The best weather apps for Android & iOS: Here the sun shines on the display
What is the best weather app available for your smartphone? In this list of the best weather apps, we have put together for you a selection for both iOS and Android platforms. We paid close attention to factors such as the topicality of data, appearance, and special features such as rain radar, widgets, and others. However, we cannot promise that the respective weather app will always guarantee you sunshine and bright days.
Back in the past, you had to turn on the television in time for the news in order to catch the weather forecast, but it is very easy nowadays. This is because weather apps in your smartphone basically functions as the ultimate weather station. Over the Internet, you can easily access specially processed data from weather stations that hardly anyone could afford on a private basis.
Below, we will show you what we believe to be the best weather apps for iOS and Android. We paid particular attention to how up-to-date the data is, how nicely and clearly the respective information is displayed, and how the special features are arranged. Because in addition to the temperature display, weather apps offer exciting additional functions such as rain radars or information on the pollen count.
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The best weather apps for Android & iOS
AccuWeather
The AccuWeather application is the most popular weather app for Android with over 100 million downloads. In fact, it's also one of the best ways to check the weather on your smartphone. After your location has been detected, you will see personalized weather data that is obtained directly from the Global Forecast System (GFS). The design of the app is also really chic and presents the diverse information well.
It is quite a challenge to keep users happy because AccuWeather has plenty of data under one roof. This includes information about the weather, air quality, pollen count for allergy sufferers to take note of, perceived temperature via "RealFeel", hurricanes, and a rain radar. There is also a widget where you can even choose between a light and dark modes. AccuWeather is free if you don't mind occasional advertisements. The ad-free version costs $9.99 annually.
Google Assistant or Siri?
The simplest and most reliable weather app already comes pre-installed on your smartphone: Both Google Assistant and Siri offer you the latest information about the weather at the touch of a button. All you have to do is to activate the voice command "Ok Google, what's the weather like?" or "Hey Siri, what's the weather like today?" by speaking these commands out loud.
You can already see an overview of the weather situation, including the probability of rain and a forecast for the next few hours. With additional commands like "How is the weather this week?" or "Do I need an umbrella today"? you can obtain more information from the wizard.
Google obtains such information directly from the reliable "Weather.com" service, of which we will come back to later. Apple offers its own weather app, from which Siri pulls the information from. Because Google Assistant and Siri are so well integrated into the mobile operating system, you can obtain these weather forecasts from just about anywhere.
Only one widget is missing from Android since Google has separated its "News" service from the weather forecast. If you are looking for a specific widget, we would recommend using another app.
Weather & Radar
With Weather & Radar, you obtain a weather app that offers plenty of information as well as a news feed. This makes it particularly suitable for people who like to enjoy short snippets about the weather situation. Just like in a blog, Weather Online presents images and links that can be clicked for additional information. Apart from this news function, the range of functions is also decent.
As a highlight, in addition to usual features such as weather forecasts, a rain radar, a wind radar, and a temperature radar, there is also a photo feature. This feature offers the possibility to snap a photo with the smartphone camera and send it to friends or relatives complete with accompanying weather information. This is a really cool idea if you would like to show off the current weather at your holiday destination.
Unfortunately, there is a lot of advertising in Weather & Radar. As with AccuWeather, you will have to obtain a subscription for either $0.99 per month or $6.99 annually. You can use a free trial for 14 days to see whether you like it or not.
Weather.com
Last but not least, a very popular weather app that has a clever advantage over other service providers would be Weather.com. This app also collects live feeds from webcams worldwide. In addition, the editors behind Weather.com also create videos complete with forecasts. So if you are partial to a news anchor presentation, we would highly recommend Weather.com.
In addition, Weather.com can keep up with other weather apps in terms of functionality. There is a rain radar, warnings about the current weather situation, and of course, a weather forecast for the next few days. But even Weather.com cannot help but offer a subscription-based model. You will have to pay $4.99 annually or $0.99 monthly. If you don't want to be tied down to a subscription, the entire outlay can be a bit more expensive compared to a monthly or annual subscription.
Geometric Weather for Android
Another tip for Android users: The "Geometric Weather" app shows you the latest information from the "AccuWeather.com" service without any advertisements. As the name suggests, the design is rather abstract and based on geometric shapes. The result? A pretty and light weather app, which cannot compete with the aforementioned alternatives in terms of functionality and features, but those who love something basic and clean will be happy with this.
There is no rain radar, only information for allergy sufferers is available. The focus is therefore on an ad-free experience with a minimalist look. This kind of design language also continues in a pretty-looking widget with different presentation options. Installing Geometric Weather is free as mentioned, without any irritating ads to bother you.
