Apple Shuts Down Popular Weather App 'Dark Sky'

[SalisburySam]

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.

Not just Apple. Have your seen the price inflation in food both by using lower quality product and packaging less of it for the same or higher price? Same for Christmas tree ornaments which have become disposable rather than used and saved and even handed down. MBP TouchBar? Scissors keyboards? The list goes on. Adding to it could be a good parlor game.

 

[dk001]

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.

While I may not agree this does seem to be the outcome.

 

[dk001]

All of it, no matter what app is using it, essentially comes from the NWS and NOAA.

While true I wonder how two apps pulling from the same data source can have different showings.

 

[reubs]

A real bummer. This one of those apps I remember hearing about, remember downloading, and remember PAYING FOR. It was fun to use and fun to show off, and the Apple weather app just doesn't seem to have the same feeling to it.

 

[DailySlow]

As a reminder, Apple says it will be shutting down Dark Sky on January 1, 2023. The popular weather app was already removed from the App Store in September and it will stop functioning for existing users starting tomorrow.

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, 2023 and introduced its own WeatherKit API as a replacement.

Article Link: Apple Shutting Down Popular Weather App 'Dark Sky' Tomorrow

I like the weather app - DSky genes are evident. I never was a DSky user so I just have the forensic evidence to go on and it’s evident it was a good app.

 

[SalisburySam]

And people defends apple for no end?
Honestly, the lack of law regulating big tech company purchasing smaller companies is killing more and more amazing stuff as we enter 2023.
dark sky is just one of the many victims of such “buy and throw” megacorp competitor elimination spree.

Not defending Apple, nor criticizing them either. But as to your reasoning, what you say could be the case, though I doubt it. Like you, I don’t have any insider information. More likely to me is that Apple saw some IP in DarkSky they liked and saw reason to buy that IP. It came with the accompanying company so they bought the whole thing. DarkSky’s owners also likely built the product actually hoping to be acquired and with the stroke of a contract signing they became far richer than they ever dreamed. Or got a wonderful position within Apple. Or both. Nothing requiring onerous laws, nothing unlawful, nothing even out of the ordinary. It is one of the best ways to become a multi-millionaire very quickly capitalizing on something you did extraordinarily well.

As for us consumers, it gets murkier. Apple will use DarkSky’s IP as it sees fit and by whatever plan and timetable it chooses. Apple can be viewed as being slow to correct poor product decisions as they try to eke out a return on them anyway, but they do come around on most of their mistakes. Examples could include the scissors keyboards, the TouchBar, and dozens if not hundreds of OS decisions they’ve had to take back. We consumers are not privy to any of their plans or timetables unless they announce them.

I loved DarkSky and will miss it. Apple Weather now has the opportunity to improve substantially but even where it is it meets my needs. I prefer the Clime app and Weather.gov (a part of NOAA) and for more weather info than you ever thought possible, NOAA itself.

Tomorrow, I believe my life will be pretty much unchanged by this. And if what I’ve said above about the acquisition is true, I believe DarkSky’s ownership will have had a very Merry Christmas and look forward to a spectacular new year.

 

[DocMultimedia]

I had to switch to Carrot. Near clone of Dark Sky when you customize it. Unfortunately now have to pay a few bucks a year.

RIP Dark Sky. You will be missed.

 

[CarAnalogy]

While I may not agree this does seem to be the outcome.

Well they shut down the Android app with a quickness. And now many people say they just should have rebranded it as the new Apple Weather app. I mean they bought the app years ago at this point, and Weather is still not a full replacement.

I don’t want to attribute malice necessarily but they certainly don’t seem to have acted with benevolence.

 

[Warputin]

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.

And how majorly you are wrong about how the app market works.

 

[msackey]

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.

Another flaw I've discovered is that the Weather app does not relay any government issued weather alerts such as Fog Advisory, Wind Advisory, etc. even though Dark Sky continues to do that. I had one person tell me that I need to turn on notifications. However, notifications are on and these government issued alerts are not the kinds that get sent to the notification center. These are the ones that you can see in Carrot, Dark Sky, and The Weather Channel on the front page of each city if such advisories, watch, etc. are issued.

This flaw is consistent across iOS, iPad OS, and macOS

Edit update @9:37 EST: So I thought maybe after DarkSky was sunsetted that Weather app's missing advisory information might work. (Don't know why I was thinking that except maybe it was a hope.) Nope, turns out that didn't resolve the issue. For instance, right now, Provo, UT has a winter weather advisory which is clearly indicated in The Weather Channel. But, when I use the Weather app, this weather advisory is nowhere showing up. C'mon Apple! Issue a fix!

 

[Wanted797]

I never used dark sky. But the native weather app still isn’t as useful to me as Weatherzone. The native one looks pretty but is so hard to look at expected rain/temp and when.

Weatherzone doesn’t look as good but the graphs for rain and temp are by far the best and it seems to be the most accurate for my areas.

 

[eileenmice]

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.

I noticed the same thing and was also crossing my fingers, but it looks like a No on that one... I love Dark Sky. I hate Apple Weather.

 

[Cameront9]

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 :-]

I mean....at this point the phone that can't run iOS 16 is almost 8 years old.

 

[autolink]

I'll give you my DarkSky when you pry it from my cold, dead hands.

 

[SalisburySam]

I'll give you my DarkSky when you pry it from my cold, dead hands.

Well, that prying will take place around midnight-ish.

 

[GLS]

That is an expensive weather app after you consider the subscriptions. Worth it for average people?

You don't need the subscriptions after the initial cost. That stuff is for hard core wx folk.

 

[Htsi]

My condolences to the users.

 

[e-coli]

Apple did the same thing with HopStop, a subway/transit app used by nearly everybody in NYC. They bought it, shut it down, and didn’t offer subway times within Maps for years. And transit directions continue to be bad.

Sometimes Apple is terrible and we all pay the price.

 

[Edsel]

I loved Dark Sky. It gave you the critical info with one click, no scrolling. NOAA is free and this is where all the weather apps get their data from. Just create a shortcut for your zip code and your'e good to go.

 

[Toratek]

Well, the (pointless) final test will occur tomorrow- because Dark Sky is predicting a specific weather condition for my specific location, while Apple Weather is predicting a very different situation.

One is predicting 14 cm of snow with temperatures below freezing and the other says just rain with a low five degrees above freezing.

We will see. Big difference between the two.

 

[kuwxman]

Good riddance! 👋

 

[Böhme417]

One of 's best purchases ever. The weather app (esp. on iPadOS) has never been better.

Well, existing helps.

 

[theredsoxman]

I hate this

 

[tridley68]

The Carrot weather app is a better version anyway.

The Carrot weather app is a better version anyway.

The wtf weather app is pretty good as well .

 

[xxray]

I guess it’s an unpopular opinion based on the replies to the post, but I actually love the Apple Weather app, especially since iOS 16. It’s exactly what I want from a weather app, and nothing else for me has come close. I just love the intuitive, clean, pretty, useful UI. I feel like all other weather apps are overloaded with ads, require a subscription, have inaccurate weather, have unintuitive UI or design choices I just don’t like. The only change I would make to the Apple app is the coloring of the precipitation radar map since I find it unintuitive.

Obviously, this still sucks for Dark Sky fans regardless. There’s nothing that can fix having your choice of app taken away from you.