PSA: the Dark Sky’s iOS app will stop working imminently
Photo by Thilina Kaluthotage/NurPhoto via Getty ImagesThe time has come: Dark Sky, the (mostly) beloved weather app for iOS is going to stop working on January 1st, according to in-app warnings. The sunsetting has been in the forecast for...
Astrong
/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24325937/1245385858.jpg)
The time has come: Dark Sky, the (mostly) beloved weather app for iOS is going to stop working on January 1st, according to in-app warnings. The sunsetting has been in the forecast for a while — Apple announced it was planning on shutting down the service last year after acquiring it in 2020, and it removed Dark Sky from the App Store a few months ago, according to 9to5Mac. But if you’ve been putting off finding a new weather app, now’s the time to finally get around to it.
As for what alternatives iPhone users have available (the Android app was axed in 2020), perhaps the most obvious is Apple’s own built-in Weather app. The company even has a support document titled “How Dark Sky users can use the Apple Weather app,” which talks about how features from the former have been added to the later.
There’s also a litany of well-rated third-party apps, from my personal favorite Carrot Weather, to AccuWeather, Weather Underground, and Ventusky (thanks Apple Insider for that last recommendation). If you’re poking around on the App Store for other options, just be sure to keep an eye out for scammy apps hiding an unreasonable recurring subscription behind a free trial.
Though the Dark Sky app will “no longer provide weather data” according to a blog post from co-founder Adam Grossman, the service still has a tiny bit of life left in it. Developers will still be able to get weather data from its API until March 31st, 2023, despite Apple’s earlier announcement that it would be shut down alongside the app. (The company’s de-facto replacement is called WeatherKit, and even Android developers can integrate data from it if they want.) Likewise, the app’s website will also be around for three more months.