How are your experiences with the above-mentioned weather apps and do you have an ad-free recommendation for Apple iOS? I am happy to include it in this article and respond to your suggestions in the comments.
I don't know what app or service that the LG G4 had for weather - but it was a fantastic phone that really alerted you to changes in weather etc.
Many times I got a weather "alert" from it and thought - what, no way. But it was right every time. And it worked out of the box with zero configuration. It didn't beep every day or bother you at all. But if was sunny and a heavy shower was on the way - you got pre-warned by an hour or two!
As some here have mentioned - I too used AccuWeather at one point - it had a very nice widget for a start - but after some months / years it's syncing / updating broke, and that never got fixed.
I currently have the Samsung Galaxy A50 - and the weather app(s) / services on it are awful. It shows weather per 4 hour segments - so the widget only shows the weather for like the next 16 hours - well I really am more interested in the outlook for the week (i.e. Monday / Tuesday / Wednesday etc.) - not what it is going to be like at 10 pm, 2 am and 6 am!
Also it is awful too because it beeps and alerts just to tell you it has updated etc. - not that the forecast has changed or anything or that a storm is on the way. No. Just alerts you to remind you how brilliant it thinks it is. :0)
Oh, the last thing that was also really cool about the weather app on the LG G4 was that the lock screen would have a weather effect applied to it to reflect the current weather - so would have water / raindrops on it if it was rainy weather, or have flashes etc. if a thunderstorm was expected. Was a cool feature.
I am using Today weather Pro and AccuWeather weather Pro. I also have 1 weather Pro.
Are there any android weather widgets that have cool animations? Like clouds sweeping past?
I have two paid weather apps, 1 Weather and Accurate weather, but these days I don't use any of them.
Since it's buried three years ago, I'll repeat a recommendation for "Canada Weather" Dewey Dunnington's great Environment Canada app. The only fairly reliable weather service for giant Canada is the government's, but it took this bright young Maritimer to make a slick Android app for it. Ad-free and a nice little widget.
When I'm in a hurry for a "quick" look at precipitation, I use Raindar. If I want a detailed look at precipitation, along with tracking storms, velocities etc, I use Radarscope (a paid app). For weather forecast, I use the "Sense 2.0" widget...if you remember the old HTC PDA days, the flip clock, with a weather widget built in.
The first three years with Android I used AccuWeather, until there were too many bugs and glitches, so I switch to WeatherBug and have never looked back (FYI I don't use widgets)👍
Sometimes in life, there are too many choices. This is one of those times.
Here mentioned all apps are good. But if you are looking for the best weather app for India then I want to suggest you Prkruti app. Prkruti can be used for agriculture, air quality monitoring, data science and smart city solutions.
WeatherBug - I have used this app consistently for the last 4 years (previously it was AccuWeather), and no I do not use a Weather Widget - perfectly fine with Temperature Display on status bar / lock screen.
I use Weather Wiz. it's free, accurate (because of using IBM weather data) and so reliable. All the essential info related to the weather is available within this weather app, such as: Current temperature, maximum and minimum temp, current weather condition, wind speed and direction, precipitation, sun status and more.
I'm unsure how accuweather gets anywhere near the top 10. It's currently telling me it's 14º in London. It's 25º. The forecast for the next 24 hours never goes above 15º but all of the tv weather forecasts predict similar to today. It's a waste of memory space
Maybe it's a refreshing issue in the app, because accuweather (web site) reports London right now as 24º. That's the same as what is shown in the Meteogram app mentioned below (Meteogram Weather Charts by cloud3squared) when you choose accuweather as the weather data provider... i.e. pretty close to reality.
After investigation, if I allow it to tell me my weather via Current Location, it is always wrong (even though it locates me accurately as a specific neighbourhood within London). However if I select London by 'add city' it is accurate. So I can get an accurate weather for it, however it means I won't trust the app when I travel elsewhere in Europe. I'd rather one that was accurate using my current location, rather than having to manually add specific places I arrive in
This is why I switched to WeatherBug (more accurate weather / conditions that are consistently updated)
Meteogram Weather Forecast (the one by cloud3squared... search for Meteogram Weather Charts cloud3squared) gives a detailed yet easy-to-read view of the weather... choose from a number of different data sources, and customise the chart almost limitlessly to create the look you want. You can even plot a tide chart, wave height and/or direction, sun and/or moon elevation, sunrise and sunset times, and much more.
My personal favourite is Forecast. It has lots of features like alerts, time travel, a dark theme, a tablet specific design, a quick settings tile, a dashclock widget, and a lot more. It uses Openweathermap/Dark Sky and has a material design. Search 'com.bunemekyakilika.android.weather.pro' on the Play Store.
