Timeline · scales

Smart coffee scales: a dated history of app-connected brewing scales

A "smart" brewing scale is a weighing platform and a timer that share their readings with something else: a phone app, a screen with step-by-step prompts, or lights on the scale itself. This page dates that idea from the trade-press record, starting with a 2013 Kickstarter scale, explains what the apps actually do with weight and time, and ends with questions to ask of any connected scale.

Updated 2026-11-02 · sources listed at the end · no reviews, rankings or prices

Where the idea starts

Daily Coffee News covered a Kickstarter campaign for a minimalist brewing scale called Acaia in November 2013, three days after it launched. The scale had a 6-inch-square platform, touch buttons instead of mechanical ones and claimed 0.1 g increments, and its app was to provide a "coffee brewing monitor" showing scale readings and a timer, plus a brewing and bloom timer. Sprudge, writing five days later, added the detail that mattered for everything that followed: a Bluetooth 4.0 (low-power) connection to an iOS app that showed and recorded the readings, with hopes for an open API and Android apps.

Bluetooth Low Energy is the part of the Bluetooth standard designed for considerably lower power consumption and cost than "classic" Bluetooth. It grew out of a Nokia specification called Wibree (2006) and became part of Bluetooth 4.0 around the turn of 2010. Low power is what lets a battery-powered scale stream readings to a phone through a whole brew. For how the weighing itself works, see coffee scales explained.

Timeline of connected and guided brewing scales

Dates are the dates of the cited report or maker post, not necessarily the first day of sale. "Not mentioned" means the report does not say whether the device connects to an app; it does not mean the device has no connection.

#	Date	Device (maker)	Connection, as reported	What the scale or app does
1	Nov 2013	Acaia Kickstarter scale (Acaia)	Bluetooth 4.0 low-power, iOS app	App shows and records readings; brew and bloom timer; 0.1 g increments claimed
2	2014	Acaia scale, production model, named Pearl by the maker (Acaia)	Bluetooth to iOS devices; companion app for iOS and Android	Real-time weight on a tablet, instant charts, user-built brew guides; debuted at the SCAA Expo, where it won a Best New Product Award
3	Apr 2015	Acaia Lunar (Acaia)	Syncs with a phone	Espresso scale for the drip tray; two-way timer that syncs with the phone; auto-off set in the app; launched alongside Brewmaster, a logging app for professionals
4	Apr 2016	Brewbar app (Acaia)	Multiple scales to one tablet app	Cafe brew stations: logs grind, dose, temperature, barista and notes; live graph of the brew; brewing against a head barista's "Master Brewprint"
5	Nov 2016	Gina brewer (Goat Story)	Bluetooth scale in the brewer's base	The app is the display; sound notifications, saved parameters, ratio calculation, a mode that monitors up to four brewers
6	Nov 2017	Voom Smart Scale (Voom Works)	Companion app syncs; phone optional	Built-in LCD shows the brewing curve, weight, time, a running ratio and step-by-step prompts; over 20 stored profiles; scores how closely a recipe was followed
7	Jun 2020	Oura (PourX)	Wireless link to a companion app	LED-lit outer edge shows colors and patterns for each brewing stage; app shares recipes, graphs pour profiles and logs coffee, brewer and cup
8	Jun 2021	Decent Scale (Decent Espresso)	Bluetooth, always in pairing mode; open API	Built to work with several apps, including non-coffee ones; developers can integrate it
9	Jun 2023	Tally Pro Studio Edition (Fellow)	Not mentioned	Brew Assist mode subtracts the coffee and shows, in real time, the water still needed to reach a set ratio; weight and timer side by side; 0.1 g, 2,500 g capacity
10	Aug 2023	Microbalance (DiFluid)	Feeds the DiFluid Cafe app	Records weight, flow rate and time; app graphs them live and offers brew control charts with a TDS reading from the maker's refractometer
11	Feb 2024	WeighMaster (MantaBrew)	Not mentioned	Detachable magnetic displays, one with a light strip for visual cues; flow rate shown in grams per second
12	Apr 2024	Decent Open Scale (Decent Espresso)	Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and USB data	Firmware and case published as open source (GPLv3); firmware supports flow rate tracking, with new features offered as free firmware upgrades
13	May 2024	Astra (Acaia)	Add-on that pairs with existing Acaia scales	Remote flow meter and timer; stores potentially thousands of uses for comparison; meant to keep older scales from becoming obsolete
14	Sep 2024	Polaris (Hario)	Not mentioned	Shows brewing progress as a percentage up to 100%; calculates the ratio on the scale; timer starts with the first pour
15	Jun 2025	Umbra Lunar (Acaia)	Pairs with Acaia apps or another Acaia scale	No screen at all: a phone or a second scale serves as the display; 1,000 g capacity
16	Dec 2025	Pyxis Black (Acaia)	Companion app; relays data from a nearby screenless scale	Reads to 0.001 g; three stored modes for time, weight, flow rate, auto-start and auto-tare; Brew History saved on the scale

Nov 2013: Kickstarter scale with a Bluetooth 4.0 link to an iOS app.
2014: production Pearl; iOS and Android app with charts and brew guides.
Apr 2015: Lunar espresso scale; timer syncs with the phone.
Apr 2016: Brewbar app for several scales in one cafe.
Nov 2016: Gina brewer; the app is the scale's display.
Nov 2017: Voom; prompts and brew curve on the scale's own screen.
Jun 2020: PourX Oura; colored lights on the scale's edge.
Jun 2021: Decent Scale; open API for other apps.
Jun 2023: Fellow Tally Pro; Brew Assist on the scale.
Aug 2023: DiFluid Microbalance; weight, flow and time to an app.
Feb 2024: WeighMaster; detachable displays and a light strip.
Apr 2024: Decent Open Scale; open-source firmware and case.
May 2024: Acaia Astra; add-on logger for older scales.
Sep 2024: Hario Polaris; progress shown as a percentage.
Jun 2025: Umbra Lunar; no screen, a phone is the display.
Dec 2025: Pyxis Black; brew history stored on the scale.

