William Gallagher
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.
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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Christine McKee
AppleInsider Staff
Chip Loder
Malcolm Owen
13 Comments
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.
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.
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.