I came to this article to find a replacement for AccuWeather which came with my Samsung phone. The problem with it is that it is not consistent within itself, so I never know what number to use. Right now it says the temperature is 44 F (1:04 pm). The hourly forecast says 50 deg at 1 pm. And if you click to go to the website it says 43 with a "real feel" of 33. And that is closer than it usually is. It might be accurate for the current temp, but it's pretty useless for predicting what it will be like in a few hours.
I switch to WeatherBug 4 years ago when I had problems with AccuWeather (thank goodness I don't have bloatware involving a weather app on my smartphone).
Of Interest, my Google Now launcher offers an accurate display of weather daily (do you use a launcher with built-in weather?)
After trying many...Weather Timeline is perfect. Well worth the small fee of $1.69 (Canada). I had previously been using Weather Bug which was good also..but found the advertising annoying with no option to stop.
Forecast has alerts very similar to what you're describing. Search 'com.bunemekyakilika.android.weather.pro' on the Play Store
WeatherBug elite has no ads.
I use Weatherbug the most out of these and have found it to be somewhat unreliable in the radar and forecast, unless that's just Florida weather for you.
However, I am curious and this is why I made an account here - Will Weather Timeline give you alerts for weather you're looking for? Like if you are wanting to get an alert when it's 90F outside, will it let you do this? I'm trying to find an app that will give me something like that and Google's let me down. I don't want something for severe weather, my service provider and Weatherbug both will give me that.
NOAA Weather Radar & Alerts got me interested, however you only post a link to the free version. I cannot find the paid version in Google Play Store. So, after downloading the free version from Apalon Apps, I see one 4x3 widget in the "NOAA Weather Radar" category. Phones with a raster width of 5 have been available since 5 years. I always want a weather widget on my home page, and if you've ever tried widgets with the wrong raster width - they look ugly on a modern smartphone. Do I need to wait another 5 years before I might see a 5x2 or 5x3 widget?
Not all of these apps work properly. The best one, to my mind, is Morecast (now I use it). It has a great-looking and intuitive interface. Morecast is full of other, kind of, special things, such as webcams that show the weather across the globe, and a weather navigation feature to help you to lay out routes around the bad conditions. Another good one is The Weather Channel ( I tried it. All the information provided is accurate but the widget is bad, settings sometimes cannot be saved). Other apps also have its own pluses and minuses.
If you in Australia or NZ check the UVIMate UV Index Widget. It's focused on UV Index data and sun's radiation and protects you from sunburn and skin cancer.
All weather apps in this article are not accurate, please suggest the best, if any
For accuracy, I've long preferred Weather Channel over ANY other weather forecasting; my only discontent with them is the opaque background of their widget. I have the Accuweather widget on my main screen just because it's clear, you can still see the background wallpaper; for a quick view of temp and local conditions, it's ok, but their accuracy of forecasting isn't great. Do any of the apps in this article, other than Accuweather, offer a widget with a clear background? I don't want to mess up my home screen with someone else's idea of a good background color.
I personally like Yr.no www.androidweather.net/download-yr.html . It is probably the most accurate weather app.
MORECAST is undoubtedly the BEST for its mix of great-looking interface, disposition and amount of weather data, even with nice graphs, and its great variety of customizable widgets for home screen, plus a small temp indicator in the notifics bar. My favourite by far
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NOAA is the best because it is so diverse. You can normal city or state forecast, plus marine weather forecast, and data from off shore weather buoys.
Just an FYI but there are a few links in this article that are not working.. I clicked on the following and got a dead page.
Weatherbug, Weather Underground, The Weather Channel, Accuweather, and Yahoo Weather all have a link as the first word in the review that are dead.
By the way, I am partial to an android weather app called F-Chops WeatherPod myself..
Hey Carl,
are the links working for you now? I just checked all of them and they worked fine for me.
Strange. No they are not. It must be something on my end?
I'd like have a try~
In articles such as this, I would really like to see comments on the widgets that each program has available. And whether or not the data in a widget is persistant when applied to a tablet that is not always connected to the internet. I hate programs with widgets that show all blanks cause it hasn't had a recent update.
Radarscope is my app of choice. Best radar app i have seen.
I find the best weather app to use is you're local TV station weather app. Most stations have one
I agree, but after you install your local station's app, how do you connect it to a widget so the desired weather info displays on your home screen? My local station's app (KSTP in Minneapolis) doesn't appear to have a widget built into it.
I vote to include Weather Bomb. It's visuals are stunning & much more useful than the basic % numbers everyone else uses.. (i.e precipitation : When might it Actually rain, etc..)
E Weather hd for me great widget customization, accurate, a great radar, emergency alerts.....