Drawn by pourxlab.com for this page from the dates in the timeline table (sources 1–18). Generic dots only, no product shapes or brand marks. Years to scale; dots placed by the month of the report, with a few nudged down so they do not overlap.

Three ways to deliver guidance

The record shows three answers to the same question: where should a brewer look while pouring?

At the phone. The early Acaia scales, the Gina brewer and the DiFluid Microbalance send weight and time to an app that draws the graph, runs the timer or stores the brew. Acaia's 2025 Umbra Lunar takes this to the end point: it has no display and relies on an app or another scale.
At the scale's own screen. In 2017 Daily Coffee News contrasted the Voom with scales from Acaia and Motif that rely more heavily on the smartphone; Voom's makers argued that sidelining the phone means fewer distractions from texts and notifications. Fellow's founder Jake Miller told Daily Coffee News in 2023 that the team kept seeing users pull out their phones to work out ratio math, so its Brew Assist mode does that on the scale; Hario's 2024 Polaris shows progress as a percentage up to 100%.
At a light. The PourX Oura used colors and patterns on its lit edge to signal each brewing stage, and the WeighMaster pairs a dot-matrix display with a light strip "for additional visual cues during brewing."

This domain once belonged to PourX; a sourced note on the company is on the hello page. pourxlab.com is not connected to PourX or to any scale maker and does not sell or support any product.

What the apps actually do

Every feature in the table is built from two sensor readings, mass and time. Flow rate is the change in mass divided by the change in time; a ratio is water mass divided by dose. What the connection adds is display, storage and sharing:

Feature	What it is	Examples in the record
Live graph	Weight (and sometimes flow) plotted against time while you pour	Acaia app (2014), Brewbar (2016), DiFluid Cafe (2023)
Brew log	Each brew saved with dose, grind, temperature and notes	Brewbar, Oura app, Beanconqueror
Recipe sharing and guides	A stored recipe the scale or app walks you through	User-built guides (2014), Master Brewprint (2016), Oura recipe sharing
Remote display	Phone or second device shows what the scale reads	Gina, Umbra Lunar, Astra
Open interface	Published protocol or open firmware so other apps can read the scale	Decent Scale open API (2021), Decent Open Scale under GPLv3 (2024)
Extraction charts	Brew ratio and yield combined with a TDS reading	DiFluid Cafe with the R2 Extract refractometer

Third-party apps are part of the story too. Decent's 2025 post describes Beanconqueror, a free, open-source brew-tracking app by Lars Salbach, connecting to its scales over Bluetooth, auto-taring and syncing the timer when a brew starts, plotting weight against time, and exporting the data. Extraction charts rest on the same measurements explained in measuring TDS at home and the brewing control chart.

Longevity is a recurring theme. Acaia's co-founder Rex Tseng told Daily Coffee News in 2024 that the Astra was largely meant to keep previously purchased scales, such as the original Kickstarter scale and the 2019 Pearl, from becoming obsolete, and that its features could not be delivered through firmware updates to those scales.

Where the sources disagree

The first Acaia year. The Kickstarter ran in November 2013 (Daily Coffee News, Sprudge). Acaia's own history says development of the Pearl began in 2013 and the company was officially founded in 2014; Daily Coffee News in 2025 says the Pearl launched in 2014 after the 2013 campaign. Daily Coffee News in 2024 separates "the original Kickstarter Acaia Scale" from "the 2019 Acaia Pearl," so "Pearl" has named more than one generation.
The inventor's name. Daily Coffee News gives "Fujiki Takao"; Sprudge gives "Aaron Takao Fujiki."
Bluetooth 4.0's date. Wikipedia's lead says Bluetooth Low Energy was integrated into Bluetooth 4.0 in December 2009; its history section says early 2010.
Launch versus report. The Pyxis Black debuted at the SCAJ conference in September 2025 and went on sale in December 2025; the Voom's backers were expected to receive units in March 2018, four months after the report.

Checklist: questions to ask of a connected scale

Does it weigh and time fully on its own, or does it need a phone or second device as its display?
Where does the guidance appear: on the phone, on the scale's screen, or as lights? Pick the one you can watch while pouring.
Which apps can read it: only the maker's app, or others through an open API or open firmware?
Where are brews stored: on the scale, in the app, or exportable to a file you keep?
How does it get firmware updates (app, USB or Wi-Fi), and what does the maker say about support for older models?
Does it show flow rate, and does the app graph it?
How is it powered and charged, and can it run while plugged in?
Is the stated resolution what you need? A 0.1 g display is not the same as 0.1 g accuracy: check it with known weights.

No app replaces a recipe. Any scale with a timer can follow the gram-and-second schedules in the pour schedule generator and the pour-over guide. For the devices these scales sit under, see the brewing device timeline.