How I Use My Index 01 + Production Update

TL;DR

• Production Update - behind schedule but on track
• How I use my Index 01 - watch the video for demos!
• Product design philosophy - why we made it this way
• Index software - see how Index 01 data appears in the app
• Roadmap - what we’re working on next

Quick reminder from the announcement - Pebble Index 01 is a small ring with a button and microphone. Hold the button, whisper your thought, and it’s sent to your phone. It’s added to your notes, set as a reminder, or saved for later review. Think of it as external memory for your brain! I used to think of things then promptly forget them all the time…now I use Index 01 to capture little things throughout the day that I need to do or remember.

It costs $75 and lasts for years on a battery charge (in fact there is no way to charge it). You can preorder today on rePebble.com/index.

#Index 01 Production Update

It took us a bit longer than I would have hoped, but Pebble Time 2 is finally in mass production. Now that our factory is happily churning out PT2s (over 13,600 produced so far!), our progress on Index 01 is speeding up! We’re a bit behind schedule (planned to start shipping in March) but the project is moving along well and we have some good updates to share.

As of today, we’ve manufactured over 700 Index 01 rings. Granted, we have 11,000 more to build for everyone who has placed a pre-order, but the wheels are turning and we’re ramping up. This is a completely new type of product for us compared to watches, so things have taken a bit longer to hit our stride. Sorry for the delays but we want to get this right! One major difference from watch production is the relatively huge number of different variations (3 colours ^* 7 sizes). Mass production assembly lines do not like change! They want to build the same thing in the same size over and over again. We’ve had to build custom jigs and test fixtures for each of the different sizes.

Here’s the current shipping plan, very much subject to change. If you are the type of person who cannot deal with uncertainty, please consider closing your eyes and skipping to next paragraph. As we clearly communicated when you pre-ordered, our shipping timeframes are estimates. You can get a refund at any time. We think the resulting product will be very much worth the wait and we’re excited to hear what you think of Index 01 once we get it into your fingers!

Over the next next few weeks, we’ll be expanding the beta test (apply to join, USA preferred). After that, we’ll begin shipping out many more rings. Our goal is to finish shipping out all preorders by the beginning of August. Unfortunately we will not be able to answer any questions about when specifically your ring will ship out. We ship according to the initial preorder timestamp, but factors like ring size, colour and destination country may affect the exact shipping order.

In the meantime, please use this time to get your finger sized! Go to orders.repebble.com to order a sizing kit, 3D print one or visit a jeweler.

Thank you to all the beta testers for your feedback and bug reports!

#How do I use my Index 01?

I vividly remember the first time I went out for dinner with the first working version of Pebble back in 2009 and got a buzz for a notification on my watch. It was a ‘wow, the world has changed’ moment for me. There was no way I could go back (my phone has been on silent/no vibration ever since).

One of my first experiences with Index 01 gave me a similar vibe. I was biking my kids to school and at a stop sign, I had an idea for something. I hit the button on my ring, recorded my thought and continued on my way. It felt so natural!

I use it around 5-10 times per day, mostly when I am away from my desk (where I just use my computer instead of ring to record notes/tasks). After almost each use, I still remark to myself ‘man, I definitely would have forgotten this if I didn’t have this ring!’ Index 01 comes in handy for me mostly when I am running errands, biking, picking up the kids or out at meetings. I take a lot of notes about the products I’m working on, add reminders for things I need to do later, timers for when I need to get ready for a meeting or pick up the kids, or note down new features or bugs that needs to be fixed.

Recently, as we’ve added more features over the last few months, I’ve started using more of the integrations we’ve built into the Index 01 experience, like sending messages to my wife via Beeper, and controlling music, like skipping to the next track with a triple click of the button (both features are available on Android currently, working on iOS support).

