Sun will set on Dark Sky at the end of 2022

AppleInsider

Following Apple's acquisition of Dark Sky, the weather app and service has finally announced when it will no longer be available to existing users.

Dark Sky for iOS

Apple acquired third-party app company Dark Sky in March 2020, with the intention of utilizing its software within the official iOS Weather app. Now that the revamped Weather has been announced for iOS 15, the makers of Dark Sky have confirmed when their app will shut down.

"Support for the Dark Sky API service for existing customers will continue until the end of 2022," says a brief note on the Dark Sky website. "The iOS app and Dark Sky website will also be available until the end of 2022."

As well as a standalone app, Dark Sky provided weather data that was used by many other services. This news means that existing services will be able to continue using it for longer than expected.

Previously, the Android version of Dark Sky had a one-month stay of execution, being shut down in August 2020. At the same time, the Wear OS version was closed then too, but the iOS app continued, and so did the website version.

These will now be shut down, too, at the end of 2022.

Apple's updated Weather app will be launched officially as part of the forthcoming iOS 15 later in 2021.

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Beats

GREAT acquisition from Apple. And great that it’s free on iOS. I thought it would be a new Weather+ Subscription.

Apple should definitely make more app acquisitions 

BUT

Leaving Android was stupid!! They should have left it on android as a subscription like Apple Music. With Apple Music+Dark Sky Apple would potentially make more money off one android user than the actual iKnockoff manufacturer lol.

Also this article talks about the API being discontinued. Will it move over to a Weather app API? I’m confused. 

dewme

I love this app and it completely displaces Apple's native weather app on all of the device on which it runs. As long as Apple's updated native weather app incorporates the features that separated Dark Sky from Apple's native weather app, no big deal. Based on the WWDC presentation it sounds like Apple's native weather app will fill the void and then some.

elijahg

Darksky is great, whilst Apple's native weather app is pretty crap, everything from the UI to the weather forecasting. It's horribly dumbed down and lacks probably 50 features that Darksky has. So I will be very disappointed if Apple doesn't essentially replace the weather app with Darksky. Also, where is my $3.99 refund since Apple literally is closing down the app with no apparent direct replacement? Extend, embrace, extinguish was a Microsoft trait we all used to laugh at, now Apple is doing it but at least this time governments are apparently taking notice and stopping big companies vacuuming up the little guys.

AF_Hitt

elijahg said:

Darksky is great, whilst Apple's native weather app is pretty crap, everything from the UI to the weather forecasting. It's horribly dumbed down and lacks probably 50 features that Darksky has. So I will be very disappointed if Apple doesn't essentially replace the weather app with Darksky. Also, where is my $3.99 refund since Apple literally is closing down the app with no apparent direct replacement? Extend, embrace, extinguish was a Microsoft trait we all used to laugh at, now Apple is doing it but at least this time governments are apparently taking notice and stopping big companies vacuuming up the little guys.

No direct replacement? Did you see the enhancements that are being made to the native Weather app? It is essentially Dark Sky, just with an Apple aesthetic. It runs impressively well on the beta, especially considering it’s the first one, and I’m sure Apple will tweak it and improve it before final release.

Beats

dewme said:

I love this app and it completely displaces Apple's native weather app on all of the device on which it runs. As long as Apple's updated native weather app incorporates the features that separated Dark Sky from Apple's native weather app, no big deal. Based on the WWDC presentation it sounds like Apple's native weather app will fill the void and then some.

And you get those Dark Sky features free from “greedy Apple”!!

AF_Hitt said:

elijahg said:

Darksky is great, whilst Apple's native weather app is pretty crap, everything from the UI to the weather forecasting. It's horribly dumbed down and lacks probably 50 features that Darksky has. So I will be very disappointed if Apple doesn't essentially replace the weather app with Darksky. Also, where is my $3.99 refund since Apple literally is closing down the app with no apparent direct replacement? Extend, embrace, extinguish was a Microsoft trait we all used to laugh at, now Apple is doing it but at least this time governments are apparently taking notice and stopping big companies vacuuming up the little guys.

No direct replacement? Did you see the enhancements that are being made to the native Weather app? It is essentially Dark Sky, just with an Apple aesthetic. It runs impressively well on the beta, especially considering it’s the first one, and I’m sure Apple will tweak it and improve it before final release.

I don’t know what 50 features he’s talking about but I faintly remember someone saying Dark Sky had a cool crowdsourcing feature. I don’t remember what it was or what it did. I don’t have time to look either. 

StrangeDays

Beats said:

I don’t know what 50 features he’s talking about but I faintly remember someone saying Dark Sky had a cool crowdsourcing feature. I don’t remember what it was or what it did. I don’t have time to look either. 

