Pebble Happiness App (Photo : Twitter)
Pebble's Time smartwatch is getting a new app that tells owners of the wrist wearables whether they are feeling happy, sad, or an in-between nonchalant. It also tells owners of the smart watch how they can boost their mood. Besides launching the Happiness app the company is also publishing its fitness-tracking algorithms and a sleep study's results.
Pebble recently launched a crowdfunding campaign for three new smartwatches. They combine features of a smartwatch and fitness tracker.
The Happiness app asks people every hour how they are feeling. It also asks what they have done, what are doing, and who they are with. The goal is to get a big picture about what affects the smartwatch wearers' moods.
Susan Holcomb is Pebble's Head of Data. She stated in a post that sing the Happiness app helped her notice that her mood improves when she interacts with other people.
Meanwhile, other testers learned that different things made them happier. They included mealtimes and drinking more water.
It might seem annoying for smartwatch users to be asked every hour how they feel. However, the app only bothers people for a week then e-mails the results.
Meanwhile, Nathaniel Stockham is a Neuroscience Ph.D student at Stanford University in California. He developed the algorithms of the new app and shared details in a blog post.
Stockham explained that one algorithm detects/measures motion. The other one counts steps and detects if the wearable's owner is walking or running, according to Engadget.
Many companies are not willing to share their devices' details. However, Pebble believes that publishing algorithms will help third-party developers to build new applications.
Pebble also published a sleep study's results. It showed that night owls are more social people than early birds. Pebble claims the results can help people to make daily schedules. That includes when they should do work and spend time with friends and family.
In related news, Pebble recently unveiled a stand-alone screenless device called Pebble Core. Runners can clip the small wearable to their clothes.
Core also now includes Amazon's Alexa voice services, according to Tech Radar. This gives owners the ability to chat to the wearable and ask it to do tasks.
Here's Pebble's new devices:
