The smartwatch space is starting to get pretty crowded. From Sony to Samsung to Qualcomm, wearables are hot.

But you can't talk about smartwatches without mentioning the Pebble. After raising more than $10 million on Kickstarter, Pebble has now sold more than 250,000 units.

See also: Pebble Smart Watch Delivers on Kickstarter Promise and More

Out of the box, you can get plenty done with your Pebble. You can answer phone calls, receive phone notifications and even control your music on your wrist. With the addition of watch faces and third party apps, however, Pebble becomes even more robust.

We've compiled some tips, tricks and apps that will help you make the most out of the Pebble smartwatch.

Upgrade to the Latest Firmware

The latest Pebble update includes long-awaited full notification support for iOS 7.

That means every notification you get on your iPhone (or Android device) will also push its way onto the Pebble. In iOS 7, you'll need to make sure that the notifications for a given app are in "banner mode."

The net result is a huge jump in functionality for iOS users because all of your notifications "just work." Bluetooth LE mode is now activated in Pebble for iOS as well, which means should mean less battery drain.

Consider Upgrading Early to Pebble 2.0

Although the latest update is a big deal, the real fun is coming with Pebble 2.0. The promise of Pebble 2.0, especially for apps, is immense because the new SDK lets developers take advantage of more components on the device (such as the accelerometer), as well as access to stuff like persistent storage and dynamic memory.

For end users, the biggest change is that Pebble 2.0 will let apps and watchfaces pull in data from sources across the web without necessarily needing a separate companion app running on the phone.

This will allow developers to build apps that are more phone-agnostic, which means you won't have to check to see if you can only use a certain app or watchface on iOS or Android.

The Pebble 2.0 firmware is currently in beta and is expected to ship to everyone by the end of the year. If you can't wait for Pebble 2.0 and want to try out some of the enhanced apps and watchfaces, you can download the firmware to your watch early.

Just follow the instructions on the getting started page to download the latest version of the Pebble app for iOS or Android, as well as the beta firmware for Pebble 2.0.

Most of the watchfaces and apps we mention will work with Pebble 1.0. Increasingly, however, Pebble developers are upgrading their setups to support Pebble 2.0 and some apps only support Pebble 2.0.

Update: Downloading the Pebble 2.0 iOS app now requires manual approval from the Pebble team, so this might just be for Android users for now.

A word of warning: Pebble 2.0 is still in beta. In my tests, I've found it to be fairly stable, but you should expect some bugs and occasional crashes. If you're leery about installing a firmware update early, wait for the official release.

Grab Some Watchfaces and Apps

In the world of Pebble, there are a number of different apps. They include:

Stand-alone watchface apps

Apps or watchfaces that require a third-party app on iOS or Android to run

Third-party apps that also have Pebble functionality

Basic watchfaces are the most common type of Pebble app. In the early days of Pebble development, many of these faces were primarily about design and style, rather than adding additional functionality.

Over time, developers figured out methods of creating a companion app for iOS or Android, that could act as a way to pull in additional data. Starting with Pebble 2.0, many of those watchfaces will no longer require a third-party companion app, because the standard Pebble application will be able support JavaScript calls.

The second type of apps run on your iOS or Android phone, but let you toggle and control information via the Pebble watchface. We'll talk more about those below. Right now this is where some of the most exciting developments within the Pebble ecosystem are taking place.

The third type of app are typical iOS or Android apps, such as RunKeeper, that also have built-in hooks to support Pebble. Right now, the number of apps with built-in Pebble support is limited, but Pebble will be rolling out big-name apps, including GoPro, Yelp and Foursquare later this year.

Finding Apps and Watchfaces

You can find watchfaces at a few sites, including MyPebbleFaces.com and PebbleBarn.com. You can also find watchfaces in the Pebble forums.

One of the only challenges with finding watchfaces and apps is that the apps need to be installed from your phone, and depending on the source of the app, it may not be that easy to browse on a small screen.

