Dark Sky has been one of the most popular mobile apps of the past six years. It has undoubtedly been my favorite weather app since 2016 and has lived on my devices ever since. But a new year brings a new death, and Dark Sky is officially… gone.
Estimated reading time: 3 minutes
There are many fond memories of Dark Sky; The interface, design, flow and simplicity made it the best weather app for mobile devices. In 2016, I had a chance to ask Adam Grossman, the app developer, a few questions. You can read the interview here. Times have been interesting for the app as it has versions for both Android and iOS.
But by 2020, Grossman has made a move that many users wouldn’t appreciate; he sold his work to Apple. Apple officially bought Dark Sky around April 2020 and shortly thereafter removed the app from the Android platform, making it an iOS exclusive app. Most of us in the tech world felt that this spelled the end of the app as we knew it, and that announcement came in June 2021.
So here we are in 2023 and the grave has been filled with the remains of a once great app. Apple is trying to take the heart and soul of Dark Sky and put it into the native Weather app on iOS, and there have been some decent updates, but we’re not convinced they can bring that special back.
Here are some of the new features in the Weather app that you once liked on Dark Sky if you’re interested in giving the native app another try. Learn more about the native Apple Weather app here.
- Apple Weather forecasts precipitation for your location for the next hour, up to the minute. This is available as a chart, as a high-resolution map overlay, and as notifications.
- Forecast weather conditions include temperature, rainfall, humidity, dew point, wind speed, barometric pressure, feel like temperature and visibility. To view hourly forecasts, tap a condition in the location view, or tap a day and select the condition you want to view.
- Apple Weather offers a variety of overlays, including precipitation, air quality, and temperature. While precipitation and temperature overlays are available worldwide, high-resolution precipitation and next-hour air quality data is limited to certain countries and regions. In the locations view, tap the map to expand it.
- Apple weather forecasts are hyper-local, down to 0.001° latitude and longitude. This resolution is used to create a forecast not only for your city but also for your block. It can also notify you up to the minute when it starts to rain.
- Apple Weather sends notifications for government severe weather alerts and precipitation over the next hour for your current location or any location you’ve added. To manage these notifications, tap the menu button in the right corner of the location list view and then tap Notifications.
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Last updated on January 2, 2023.
