I have several smart watches and some of them use Gadgetbridge on Android. But the Pebble app does not play well with Gadgetbridge. You have to uninstall Gadgetbridge before a Pebble Time 2 will pair with the Pebble app. You can add Gadgetbridge back after pairing and most everything seems to work but the Pebble app complains. One thing that does not work is installing a watch face or app from Cloudpebble to the phone. This does not work until Gadgetbridge is removed.
Can this be fixed? Is the problem Gadgetbridge or the Pebble app or Android itself?
I was surprised about this myself when switching from iOS to Android. I use Gadgetbridge with an Amazfit Helio Band and a cheap Colmi ring. Disabling Gadgetbridge allowed me to pair my Pebble watch as @BigIron mentioned, and I am enjoying the increased functionality on Android (GrapheneOS actually).
However, any change included to separate these apps would be much appreciated.
This is basic limitation of how the mobile apps communicate with Pebble. We wouldn’t have put the warning/block in there if it wasn’t necessary. You’ll find that if you work around the warning somehow, it will randomly work/not work at any given time. If you aren’t using gadgetbridge for Pebble, there’s an option to ignore the warning.
This will only change if we fundamentally rework how the watches connect (which is possible and something we’re thinking about, but a is a really big change, and would require updating recovery firmware, which is not something to take lightly).
So I understood this is a Firmware topic that it is currently not possible to link the Pebble via another app?
If there’s any way or place to vote for that, you’ve got my vote.
Some people like to keep their Phones as Google free as possible (so do I and I know a lot of such people - but as always this is probably a bubble) so any installation of apps from playstore is an exception for me. The good thing is that is seems to have no dependencies (anymore?) and I could install it from Aurora Store and set up my Pebble for now.
Gadgetbridge supported the old Pebble and this was a nice thing, when Pebble was sold to Fitbit if I remember correctly. It allowed us to use our loved Pebble watches some years longer.
Also at least parallel installed Gadgetbridge should be ok, as it could also be that people have another wearable connected in parallel (potentially via Gadgetbridge only) - so uninstall is not an option for everybody.
Edit:
Just checked the Gadgebridge issues:
It sounds like there is already fix on the way from their site, even I did not read all the details of this issue yet (as usual for such new stuff, it will be in the nighly version of Gadgetbridge first)
If you are using Gadgetbridge for connecting to something other than a Pebble, you can check Settings / Connectivity / “Ignore other Pebble Apps” in the Pebble app. (That’s like saying “trust me, I know what I’m doing”).
As for whether Gadgetbridge works with PT2? I don’t know - there’s no reason why not.
(I had one years ago and unfortunately lost it on a road trip).