QuickReview-Android Weather Apps
2018-07-20 20:42
X-Men, Halle Berry as "Storm"
EDIT: I gave AccuWeather a fair chance, but I have to downgrade the widget because it doesn't automatically refresh. I'm baffled by that. Who wouldn't want the weather info on a home screen to be reasonably current? Who would instead want to be forced to manually refresh it by tapping a very small area of the widget?
There are, by my count, 1.3 bazillion weather apps for Android. I've been using 1Weather because it seems to work well and I really like the widget. However, my wife uses Weather Underground (which, ironically, I recommended) and we sometimes get different temperature reports. So, I decided to look at the top apps again.
Searching Google for "most accurate android weather apps" yielded no site that spoke to accuracy. I guess that's to be expected. Who watches the watchmen?
What matters to me is:
- A good widget, showing lots of info in a 4x1 grid.
- A good app, easy to comprehend.
- Limited advertising (and I might buy it).
Below is a matrix of what I found. It's opinionated, and brief, but might help someone other than me. I've switched to AccuWeather because of a couple of sweet features. But...1Weather still has the best widget.
App | Price | Widget 1-5 | Usage 1-5 | Sum | Rank | Comments |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1Weather | F/$2 | 5 | 5 | 10 | 1 | All around really good. |
Weather Underground | F/$2 | 4 | 5 | 9 | 2 | Widget not resizable (in Now launcher). |
Today Weather | F/$4 | 3 | 5 | 8 | 3 | Beautiful app, but no widget I like. Best settings. I really wanted this to be #1 |
AccuWeather | F/$4 | 2 | 5 | 7 | 4 | Widget doesn't auto-refresh. That's a deal-breaker. MinuteCast is great! Prepare Your Day sweet |
Dark Sky | F/$3y | n/a | 4 | 4 | 5 | Widgets only w/subscription. Time Machine sweet. |
Weather forecast SP | F/$4 | 2 | 4 | 6 | 6 | Pretty. Note both WF apps are effectively the same. |
Weather forecast GA | F/$4 | 2 | 4 | 6 | 7 | No 4x1 widget. Pretty app. |
The Weather Channel | F | 2 | 3 | 5 | 8 | Lots of info. No remove ads. Limited settings. |
WeatherBug | F/$10 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 9 | Yuck. Ugly, separate download for good widgets, paid version is expensive |