One other thing I love about Index 01 is being able to double-click-hold the button then talk, which instead of taking a note routes whatever I say to a search engine that finds the answer and displays the result on my Pebble watch. It’s currently powered by Claude Sonnet + web search. The other day I used it to pull up a recipe for gluten free blueberry muffins while I was juggling kids and groceries at Trader Joe’s. I also use it to ask questions about things I’m reading, without needing to pull out my phone and potentially get distracted by other things! This feature is available on iOS and Android, and works with other smartwatches that can show notifications, or the answer will appear as a notification on your phone next time you unlock it.

#Product Design Philosophy

In general, at every single product decision point, we have made the choice that prefers:

1. Offline capability
2. Your sovereignty over data
3. Zero cloud connection required
4. Zero paid subscription
5. Open source
6. Extreme customization and hackability
7. Low cost

Why? How can we do this where all other consumer electronics companies, and especially AI device companies, seem to make the opposite decisions? It’s because we aren’t actually a real ‘startup’ company. There is no grand take-over-the-world plan. There are no investors. We’re just making cool gadgets that we ourselves want to use. At every decision point we think ‘what would we want’ and then we build that. This is true for our watches and now Index 01 as well.

In the interest of transparency, I also want to be clear about what Index 01 is not designed for. The microphone is tuned to pick up audio within 30cm/1’. That means it isn’t a good meeting recorder, nor can it pick up ambient sound (ie for Shazaming songs). You must hold down the button to record, there’s no way to ‘lock’ it on. It’s primarily designed to record short utterances. It’s water resistant, but not invincible. The mic hole can get plugged by skin cream or dirt. It may get scratched up, just like any other

This is our first product in a brand new category. We’re figuring stuff out as we go. The software will have bugs when you receive it. Not all the features will be finished. If you are the type of person who cannot deal with this, please do not buy an Index 01 at this time. Wait for a while as we get the kinks out!

Sidenote about battery life - I love that so many people online had a meltdown over the fact that Index 01 battery lasts for years but is not rechargeable. I think this is emblematic of how accustomed people are to hardware products designed for an average person and use case, rather than being crafted to deliver a very specific niche experience. To me, it’s so disappointing to see consumer electronics companies take such few risks and produce boring products in the same categories that every other company makes. Mix things up!

We could have easily made Index 01 rechargeable but didn’t. It’s not some conspiracy to make more money by selling replacement rings. It’s very simple. I 👏didn’t👏want👏to👏think👏about👏charging. I have enough devices in my life that require near-constant attention and maintenance to maintain charge state. A bunch of other data points also contributed to this decision:

• I talked to many people who had bought an Oura ring (for $300!) and stopped using it because they put it on the charger once then forgot to put it back on. lol.
• I wanted to price Index 01 as a no-brainer. If you can afford it and want to try it out, just get it! Maybe you’ll like it. Maybe not. At worst, you’re out $75. Making it rechargeable and adding a charger would make the product more expensive and more complicated to build. Yes, I appreciate that $75 could be a lot of money for some folks. If you really want to try Index 01 but really can’t afford it, after we get into mass production and things are moving along smoothly, send me a message and I’ll give you a discount code.
• I use my Index 01 on average for 1 to 2 minutes of recording per day. At this rate, the battery will last for 3+ years. I can’t think of a single gadget besides my Pebbles and Kobo e-reader that I’ve used continuously for more than 3 years. Things get lost, they break, or replaced with a new version. If you do not think you’ll get $75 of value out of this thing within a few years, my recommendation is to NOT BUY IT. This is not the right product for you.
• It’s not designed to be a meeting note recorder. Buy a Plaud pin if you want that. It’s not designed to transcribe your entire life, get a Friend.com or Fieldy for that. If battery recharging is so important to you, try one of the other voice recording rings that have launched recently, like Stream ($250+$10/m, iOS and US only)

Again, I love that this riled people up. I’m going to keep making cool gadgets designed for myself and people like me. If you like them or hate them, please keep talking about them loudly on the internet and spread the word 🙏.

#Index 01 Software

Index 01 uses the same mobile app as Pebble (rePebble.com/app). It’s open source! Our software design philosophy is ‘great defaults, with deep customization’. That means it should work nicely out of the box, plus if you’re interested in fiddling around, you can customize it in many ways to fit your exact workflow.

