for Core Devices’ smart ring, as well. Per Migicovsky, “Index users can ask questions that get automatically routed to plugins (‘What’s on my calendar today?’, ‘Unlock the front door’).” Pulling up information and taking action through local plugins will also be more secure than the web-based Model Context Protocol (MCP) integration that Core Devices offers on current Index rings, according to Migicovsky. MCP is a framework for connecting AI models to other apps and services, and the version offered on the Index runs over the web. To further secure all these interactions, Core Devices is also rolling out a new permission system that will require Pebble owners to approve which apps and plugins can use their location or connect to the internet.
Plugins are currently available as a developer preview, and Core Devices hasn’t shared when they’ll actually be released in the wild. In the grand scheme of Pebble’s comeback tour, both plugins and permissions seem like steps towards making the wearable platform even more capable. Now Pebble just needs developers willing to put them through their paces.
