14 DAY TRIAL // The Ubuntu community is full of developers that want to expand the use of the Ubuntu phones and they are bringing an unofficial Pebble App.
Initial support for Pebble watches on Ubuntu was introduced just a few months ago and it was more like a “what if” scenario. It turns out that there are quite a few Pebble owners out there that also have an Ubuntu phone. The intersection of these two categories is much bigger than anyone would have guessed and developers have been working on some proper support.
Unfortunately, the Pebble team has no intention of supporting Ubuntu or, at least, they haven’t expressed any kind of interest in this regard. Also, for reasons that are easy to understand, even if they wanted to, it would be impossible for the time being.
Unofficial Pebble App is called RockWork
There is already an application available for Ubuntu phone users, but it’s not all that easy to install. The unofficial RockWork app would be installable from the unofficial apps store and here is the kicker.
RockWork needs to have access to background services, and that’s not possible with the regular installation process that occurs from the regular store. Apps are included and they have some pretty strict restrictions, including for background services. That’s why implementing IMAP support in Ubuntu is turning out to be such a hassle.
“There will be an non official Pebble App for Ubuntu Phone, soon, not in the official store, but probably in the community driven app store as background services are not officially supported yet,” Ubuntu insider Carla Sella explained on Google+.
The fact that background services are not yet available for regular apps is also the reason why official support from the Pebble team would be problematic.
The Pebble Smartwatch was released all the way back in 2013, and it has sold more than a million units. A second version is already on the market.
