This one ended a little more quickly than I expected:
Our goal was to build a kinder, safer, public square. We grew from 6 users on the first day (Dec 9, 2022) to a community of 20k by October 2023. But we weren’t growing fast enough justify additional investment, and we also underestimated the number of new competitors with a similar vision who would enter the field.
I liked the name Pebble. From their about page:
From our early days as T2 to our evolution into Pebble, our ethos is consistent: creating an inviting space for genuine dialogue. The name “Pebble” signifies that even small interactions can leave profound impacts.
The company was founded as Twitter started to implode under Elon Musk’s leadership. The Pebble folks seemed to have good intentions and they started building a nice product, with maybe more polish than the usual Twitter competition.
But when I signed up several months ago it struck me that they had built another data silo without either a client API or integration with other platforms via ActivityPub. Without any changes to embrace the open web, Pebble was probably always going to fail, it was just a matter of when. This is a lesson we should have learned years ago, going back to App.net’s rise and fall.
In 2023, no one wants a centralized, closed microblogging service. We already have Mastodon, Micro.blog, Bluesky, and Nostr, and even Threads will be embracing a more open approach. This is also part of my criticism with Glass.
It also might be a story about the erratic success of VC-backed companies. Pebble received $1.1 million in funding earlier this year. That seems like a lot of money to me, but I guess it provides too short a runway for a company that needed to get very big before turning a profit. I believe the future is smaller, more open platforms, and that means we can’t lean on ad-supported models. That strategy has served us well with Micro.blog and blog hosting.
Most small businesses fail and most Twitter clones fail. It has always been this way. Hopefully we can learn from Pebble, and I wish the founders good luck on the next thing.
Joel Hamill I thought this post was going to be about the watch company. I had no idea there was a social network called Pebble.
Christopher DeLuca @joelhamill Same! Took me a good chunk through the article to figure it out.
Adam Corbin Fusco It's a minor point, but I couldn't understand why T2 couldn't have a solid name and logo from the start. I think such things count. Something for users, and I suppose investors, to latch on to. The name "Pebble" came late and made me think of the watch. It's something I found fault in with app.net too, who couldn't get past calling their social media proof of concept "alpha."
Manton Reece @acfusco It's a fair point. I think if they had lasted 5+ years, the Pebble watch would've been a distant memory and not an issue. The new Pebble just wasn't around long enough to get widespread notice.
Bernie Goldbach @joelhamill I like Pebble. Sad to see it go pebble.is/topgold
Munish Pruthi agree with what everyone is saying here. Just as I got into it, it started to vanish.
Pratik I had no idea this existed.
Andreas @timapple @pratik @munishp I enjoyed Pebble. Reminded of the Micro.blog feed when it came to niceness. more lively, no blog service, no app.
Andy @manton
@gr36 I’m shocked. Shocked I tell you!
skoo.bz @manton
@gr36 I literally thought it was that other Pebble, which I already thought had shut down.
Aaron Williams @joelhamill same but didn’t the watch company shut down a few years ago too?
Joel Hamill @mindofaaronw I thought they did. But who knows, maybe they came back and tried again and had to shut down again.
the micro blog of soulcruzer @topgold I was starting to become a fan. I was shocked when I got the notice yesterday to download my data because they are shutting down. Sad to see them go. Of all of the similar apps out there, I got the most engagement on Pebble.
Bernie Goldbach @barefootwisdom I wish a billionaire with a love for social networking had swept Twitter away from Elon because it is going to take years to reset the dynamic I enjoyed there for a decade.
the micro blog of soulcruzer @topgold I know what you mean. It's my favourite social media platform, but the chaos that has ensued since the new regime, leaves me in doubt. However, I was listening to a spaces conversation yesterday and the host said you have to look at X as a brand new platform and understand it for what it is now and the direction it's going as a company. That made sense to me.
Bernie Goldbach @barefootwisdom some of my fav teachers are still there but the crosstalk has evaporated. And I get a string of crypto accounts as notifications now-- not interested.
Michael Bishop 
Manton Reece Another quick test for Bridgy.
Manton Reece This is wired up now and kind of works like magic. For example, I saw your ORLY reply inside Micro.blog.
@manton
@skoobz sold to Fitbit. Which was then sold to Google iirc.
Staffan Landin
How do I connect MicroBlog to Bridgy, can't find anything on
bird.gy.
(also I get an error when trying to connect Bridgy to Bluesky but that's another problem).
Manton Reece @staffanlandin.bsky.social You don't need to connect it to Micro.blog. Just telling Bridgy your domain name hosted on Micro.blog should be enough. Bridgy can then discover how to notify Micro.blog of new replies from that. (Note that it only works for long posts that have a link back to your blog currently… Working on improving that.)