Apple Shuts Down Popular Weather App 'Dark Sky'

[MacRumors]

The calendar has turned to January 1 and Apple has shut down popular weather app Dark Sky. The app had already been removed from the App Store in September and it stopped functioning for existing users starting today.

Apple acquired Dark Sky in March 2020 and it has since incorporated many of the app's features into the preinstalled Weather app on the iPhone, iPad, and Mac. Earlier this month, Apple shared a support document with information on how Dark Sky users can use the Weather app, which now offers "hyperlocal" forecasts, including next-hour precipitation, hourly forecasts for the next 10 days, high-resolution radar maps, and severe weather notifications.

To use Dark Sky features in the Weather app, your device must be updated to iOS 16, iPadOS 16, or macOS Ventura. Some of the features are currently only available in select countries, as outlined in a separate Apple support document.

Apple will also be shutting down Dark Sky's API for third-party weather apps on March 31, and introduced its own WeatherKit API as a replacement.

Article Link: Apple Shuts Down Popular Weather App 'Dark Sky'

 

[MacD]

If the weather app actually worked, I would be okay with this. But it always loads no data at launch. But DarkSky works fine, always.

 

[macsplusmacs]

Me: Salutes the best weather app of all time.

🫡

 

[Number 41]

DarkSky was fantastic and gave you all the information you needed to know with one click (no scrolling, clicking through submenus, etc.).

The current Apple Weather is exponentially less intuitive and buries important info behind extra buttons.

 

[citysnaps]

Makes sense. I like Apple's new app.

 

[Pilot Jones]

Apple absorbing the very best of the best and still keeping their native solution mediocre is a crying shame. I know it’s just a weather app at the end of the day, but this is pretty horrible showing from Tim and co.

They should’ve just taken Dark Sky and rebranded it as Apple Weather with zero changes. That would’ve been an infinitely better solution to whatever the hell is going on right now.

 

[DiceMoney]

Kind of sucks when these companies buy their competition to simply disable ot.

 

[newyorksole]

lot of articles about this app… lol

but I get a lot of people loved/used it. on to the next!

 

[dk001]

With all that Apple had to start with - Dark Sky - they managed to once again turn something well done into something not quite average.

 

[CarAnalogy]

Seems like peak software was somewhere around 2010. Ever since then every software company just releases slightly worse versions of what came before. I guess Google started this trend. I don’t know when it became OK to take away features and release replacements that are inferior to what they are replacing, but everyone is doing it now.

 

[JM]

The best underrated feature of dark sky was the API that other weather app developers could use for their novel ideas.

I think the same thing happened with Weather Underground when they were purchased by The Weather Channel (yahoo weather used weather underground data, and the. Became terrible prediction after TWC bought them.)

 

[CarAnalogy]

Kind of sucks when these companies buy their competition to simply disable ot.

Yeah it seems pretty clear by now that their number one objective was simply to take away the best Android weather app. Actually keeping it great for Apple’s own users was apparently not that important.

 

[8CoreWhore]

Are Dark Sky features limited to iOS 16? If not, why would those features in Weather app be limited to iOS 16? Lots of people are using Dark Sky on iPhones that cannot upgrade to iOS 16, now they will lose those features, even though those features work today.

 

[tdar]

Recently Apple has pulled the notification that the app is gone at the end of the year from my DarkSky app. It was replaced by the old announcement that you can get the dark sky data in the Apple weather app. This is like it was before the Apple announcement that Dark Sky was going away. So I know that it is risky, but I am keeping my fingers crossed that Apple has changed their mind. They sure have taken a lot of flak about this decision, including a whole lot of it from me.

 

[Bawstun]

I use Hello Weather which sources their data from Dark Sky. What will happen?

 

[Radeon85]

The Carrot weather app is a better version anyway.

 

[Pilot Jones]

The Carrot weather app is a better version anyway.

That’s besides the point. Apple had the perfect opportunity to integrate what was the best paid weather app in the market into their free native solution. The fact that other alternatives (especially paid ones) are still even being discussed should indicate how majorly they messed that up.

 

[ipponrg]

I use Hello Weather which sources their data from Dark Sky. What will happen?

I am curious of the same. Been going back and forth if I want to pay the $45 for the lifetime sub for alternate sources

 

[idegen]

Are Dark Sky features limited to iOS 16? If not, why would those features in Weather app be limited to iOS 16? Lots of people are using Dark Sky on iPhones that cannot upgrade to iOS 16, now they will lose those features, even though those features work today.

Can't upgrade to iOS 16? Mr. Cooks advice would be; Buy a new phone, so you can go 16. We need your money. ... SMH :-]

 

[ugahairydawgs]

Are Dark Sky features limited to iOS 16? If not, why would those features in Weather app be limited to iOS 16? Lots of people are using Dark Sky on iPhones that cannot upgrade to iOS 16, now they will lose those features, even though those features work today.

There are other weather apps in the store.

 

[Jessica Lares]

lot of articles about this app… lol

but I get a lot of people loved/used it. on to the next!

LOL, I know, and I loved it too, but still! Writing that much about an weather app is too much, and I've been a tech person all my life.

I'm glad that Apple bought it and gave the API for developers to use though. This was the next best thing they bought next to Workflow in the last decade. Glad they were paying attention to the communities using both.

 

[thederby]

I use Hello Weather which sources their data from Dark Sky. What will happen?

What the Dark Sky Acquisition means for Hello Weather

A little update on what will change for us (spoiler: not too much.)

helloweather.com

So what will change when Dark Sky’s API is kaput?​

For us, at least two things:​

​

1. We’ll be adding more data providers in the next few months.
2. We’ll eventually switch to a new default provider, since Dark Sky is currently our default.

That's really it. No big deal.​

​

It’s possible that we won’t be able to support the real-time precipitation info like Dark Sky had, but we’re going to try our best to replace that with something new. We’ll keep you posted.​

 

[idegen]

I use Hello Weather which sources their data from Dark Sky. What will happen?

When the Dark Sky, API gets shut down, that data source will not be available in Hello WX options. IMHO

 

[zorinlynx]

That’s besides the point. Apple had the perfect opportunity to integrate what was the best paid weather app in the market into their free native solution. The fact that other alternatives (especially paid ones) are still even being discussed should indicate how majorly they messed that up.

At the very least they could have put in a "Dark Sky" theme that looks just like the old app. This would have made fans happy, while allowing them to retire the app itself.

 

[Shasterball]

Apple absorbing the very best of the best and still keeping their native solution mediocre is a crying shame. I know it’s just a weather app at the end of the day, but this is pretty horrible showing from Tim and co.

They should’ve just taken Dark Sky and rebranded it as Apple Weather with zero changes. That would’ve been an infinitely better solution to whatever the hell is going on right now.

Yes. Apple took DarkSky, took small parts of it, added it to the below avg weather app, and then tossed the rest away. This is classic Apple from ~2017 on -- water down offerings, get them out to people ASAP, fix the quality issues if people cry loudly enough later.