Pebble says it has plans for a better way of finding and installing apps, but until we see an official app store, there are a number of third-party apps that serve as mobile front-ends for the Pebble community.

On iOS, the MyPebbleFaces app that makes installing and browsing watchfaces from the iPhone, much, much easier. You can sign-in with your MyPebbleFaces account to access favorited apps, which means you can browse on the desktop and then install on your phone.

Likewise, on Android you can use Pebble Apps as a way to browse Pebble-compatible apps in Google Play and in third-party stores.

Want to create your own watchface? Be sure to check out the Watchface Generator for Pebble, now also available for Pebble 2.0. This website makes it easy for regular users to create their own watchfaces, directly from the web browser.

Great Watchface Apps for Pebble

Here are a few of our favorite watchfaces for Pebble 1.0:

Note: For watchfaces that integrate local weather, you'll need to have an app that supports the httpebble protocol such as Pebbler for Android or httpebble for iOS installed. Some enhancement apps such as Smartwatch+ for Pebble and Smartwatch Pro for Pebble also include httpebble support.

Futura Weather 2 — My personal favorite watchface. With httpebble, you get the weather too!

Simplicity Plus — A slight modification to the standard Simplicity watchface.

91 Weather — A digital watchface similar to Futura Weather

Mac System 3 — Classic Mac OS on your wrist.

Mario Time — It's always time for Mario to be on your wrist.

Heisenberg — Walter White. Need we say more?

Pebble 2.0 is in beta and we already have a few favorite new watchfaces:

Get an Enhancement App for Connected Watchfaces

In addition to watchfaces that exist primarily to tell time, there is another class of Pebble apps that offers users more control over their phone and can also push out more information.

Some of these apps are for a specific purpose — say travel, transit or dealing with a to-do list. Others are more general-purpose and can offer up a wealth of utility and functionality.

Android Enhancement Apps

Glance For Pebble

Glance for Pebble is one of the best Pebble enhancement apps we've seen. Not only does it show the time, date and weather, it can also show off how many unread email messages you have, your unread SMS count, missed calls and calendar entries.

It can even be configured to show off a stock ticker. It also integrates with Android automation-app Tasker, has calendar integration and more.

My favorite part of the app is that you can even do quick replies to an SMS message directly from the Pebble. You select the recipient and you can choose a predefined message to reply with. So if you frequently text "lol" or need to have a quick way to say "running late" — without pulling out your phone, just configure the quick-reply message in the Glance for Pebble Android app and then select that reply as an option on your phone.

There are even third-party Glance watchfaces that make Glance look even better.

A Pebble 2.0-compatible Glance watchface [direct Pebble link] is also available.

Music Boss for Pebble

MusicBoss takes Pebble's control of your music player to the next level. You can adjust the volume on your phone while listening to music, launch your current music app directly from the watch and even change what music app you're using from Pebble.

Music Boss also integrates with Glance and Tasker. Music Boss also has a Pebble 2.0-compatible watchface [direct Pebble link]

Pebble Rocker

Pebble Rocker lets you control your phone's camera, browse Facebook, check-in to Foursquare, calculate tips and browse your Twitter timeline. You can also use Pebble Rocker to find your phone (provided it's within range of Bluetooth) if it goes missing.

Notification Center for Pebble

Notification Center for Pebble is an Android app that replaces the standard notification system with a new, more robust system. The app allows you to display notifications from all apps, dismiss notifications directly from Pebble (Android 4.3 and higher), view your notifications and even switch between multiple notification screens.

You can do really nerdy stuff with your notifications with this apps as well. If you have become frustrated with some of the limitations of the built-in notification system, give Notification Center for Pebble a try.

Pebble Adventure

Pebble Adventure is still in beta but it brings turn-by-turn directions from Google Maps to your Pebble.

Watch Trigger for Pebble

Watch Trigger for Pebble requires Pebble 2.0 but lets you use your Pebble to take photos and also create timed shots.

