Android users lost one of their favorite weather apps on March 31, 2020, when Apple bought Dark Sky. The app will stop working on Android on July 1, 2020, and it is already gone from download.
Dark Sky announced the deal in a blog post: “Dark Sky has joined Apple.” Co-founder Adam Grossman wrote that “there is no better place to accomplish these goals than at Apple,” and that the team can “reach far more people, with far more impact, than we ever could alone.” Neither side disclosed the price.
What ends and when
Forecasts, maps and embeds continue until July 1, 2020. Android subscribers pay about $3 a year, and they will get a refund if their account is still active when the service goes dark, according to Wired. The Dark Sky website stays up after that date to support API and iOS customers.
The iOS app remains on sale for now, with no changes announced. Wired and 9to5Mac both expect its best features to end up in Apple’s own Weather app, which 9to5Mac noted has not had a major overhaul since iOS 7. It was powered by Yahoo Weather then, and switched to The Weather Channel with iOS 8.
Dark Sky’s API is the bigger worry for other developers. It no longer accepts new signups, and existing customers can keep using it through the end of 2021. Apps and services that rely on the data include Carrot Weather, Google Chrome weather extensions, DuckDuckGo, Microsoft, Runkeeper and Yelp. Wired said the loss leaves alternatives like Carrot scrambling for another source.
A small business with a loyal following
Dark Sky reached Android four years earlier, in May 2016. Apptopia estimates it has about 500,000 monthly active users, and says 70 percent of them are on Android. The app is consistently the top-ranked paid weather app on iOS by downloads, and ranks among the top five weather apps on Google Play and the top ten on the App Store by revenue. Wired credited its fame to two things: its maps and its hyperlocal, short-range forecasts that warn of drizzle before it starts.
Wired argued that Apple had other choices. It could have copied Dark Sky’s best ideas into its stock app, a practice known as “sherlocking,” without touching Android. Or it could have kept the Android app and the API running, tapping users outside its ecosystem as it did by putting Apple Music on Echo devices. Instead it chose, in Wired’s words, “a path that shuts out Android altogether.”
Gartner analyst Annette Zimmerman said an acquisition means Dark Sky has “something of value that Apple can use to add to its own app.” Apple declined to comment beyond the blog post, and Dark Sky did not answer Wired’s questions.
From now on, Apple’s privacy policy governs how Apple uses Dark Sky.
Sources
- Apple purchases hyperlocal weather app Dark Sky, ending API and killing Android apps – 9to5Mac
- Apple Buys Dark Sky in an Android Worst-Case Scenario
Sources
- Apple purchases hyperlocal weather app Dark Sky, ending… – 9to5Mac
- Apple Buys Dark Sky in an Android Worst-Case Scenario – WIRED
