Fitbit confirmed it was buying Pebble for $40 million last week, and now we have our first communication from inside the transition. In a Pebble blog post, written by Jon Barlow, a Pebble watchface developer and member of Pebble's Developer Evangelist Team, it details that Fitbit will not shutter the company's services just yet. Pebble software and services will continue to run normally through 2017.

"To be clear, no one on this freshly-formed team seeks to brick Pebble watches in active service," Barlow writes. "The Pebble SDK, CloudPebble, Timeline APIs, firmware availability, mobile apps, developer portal, and Pebble app store are all elements of the Pebble ecosystem that will remain in service at this time."

Pebble users will be happy to hear that their watches will still work and continue to receive updates—for now. The post also says that developers are welcome to make and update apps for Pebble devices; it's hard to believe, however, that many developers would spend more time on apps for a system that will be shut down eventually.

The post goes on to explain that Pebble's priority now is to update their mobile apps, "loosening their dependency on a patchwork of cloud services (authentication, analytics, app locker, etc.)." With this update, which should come sometime in the next few months, Pebble says its watches will still be able to work without cloud-based services. Pebble Health, the native feature that tracks fitness through Pebble watches, will continue to work with no changes since it doesn't rely on cloud services. Data collected through Pebble Health will also continue to feed into Apple HealthKit and Google Fit.

There are some features that are up in the air as of now. The post states "smart features," or features that are depended on third-party services like messaging, dictation, and weather information, are being evaluated by the team. Currently there's no telling which of these features will live on and for how long. Pebble asks users to read their blogs regularly for updates on these features.

Barlow ends the blog post emphasizing how thankful Pebble is for their community of supporters. Pebble watches would have never come to be without their success on Kickstarter, and its community of developers and supporters has been strong ever since. Pebble clearly wants to show Fitbit that is supporters have a big place in the company's history, and it doesn't want to leave them behind. "Continuing to engage with us and sharing your passion for what makes Pebble special to you will go a long way towards showing our Fitbit friends how valuable your enthusiasm can be."