Yeah in DS you can report actual weather conditions up.

Dark Sky is nice (not perfect), but it will close the loop on the oddity that the Apple Weather app and Apple's Dark Sky use different data sources and provide different reports. The Weather app already now has a currently-raining chart similar to Dark Sky's, so it's definitely incorporating stuff.

darkvader

So, my weather source is weather.gov.  It's not the prettiest site, but it's run by the best meteorologists, and it's more likely to be accurate than anything else.

If you're not in the US, you should probably check out your government's weather forecasts instead of going to for-profit sites and apps.

hammeroftruth

darkvader said:

So, my weather source is weather.gov.  It's not the prettiest site, but it's run by the best meteorologists, and it's more likely to be accurate than anything else.

If you're not in the US, you should probably check out your government's weather forecasts instead of going to for-profit sites and apps.

Dark Sky has been pretty damn accurate for me. It’s actually spooky when it’s right on the money about rain starting and stopping. 

Weather.gov just uses the weather info from my nearest airport and not the city I’m in. 

boltsfan17

hammeroftruth said:

darkvader said:

So, my weather source is weather.gov.  It's not the prettiest site, but it's run by the best meteorologists, and it's more likely to be accurate than anything else.

If you're not in the US, you should probably check out your government's weather forecasts instead of going to for-profit sites and apps.

Dark Sky has been pretty damn accurate for me. It’s actually spooky when it’s right on the money about rain starting and stopping. 

Weather.gov just uses the weather info from my nearest airport and not the city I’m in. 

Dark Sky sources its data from NWS. Pretty much every weather app does. 

lkrupp

Beats said:

GREAT acquisition from Apple. And great that it’s free on iOS. I thought it would be a new Weather+ Subscription.

Apple should definitely make more app acquisitions 

BUT

Leaving Android was stupid!! They should have left it on android as a subscription like Apple Music. With Apple Music+Dark Sky Apple would potentially make more money off one android user than the actual iKnockoff manufacturer lol.

Also this article talks about the API being discontinued. Will it move over to a Weather app API? I’m confused. 

Yeah, and who are you to tell Apple they are stupid?

Beats

boltsfan17 said:

hammeroftruth said:

darkvader said:

So, my weather source is weather.gov.  It's not the prettiest site, but it's run by the best meteorologists, and it's more likely to be accurate than anything else.

If you're not in the US, you should probably check out your government's weather forecasts instead of going to for-profit sites and apps.

Dark Sky has been pretty damn accurate for me. It’s actually spooky when it’s right on the money about rain starting and stopping. 

Weather.gov just uses the weather info from my nearest airport and not the city I’m in. 

Dark Sky sources its data from NWS. Pretty much every weather app does. 

So I did a little digging and turns out a bunch of iKnockoff developers and users were upset that they couldn’t use the Dark Sky API which is apparently “the best”. This was great news to me as I don’t want iKnockoff users to be happy 

If they all source their data from the same place why is Dark Sky so special?

nicholfd

darkvader said:

So, my weather source is weather.gov.  It's not the prettiest site, but it's run by the best meteorologists, and it's more likely to be accurate than anything else.

If you're not in the US, you should probably check out your government's weather forecasts instead of going to for-profit sites and apps.

You should look into the background of Dark Sky - they source data from many sources, including the freely available US government weather data.  The aggregate all the data to try to create more accurate predictions, etc.  They decided to not only create their only app, but turned it into a money making service - providing an API other apps could pay to use, for access to Dark Sky's aggregated data.

boltsfan17

Beats said:

boltsfan17 said:

hammeroftruth said:

darkvader said:

So, my weather source is weather.gov.  It's not the prettiest site, but it's run by the best meteorologists, and it's more likely to be accurate than anything else.

If you're not in the US, you should probably check out your government's weather forecasts instead of going to for-profit sites and apps.

Dark Sky has been pretty damn accurate for me. It’s actually spooky when it’s right on the money about rain starting and stopping. 

Weather.gov just uses the weather info from my nearest airport and not the city I’m in. 

Dark Sky sources its data from NWS. Pretty much every weather app does. 

So I did a little digging and turns out a bunch of iKnockoff developers and users were upset that they couldn’t use the Dark Sky API which is apparently “the best”. This was great news to me as I don’t want iKnockoff users to be happy 

If they all source their data from the same place why is Dark Sky so special?

Sorry my reply is so late. Dark Sky does source its data from the NWS, but they use the raw data and create their own forecast models. It's pretty much the same thing the Weather channel/app does. I rarely use Dark Sky, but if their models are pretty accurate, I can see other developers being upset they won't have access to Dark Sky forecast data anymore.