The in-app user interface is still pretty fresh and very much a work in progress. Skip to directly to this part of the video to see how it looks right now. Expect it to change quite a bit as we receive more feedback and learn more about how people use Index 01. This is the start of an entirely new product category - we are learning a lot as we build this! You will also notice a bunch of Pebble watch related stuff like the Pebble appstore, since we haven’t spent much time separating things.

The Index 01 part of the app is pretty straightforward. Each recording from the ring arrives in the Index feed - a reverse chronological feed of everything you’ve recorded into Index 01. You can play back each recording, just in case the transcription was wrong. Each recording is then processed by a simple algorithm that decides where to route it in the app:

• Todos - time-sensitive items like reminders, timers, alarms and todos
• Notes - lists of notes, checklists.
• Answers - responses to questions you’ve asked to the ‘search’ mode by double-press-holding the button
• Actions - eg send a message, control something around the home, basically any action that does not fall into one of the other 3 sections.

The app is fully searchable. You can also enter new items into the system manually by typing, in case you don’t want to talk but still want to enter something into your notes/todos etc.

The app is mostly set up to meet my own personal note-taking and todo needs. For reference, I started using Evernote probably 15+ years ago. After it became a buggy nightmare, I migrated through many options like Google Keep, Simplenote, Todoist, Google Inbox (RIP) etc and finally settled in Notion (for better or worse). I love parts of Notion (it’s simple clean UI) and hate it as well (search…ugh, slow and laggy).

What I am missing in my life is a place to store random bits of information/notes/todos/reminders/URLs/details. That’s what the Index feed may evolve into, for me at least. I’m using as a clearing house and historical record for random notes and info, which I then process and move out to other apps (like Notion for longer-form notes, Linear for bug tracking, communication apps, etc).

This is all 100% optional and customizable. You do not need to use the built-in todo or notes system. You can configure the app to automatically route todos to Apple Reminders or Google Tasks or add notes to Apple Notes or Notion - with many more options in the works like Todoist, Google Keep, Obsidian, Ticktick and more!

For the more technically inclined, you can easily route all recordings from Index 01 to your own app, server or home lab very easily via Webhooks. You can send the raw audio and/or the text transcription.

Another layer of customization is available via MCP. Under the hood, we’ve implemented each of the automatic actions that the app can take (creating a reminder, adding a note, setting an alarm/timer etc) as an MCP tool. You can build and add your own MCPs, and swap out the default tool for your own choice (eg add notes to Roam Research). MCPs can be run on external servers or built into the app..

Everything is designed to run locally, without an internet connection. The local on-device transcription engine uses Parakeet 0.6B v3 open weights model (roughly 700MB download). The local on-device LLM is a tiny open weights model called Needle from Cactus Compute that’s fine-tuned for tool calling. We offer a cloud transcription and LLM option with slightly better performance.

You need a (free) Pebble account to use Index 01. We require this because some services like the cloud transcription service cost us money to run and we may need to stop abuse. You can optionally back up an encrypted copy of your recordings/notes/todos to the cloud or download a zip file of all your data.

#Software roadmap

Our primary software goal was to build a solid, reliable foundation. This means that every time you press the button on the ring, it records and transfers to your phone. After achieving that, we’ve switched gears to building out the experience of managing notes inside the Pebble app and syncing them to other services.

Over time, we’ll be adding things like:

• More connectors to other note and reminder apps (Todoist, Obsidian, Google Keep and more)
• More actions like adding to calendar
• New section on Pebble appstore to share MCPs and actions
• Shared lists (eg add to your partner’s todo list from your Index 01!)
• Improved context (pull in your contacts to the STT)
• Web/desktop app to view and modify your notes/todos/recordings
• Music control on iOS
• Improving the UI and design
• Deeper Pebble watch integration

If you’re a developer and want to add a specific integration or new feature, consider building it yourself! The app is open source and we welcome PRs, especially for new connectors.