Dark Sky’s weather application which had been available on Android way back since the year 2016 will now be joining the Apple’s ecosystem officially
And t effect that, the service will be taken down from non-Apple devices making it unavailable on the Google Play store even though the application is still available on Google Play store as of the time we’re writing this post, the future availability might not be possible.
While Apple is getting rid of the application from the Google Play store, users who already have the application will still be able to use it on their Wear OS and Android devices until July 1st when the application will be totally discontinued from the non-Apple platforms while existing customers will get their refunds.
iOS users, though, are still able to purchase the app through the App Store and will continue to be able to use it. The app has also been rebranded as “Dark Sky by Apple”.
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The reason for this decision is yet unknown despite the fact that Apple tried to make some of it’s own services open. Even after the acquisition of Shazam, the service is still available on Android devices up until now.
One reason could be the attempt of the company to port the application into the core of future iOS releases thereby merging their existing weather application with this to further fine-tune it for a better user experience.
Web services are also being gutted together with the Android app.
As for their API, it will also be phased out, albeit much later on: it will continue to work through 2021 and will be killed off by the year 2022.
Dark Sky is a big weather provider company known for provision to companies such as Microsoft, DuckDuckGo, Yelp, Carrot Weather and so much more. So a gradual phase-out might be what it will take since a sudden take down might affect these services.
From my point of view, I think Apple is trying further strengthen itself in the weather department while intentionally taking down the other platforms that depends on the Dark Sky which will further enhance the profitability of future iOS releases.
