An obituary for Dark Sky, which changed how people consume weather forecasts but is disparaged by scientists, as Apple plans to kill the iOS app on January 1
At the end of this year, Dark Sky—the popular, sleek, sometimes accurate weather app—will go dark, its various components ambiguously incorporated …
What made Dark Sky matter was its hyperlocal, minute-by-minute precipitation forecasts — a format so compelling that Apple had already begun absorbing it into the built-in Weather app with severe-weather tracking and next-hour precipitation charts in iOS 14. The obituary notes the tension at the heart of that popularity: scientists disparaged the app even as consumers made it their default.
First-order effects
Dark Sky's iOS users lose the standalone app on January 1 and are pushed onto Apple's native Weather app, which has been rebuilt around the features the acquisition was meant to capture.
Developers who built on the Dark Sky API have already been forced onto WeatherKit, which now meters access to the same forecast data through Apple rather than an independent vendor.
Second-order effects
WeatherKit turns Apple into a paid weather-data supplier to third-party apps on both Android and Apple platforms, converting a free community API into a platform revenue line.
Rival weather apps gain a refugee audience of Dark Sky loyalists dissatisfied with Apple's integrated version, intensifying competition on forecast accuracy — the very dimension scientists flagged as Dark Sky's weakness.
Third-order effects
The pattern — buy a beloved independent app, strip its cross-platform reach, fold its differentiators into the OS default — is the integration strategy Stratechery argued gives Apple great experiences while drawing anticompetitive scrutiny over App Store control.
If acquisitions of this kind keep replacing open APIs with platform-gated ones, consumer-grade weather data consolidates into a handful of platform incumbents, raising the cost of building independent weather products.
The trend: Apple's acquire-then-absorb playbook keeps converting popular independent apps into exclusive OS features, with WeatherKit showing how open developer services get re-priced as platform offerings.
Here's a prime example why it's so sad that Apple is killing off Dark Sky app. Sure, the core features and data are now baked into Apple's native Weather app, but it can't show you a visualization of the cold blast most of the US is about to endure.
The thing I'm most upset about when DarkSky shuts off is this *vertical* hourly weather, which AFAIK I can't find in the Apple Weather app. (If you've solved this or know of an alternative lmk) (I'm hoping that DarkSky will just...continue to work for the basics). https://twitter…
I guess I finally have to accept that I need a replacement for Dark Sky. Any weather app recommendations, ideally from people who have weirdly strong feelings about weather apps? Especially about the appearance of the radar?
Here's a prime example why it's so sad that Apple is killing off Dark Sky app. Sure, the core features and data are now baked into Apple's native Weather app, but it can't show you a visualization of the cold blast most of the US is about to endure. https://twitter.com/...
@Apple bought #DarkSky app a while back, ended updates for Dark Sky app, and now Apple's #Weather app includes the hourly horizontal timeline that shows to the minute when rain will stop, start or change levels. It's accurate (for United States #rain).
Forget accuracy. What I liked about Dark Sky is that when it forecasted rain, it showed it in a graph that wiggled like water. Give it a real authentic feel, like. https://slate.com/...
Can't believe Dark Sky is finally going to sunset in two weeks. It's a reminder how many more times the Dark Sky sends me precip alerts AHEAD of Apple's stock Weather app. Enhanced my ass. Oh well. https://twitter.com/...
Bad decision by Apple, which has a boring app. Dark Sky was perfect for predicting precipitation in the next hour. If you miss the map, try Radarscope. If you miss fun, try the more accurate Carrot Weather in overkill mode https://slate.com/...