Pebble’s hardware buttons couldn’t register smartwatches from touchscreens

Touch screens have taken over from smartwatches. But it didn’t have to be that way. For a few years, Pebble showed a different path with a pure hardware user interface that reigned supreme, until it – like the rest of the company – was left behind by the rest of the industry.

Virtually all of today’s smartwatches rely on a mix of touchscreens and hardware buttons, from the Apple Watch and its digital crown to Samsung’s rotating bezels. Even Fitbit’s most basic trackers, like Charge touchscreens, complement the physical buttons.

But Pebble held on. From when it helped launch the concept of modern smartwatches in 2013 until it was purchased and closed in 2016, the Pebble could only be controlled by pressing physical buttons. It traded in more advanced, long-term features for a more user-friendly experience.

It’s not even that the Pebble’s buttons were particularly pleasant to use, mechanically speaking. The buttons on the original Kickstarter model were plastic and mushy, with a small center button that could easily be lost between the other two. And while the latest Pebble watch – the more polished Pebble Time – would improve things with click buttons and a sleek design, it’s hard to praise its buttons as anything other than “functional.”

Overall, however, the Pebble’s design made it a pleasure to use. I fondly remember dismissing spurious notifications by quickly pressing a button and browsing songs on a crowded bus or skiing and wearing bulky gloves. The relatively straightforward nature of its input method also meant that the Pebble’s software was also streamlined, reducing cumbersome menus in favor of simpler displays.

Pebble’s idea of ​​how smartwatches should be controlled was rooted in how analog watches work. You didn’t want to block the dial because the whole point of a watch is being able to see the time. It’s a fact that makes touchscreen smartwatches an inherent paradox: Watches are more comfortable to wear when they are smaller, but touch screens are more comfortable to use when they are larger. But the Pebble avoided that altogether by taking a regular watch and only using buttons mounted on the case to control it.

There is no denying that these tiny touchscreens are not particularly pleasant to use. Apple has spent years trying to figure out how to make text input work on the Apple Watch, simply because the postage stamp size display just doesn’t work well to fit an entire keyboard. And of course, there’s the infamous “nose-tapping” maneuver when you desperately need to dismiss a notification.

Pebble’s simple hardware buttons offered useful new ways to interact with my phone on the go. Conversely, an Apple Watch is just as difficult to use as a phone when my hands are wet or while wearing gloves. The upside is just a slightly easier to see screen since it’s on my wrist, not in my pocket.

It really goes to the heart of the button abandonment: smartwatches have been gaining momentum. Today’s watches are not smartphone companion gadgets; they’re miniature smartphones in their own right, with cellular data, GPS, and app stores. And while that may be a good thing for smartwatches as viable hardware platforms, it does mean that some things – like the exclusively physical buttons or the entire Pebble platform – will inevitably be left behind.