Apple's weather app Dark Sky for iOS will stop operating next year

Apple is advancing its plan to shut down the Dark Sky weather application by the end of this year. Users opening the Dark Sky app today will see a new pop-up message informing them that "support for the Dark Sky app" will end on January 1, 2023. This is Apple's new take on the Dark Sky weather app after its debut in iOS 16.

Apple had previously planned to start shutting down the Dark Sky app, website, and API by the end of 2021, but Apple has continued to upgrade the built-in weather app and roll out a new WeatherKit API. Apple originally acquired Dark Sky in March 2020 and has used the technology to make several upgrades to its built-in weather app.

Now that WeatherKit is available to developers, iOS 16 has been rolled out to the masses, and Apple has officially notified users that it intends to shut down Dark Sky. The content of the notification message in the Dark Sky app is as follows:

"Support for the Dark Sky app will end on January 1, 2023. Dark Sky forecast technology has now been enhanced and integrated into the updated Apple Weather app."

Clicking the "More Info" button in the message will take the user directly to the App Store listing for the Apple Weather app. iOS 16, released today, includes new features for the Weather app:

• Severe Weather Notifications: Get notified when severe weather alerts are issued near you.

• More weather details: Tap any module in the Weather app to reveal a new, more in-depth set of data, such as hourly temperature and precipitation for the next 10 days.

Apple has also provided the WeatherKit API to developers, allowing third-party apps to take advantage of hyper-localized weather data and focusing on protecting user data and privacy. Using WeatherKit is also much cheaper than other weather APIs, including Dark Sky.