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The 9 best weather apps on Android in 2024
Never get caught without your umbrella — or your sunscreen
The best maps and navigation apps are moderately fine for forecasting upcoming weather events. But, sometimes, you need some extra assurance, and that's where dedicated weather apps come in handy. Even though the Google Weather app is available on the latest Android tablets and phones, the service can sometimes be temperamental and limited. Hence, it pays to have a few detailed alternatives, especially since Dark Sky retired in 2023 and was replaced by Apple Weather. If you want to stay dry or avoid the summer heat, look at our roundup of great weather apps designed to keep your eyes on the skies and give you the most accurate weather readings while on the go.
Google Clock's weather forecasts get a big redesign for alarms
The new design showcases Material You shapes like your Pixel does during setup
The Google Clock app is the default timekeeper on Pixel devices, and as a Google app, a lot of its UI design ties in nicely with stock Android and other Google apps. You can download it on any other compatible Android device from the Play Store, and enjoy the same UI. However, some features remain Pixel-exclusive, and a recent update changes how weather information is displayed when you dismiss an alarm.
Google’s weather forecasting tool is already blowing away conventional models
GraphCast uses AI to forecast up to 10 days of weather in less than 1 minute
Weather forecasting has greatly benefited from advancements in technology over the past century, but many believe there’s still room for improvement. Knowing what to expect can be the difference between life and death in instances of severe weather. For this reason, experts are searching for ways to make more accurate predictions, and AI is proving to be a helpful tool. Now, Google’s DeepMind — the company’s AI research laboratory — has developed a machine-learning model (MLM) that is demonstrating just how helpful it can be.
AccuWeather's forecast looks mixed, getting new features while introducing paywall
Another Dark Sky-style feature arriving along with a new subscription plan
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Weather apps are a dime a dozen on the Play Store, but they all usually pull from the same handful of APIs and services. Dark Sky was the favorite of many, but after it left Android in the wake of being bought by Apple, many were left without alternatives. AccuWeather revamped its entire service to entice potential users, pulling the app from Play Pass and adding minute-by-minute forecasts originally offered by Dark Sky. Now, a new update delivers even more functionality — at a cost.
Major climate science project wants to use your Android's GPS to improve weather forecasting
As long as they don't call it Skynet
All of our phones contain a number of sensors quietly doing their jobs every day. You might know your phone has GPS, biometric sensors, and magnetometers, but many smartphones also sport barometers to measure air pressure and a small number can even measure ambient air temperature. Now, a worldwide climate science project wants to use sensor data from Android phones linked to satellites to improve weather forecasting for everyone.
Samsung's new weather widget for One UI 4 enjoys getting caught in the rain
But does it like piña coladas
If you own a Samsung device set to receive One UI 4 on top of Android 12, you might appreciate this one of its many aesthetic tweaks: a new dynamic weather widget.
Google's new Material You weather widgets are the good kind of weird
Hopefully they'll show up around the same time as the Pixel 6
A week ago we got our first glimpse at new weather widgets set to debut in the standard Google search app, hidden deep within the files of a bet APK. They weren't all that impressive, coming in just one shape and light and dark variants. Today more eye-catching variants have appeared, this time conforming to the Material You design language of Android 12.
The Google app is getting a new Assistant weather widget
Unfortunately there's no sign of Weather Frog
At-a-glance weather has to be one of the most popular options for homescreen widgets out there. So it's strange that Google doesn't have a self-branded option, beyond the tiny little nugget in the Google News widget. It looks like that's about to change: code in the Google app indicates that a new Assistant-branded weather widget.
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There's nothing Google loves more than to experiment with redesigns. With the power of server-side updates, you'll often see one of your most-used apps flash an all-new look — before it disappears in the blink of an eye. That's what happened earlier this summer when the classic hamburger menu began disappearing from Google Weather's search bar. After flipping the switch off and on a few times, it seems its redesign is finally here to stay.
The world is burning, and the Nest Hub is here to watch
While advising that you probably shouldn't be breathing in all that smoke
We're deep into summertime in the Northern Hemisphere, and over the last decade or so, that's meant one increasingly common phenomenon: wildfires. While climate change continues to increase deadly weather events, monitoring the air quality of your environment is more vital than ever before. To make it a little easier to catch info at a glance, Google's adding a new badge to its Nest Hubs to help users track the air around them.
