New Dark Sky Android App Gives You Ultra-Precise Weather Updates

If you live in a big city, then you know the struggle of looking up weather reports, only to realize the weather in your part of the city is totally different than the weather downtown. That’s a problem a popular iOS app called Dark Sky solved for iPhone users. Now, the “hyperlocal’ weather app has arrived on Android. The app is free to download and use, although there’s a premium tier membership priced at $2.99 a year. The free version comes with a full 24 hour forecast, a 7 day forecast, current weather conditions, and more. You can download it from the Play Store here. Meanwhile, if you pay $2.99 a year, you’ll get advanced features like accurate-to-the-minute readings, rain notifications/alerts, widgets, and more. The rain notifications and alerts are designed to give you hyperlocal information like exactly which minute rain will start falling (and stop falling) on your head. Basically, without the $2.99 a year price tag, you’re just getting a straightforward weather app. If you want the real Dark Sky experience, you need to upgrade to Premium. The app has been popular among iPhone users for years. An Android app was always “in development”, according to the company, but it wasn’t until May 2016 that it launched.

There’s No Free Version Available on iOS

Funnily enough, iPhone users are mad about the Android version of Dark Sky. There’s no free version of Dark Sky available on the iPhone: you need to pay $3.99 to use the app at all. Not only does Android have a free version of the app, but the paid version is cheaper (for one year) than the iOS version.

Weather Widgets

Dark Sky users love to show off the app to their friends. Thanks to Android widgets, showing off Dark Sky is easier than ever before. There are three widgets available for Dark Sky, including one that shows the weather today, one that shows the hourly forecast, and one that shows a five day forecast.

Android Notifications

The co-founder of Dark Sky claims that 80% of its userbase uses notifications on iOS. The app’s famous notifications have come to Android as well. The notifications are used exactly how you would expect: you can use them to learn exactly when it’s going to start hailing on your head. You’ll receive a notification on your phone warning you of the impending hail, say, in 2 minutes.

New Features Coming in the Future

Dark Sky plans to release new features for the app in the future, although the company hasn’t announced any specific features yet. In the meantime, the company continues to make extra revenue by selling their hyperlocal weather data to competitors. That’s how apps like Arcus (which was “Dark Sky for Android” for years) work. The creators of that app buy the weather data, then make money back in advertising revenue.