I thought it might be useful to explain why someone like me needs the ability to reply to messages on a smartwatch. I'm not sure what whoever it was who made the decision not to include this was thinking, but I hope that they are realizing that this was a pretty big fail. I can imagine that the whole former Pebble team that was brought on argued for it, only to be condescendingly dismissed by some clueless suits. Okay, so I have an active imagination....
Anyway, for starters, I currently wear both a Pebble Time and a fitbit Charge HR. I'm a tour guide by trade, and take people all over the western United States. Sometimes, a lot of the times, actually, I also have to double as the driver, which means I can be behind the wheel six to eight hours a day. It's etiquette in our industry not to be standing around, messing with our phones, because even though it might be job-related, it conveys the impression that we are not paying attention to our guests. Additionally, it is illegal in most states to be messing with your phone while you're driving, and even without that, it's a great way to get into an accident, which means both physical and professional death in my industry.
As pertaining to messaging, I get probably close to fifty a day, about half of which can be work-related. While I'm driving, the ability to send or reply to a canned message quickly and discreetly with the push of a button protects the safety of my guests as well as letting the tour company/travel agency/optional activity provider/hotel/colleague/family member/friend know that I have received their message and that we are on the same page. I don't need to stop the car and pull out my phone, which means that we arrive alive and on time.
It's the same at venues, sans the safety factor. I can reply to a message while appearing to remain engaged in the activity at hand, and there's the added benefit of appearing to be checking the time, which when seen by my guests on several occasions (especially when smartwatches were new and unknown) caused them to be mindful of the time themselves. I even overheard one of them say, "He's looking at the time, it must be about time to go."
The Charge HR has been great for tracking my activity, especially since we do a lot of hiking and walking in general. I topped 50,000 steps one day, and was more than happy to collect Cowboy boot badge with the cactus and buttes in the background. However, I don't need a GPS for this; I know where I am, and I otherwise work out in hotel fitness centers. The added accuracy doesn't make that much difference when you're at the same places all of the time.
My Pebble Time and my Charge are both pretty accurate with the step counts; at least, they more or less agree with each other. When Pebble announced the Pebble Time 2 with the heart rate sensor, I thought I might be able to ditch the fitbit and have a single device for all of it. With the buyout, I assumed the same thing, just thought I would have to wait a little longer. With all the press releases and hype, my hopes were high for the Ionic, but without messaging functionality, it just amounts to replacing the old device on my left wrist with a much larger, more expensive device that does only slightly more than the Charge.
Don't get me wrong; I'm excited about some of the changes. I would love to be able to launch a podcast from my watch to keep me awake while driving, and being able to sync my bluetooth phone earpiece to the Ionic means I won't have to throw away money on bluetooth headphones to be able to enjoy that. Thing is, other devices already do that, and I can message with them, so....
What I think I'll probably do is stick around here for a few more weeks and see what happens. My Charge is falling apart, but it still attaches to my wrist, so I'm not in a rush. My Pebble Time still works great, and should continue to work with Rebble for quite some time. If, within the next few weeks, the Ionic implements the ability to respond to texts, either with canned messages or with handwriting like the Apple 3, I'll probably pick one up; otherwise, my phone is Samsung, and they make a pretty good health tracker that can message, so I'll give them a harder look.
I really don't know how fitbit could have missed with messaging functionality, but man, what a HUGE miss.
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