Revamped iOS 15 Weather app shows off a whole lot of Dark Sky
Just in case you needed another reason to be pissed off
It's been a little over a year since Apple bought up user-favorite weather app Dark Sky, shuttering its entries for Android and Wear OS. Today we're seeing the fruits of that acquisition in a revamped Weather app for the iPhone, which will debut with iOS 15. It's pretty blatantly incorporating a lot of the visual flair from Dark Sky into Apple's official app.
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- As reported by 9to5Google, the Weather app redesign is being reverted, possibly due to a bug with switching between and searching for other locations. The hamburger menu lives once again...for now.
The arrival of gesture-based navigation on Android hasn't boded well for hamburger menus, and Google is now actively doing away with them. The Google Play Store recently killed the hamburger menu, and now the Google Weather app is following suit.
Wear OS watches are now starting to tell you to put on some dang sunscreen
Built-in Weather app shows the local UV index
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We're all desperately looking forward to the upcoming (white boy?) summer, and Google has just given Wear OS a new feature that will help you stay a little bit safer as you chase the sun. The platform's official Weather app will now show the UV index for your location.
New OnePlus Android 11 weather app is available for everyone on OxygenOS 10 in beta (APK download)
Prepare for big bold letters and numbers
As we all know, OnePlus is working on a OneUI-inspired redesign for its flavor of Android 11, and the first fruits of that work are already available for everyone to see on their OnePlus phones. The company has updated the Play Store beta of its weather app with the new visuals from OxygenOS 11.
Google News now displays severe weather alerts in your briefing
Available through the temperature shortcut
Google turned its News app into a great resource, making it easy to pull articles from multiple sources and compare what each outlet is writing. But the app also functions as a rudimentary weather hub, offering you an always-accessible shortcut to the current conditions and forecasts at the top of its homescreen in your briefing overview. The developers have now added a severe weather alert tailored to your location, helping you become aware of any potential weather hazards when you need to head out.
AccuWeather leaving Play Pass in the wake of Dark Sky’s Android demise
The trade winds are in full effect
Android Police maintains a giant list of apps that are participating or have participated in Google's Play Pass program — where users pay a low subscription fee to remove ads and access premium features from said apps. But it's a finicky list to maintain because every addition is manual and it's extremely difficult to track any subtractions without a public database. Well, we can report on at least one departure that will take effect soon: AccuWeather is leaving Play Pass on September 20. If you use the weather app, you might not like the reason why.
AccuWeather adds minute-by-minute forecasts to fill the void left by Dark Sky
The new experience has been in beta for the past three months
Dark Sky may get to live on Android for an extra month until August 1, but after that, it's time to look for a new weather app. The competition is well aware of that and is bringing its applications up-to-par. As such, AccuWeather has been working on a full overhaul of its slightly dated app, featuring a new icon, more native code, an hourly minute-by-minute forecast front-and-center, and tons of customization options, including dark modes. The new app will roll out to the Play Store starting today.
Popular weather app Dark Sky will be available to Android and website users for an extra month. Instead of ending those services today, it will do so on August 1.
Google has been working on an Ambient Mode for Chrome OS for quite a while — like Chromecasts or Nest displays, it's meant to show you a slideshow of artworks or a selection of images from your Google Photos library while your laptop is charging. For a few months, that's all the feature did, but the latest developer build of Chrome OS 85 changes that, as Chrome Unboxed reports. When you activate the corresponding flag in that channel, you'll see a clock and a weather widget in the bottom left corner, just like you would on a Chromecast. It's still work in progress, though.
Hands on with WeatherPro, a promising Dark Sky alternative
Latest update adds some great features, but there’s still room for improvement
WeatherPro has been around on Android for more than ten years and has gone through changes on both the visual and the monetary front — the subscription-based app used to be a paid product back in 2018 before the company behind it joined forces with another one. Now, the app has received a comprehensive redesign, giving it a rethought bottom bar interface and a customizable home screen. That's reason enough for us to go hands-on with the app, mainly because we wanted to see if it can fill the vacuum left by Dark Sky's demise.