Apple buys Dark Sky app with underlying API and closes Android version on July 1

Apple has acquired the US-based weather app Dark Sky. With this, the Cupertino company also gets the more widely used, underlying api, which all kinds of other services also use. The Android version of the weather app will disappear on July 1.

Apple has acquired Dark Sky, but it is unknown how much money is involved. The team behind Dark Sky says it has always aimed to provide the world with the best weather information while respecting everyone’s privacy. Dark Sky says there’s no better place to achieve those goals than at Apple. The company now thinks it can reach many more people.

This acquisition by Apple will not affect Dark Sky’s iOS app; it just stays in the App Store. However, the versions for Android and Wear OS will disappear. They are no longer available for download and the service will close to existing users and subscribers on July 1. The Dark Sky website will continue with weather forecasts, maps and embeds until July 1. After that, the website will still remain active, but only as support for the api and the iOS customers.

Presumably, Apple’s main concern is to get hold of the strongly data-driven Dark Sky API. This api will not change for the time being, but new registrations will no longer be accepted and the api will only function until the end of 2021. This means that other services and apps can no longer use this interface and the underlying data. Weather apps such as Hello Weather make use of it, but according to 9to5Mac, this also applies to the app Carrot Weather, Google Chrome weather extensions, DuckDuck Go and Microsoft. The app is also popular with makers of weather stations based on a Raspberry Pi.