Pebble has opened its entire software stack and key hardware designs, ensuring the smartwatch can never be shut down again and placing long-term control firmly in its community’s hands.
Pebble has completed a decisive shift to full openness, releasing the entire PebbleOS stack, its iOS and Android apps, SDK, and developer tools as open source. Core Devices, the company behind the brand’s revival, has also published the electrical and mechanical schematics for the Pebble 2 Duo on GitHub, allowing anyone to build, modify, or extend the device.
Eric Migicovsky, Pebble creator and founder of Core Devices, said the goal is to unlock new possibilities beyond watches. “I am excited that there may be people crazy enough to take Pebble OS and make it work in other products or other watches.” He added that earlier shutdowns left users powerless: “There was not that much that the community could do to make improvements to the watches when the company ceased to exist.”
Migicovsky credits Google’s January 2025 decision to open source the original Pebble OS as the trigger for the comeback. “The impetus for this Pebble relaunch really was that Google open sourced Pebble’s operating system. This would not have happened if that had not happened.”
Pebble’s new mobile apps will soon support multiple app feeds, enabling anyone to host their own store. Core Devices will maintain an official feed, archived daily to Archive.org. “At any point if our servers were to disappear you could download a copy of that, stand up your own Pebble app store feed, and continue to use it,” Migicovsky said. “We hope this sets a standard for openness.”
The move unfolds amid tension with Rebble, which previously maintained unofficial support. Rebble claimed data misuse, stating: “We had already agreed to give Core a license… Then, Eric said that he instead demanded that we give them all of the data that we have curated.” The group later clarified its language, noting it had added terms such as “collected by, maintained by, hosted by, and served by” to reflect intent.
With open hardware, open software, and decentralised app distribution, Pebble’s ecosystem is now structured to survive indefinitely, company or no company.