Canvas for Pebble

Canvas for Pebble lets you create Pebble watchfaces on your Android device. The developer is currently updating the app to work with Pebble 2.0, but you can create Pebble 1.0-compatible watchfaces directly from the app.

iOS Enhancement Apps

Pebble-compatible apps on iOS have really started to come into their own. Thanks to iOS 7's ability for apps to run in the background, developers can create apps that do more than ever on Pebble, and this includes enhancement and companion apps.

Smartwatch+ for Pebble

If Glance is the gold standard on Android, then Smartwatch+ is the current front-runner on iOS. It's $2.99 and it works on iOS and Android. The app lets you access a bunch of different parts of your phone — including the weather, your calendar and your camera — all from within its interface.

You can pull in stock info, Bitcoin prices, your reminders, even launch your camera. It also lets you pull in GPS coordinates.

In addition to viewing these items on Pebble, Smartwatch+ for Pebble comes with a watchface of sorts, dubbed SmartStatus, that lets you view the time, weather, your upcoming calendar appointments and the status of your battery.

As a bonus, it includes httpebble, which means you can use it with httpebble-compatible watchfaces without having to install another app on your iPhone.

Both Smartwatch+ [direct Pebble link] and SmartStatus [direct Pebble link] are compatible with Pebble 2.0.

Smartwatch Pro for Pebble

At $3.99, Smartwatch Pro for Pebble isn't as feature-rich as Smartwatch+ for Pebble, but it has a few features that make it unique — namely support for Twitter.

You can also control what calendar you want to see (or not see) on your Pebble, as well as your location.

The developer says he's updating the app to better work with iOS 7. A Pebble 2.0 version of its watchface [direct Pebble link] is also available.

PebbleNav

For $3.99, PebbleNav offers a way to have full walking or cycling directions on your Pebble.

You can create you route in the app and it will show you each step on the watchface. It will even buzz when you need to take a turn.

PebbGPS

At $0.99, PebbGPS is another navigation app that offers turn-by-turn walking or driving directions. You can also view maps from a terrain, satellite, hybrid or streetmap view.

PebbleCam

At $2.99, PebbleCam is more than just a glorified camera launcher, it also acts as a remote viewfinder for your iPhone's camera. The quality of the image obviously isn't great — and there is latency — but it's great for knowing if you've got a general shot correct or not.

What makes this better than some of the other camera remotes is that it lets you choose the rear or front camera on the iPhone and toggle flash on or off.

The Pebble 2.0 version of the app includes support for taking a photo just by shaking your wrist.

PebCiti

This is a particularly cool app for NYC users. It's an iOS app and watchface that will show you the closest available Citi bike to your location.

Make it Pretty

No one wants a watch that looks exactly the same. Make your Pebble stand out with some inexpensive accessories.

The strap the Pebble comes with is fine, but if you want something wider — in another color — or maybe out of leather, that can change the look of your watch. The Pebble uses a standard 22mm watch band, which means you can buy one to better fit your needs.

Want to give your Pebble a splash of color? GadgetWraps makes high-quality stickers for Pebble that fit the watch perfectly and look really, really great.

I got a GadgetWrap in white after refusing to wait for my original white Pebble to ship. The end result was nearly indistinguishable from a legit white version. You can also mix and match colors by getting stickers for the Pebble buttons.

Because these are stickers, you don't have to worry about messing up your Pebble if you decide to go for another look down the line.

This is Just the Beginning

When I first reviewed the Pebble, I wrote about the potential of the Pebble and the wearables category as a whole. We're already starting to see the fruits of some of that potential with the Pebble 2.0 SDK and the myriad of apps and watchfaces that developers are building for the platform.

Looking at what can be done with the Pebble smartwatch today versus six months ago — or even two months ago — shows just how quickly this space is moving. Keep your eyes peeled for more coverage and features as the ecosystem continues to evolve.

Image: Thumbnail: Mashable, Christina Ascani; Screenshots: MyPebbleFaces.com, PebbGPS, PebbleCam, Music Boss for Pebble