1Weather and Dark Sky for me
Dark Sky by a mile. Only an old farmer is better. Yesterday evening the dragon (sorry, mother in law) was planning a dog walk. It'll start raining in 1 minute says I. Rubbish she replied, walking outside, returning 45 seconds later. How did you know? Private line to the Almighty, I replied. You may go out in 30 minutes. She did. She's still confused, but polite and malleable. At 87 she's not taking any chances......
The best weather app is... the window. Not very expensive, offline mode and it works for Android and iOs users.
Maybe you guys can help. I had a weather app widget on my screen but it vanished and I don't remember who/what the app was. I'd click on it and I got my local weather, daily, hourly, radar, etc. I have a Galaxy S7. It was a small, blue, rounded square with a white circle with a point on the right side of the circle. The icon/widget was on the left side of the screen. The icon could be moved up and down the screen. It would appear on any screen you were on, texts, FB, websites, email, anything/anywhere. I uninstalled/installed 3 weather apps; Weather Channel, Storm, and a local one, Fox10AZ. Don't see it on any of those app's widgets. Anyone recognize it?
Hi! I have a Galaxy S7 and I LOVE that widget! It's not actually an app, it's a widget. To find it, long press on your home screen then select "Widgets". Scroll through them to the "W's" and it's listed under "Weather". I believe there are 2 or 3 different styles to chose from. Hope this helps! Good Luck!
Google Now is 'simply best'. For me 1Weather, Yahoo Weather and The Weather Channel are the Top Weather Apps.
I'm not a big yahoo fan in the least, but for some reason I've allowed it to be my widget for the past few months. I do like the simple yet attractive look, easy access and ability to see multiple cities just by swiping over. However, I somehow had my city in twice and noticed that, while similar in temp, not actually the same temps. At all. So... that feature is what I don't like. I'm off to try others. Well written and informative article!
It's a complete shame that somehow none of the 3 I'd recommend even got a nod on this list... Go! Weather, 1Weather, and/or Dark Sky... *tisk, tisk*
1Weather hands down!
Why?
Cannot find an app with weather systems and fronts. These apps designed for simplicity are not what I need. Now and intelligent were a bust. Weather underground is poor.
"Storm" provides Fronts , Storm tracks, Hurricane tracking with projected paths as well as standard info without having to drill down through pages like weather channel. 1 widget available with app maybe more.
Thanks for sharing. Btw, first photo made my day :D Very funny :D
Well done article.
Not only had Google got the Now weather cards, if you ask in Google Now what the weather's today, you will get a Google result with a card type thing. It has a button to add it to the home screen which is a shortcut to an app inside Google Now. This is I think the best overall and in Material Design.
Been using Weatherbug since the BB version and I had a BB Storm.
I am the author "Pluvia", an innovative 3D weather radar viewer.
Please search for it on the play store.
Transparent Clock and Weather is the winner for me, hands down. It does what it says and is highly configurable in all aspects. Best of all, it is very accurate on location without using GPS and this means a very, very, low impact on battery usage. A must for all those that need accurate, updated, weather forecasts and conditions.
Nice article!
You completely dropped the ball by not including Weather Timeline - Forecast. This app has a well deigned UI, clear and informative information and a choice of weather providers, since some tend to work better in some areas that others. At $.99, it's money very well spent.
I always throw in a recommendation for Fish&Whistle's great Environment Canada app - the only reliable weather service for Canada is the government's, but it took this bright young maritimer to make a slick app for it. Ad-free and a nice little widget.
I thank you for that. I am from NS and will have to check it out. Cheers.
An alternative is to use your phone's browser and visit a weather site. Weather Underground has a good site but the chart has a poor layout. I try not to install an app that has unreasonable permissions.
Amber Weather is the best, just give it a try!
The best weather widget is Weather Timeline Forecast. It provides incredible features. For instance, the widget colour would be different for each weather. Along with temperature it also displays humidity and air pressure right on the widget.
Weather Timeline FTW. Also it has great android wear integration
My vote for eWeather by Elecont. Nothing can compare with eWeather.
The best weather app is Weather Underground hands down. The best widget app is XWidget, as you can have or create any widget you want.
weather timeline needs adding to your list, its simple but detailed with a very nice design, some nice widgets, great choice of icons and a choice of providers, if I had to choose one simple weather app this would be a very close call along with yahoo.
I've been a long term weatherbug user. I use it when I want detailed forecasts. I also have my preferred recreation locations stored so I can monitor weather there for my outdoors fun. I don't use the widget nor keep live updates running.
But in daily quick use for current temp and quick forecast, Google Now gets more of my eye-time.
Im partial to WTFweatherPro myself..
Hi Loie... Am desperately looking for an equivalent of the mFlows Dev (I THINK that's the name of the developer! ) widget for animated weather - absolutely LOVED it but it simply doesn't appear to work on my new Android Xperia Z3...All the others seem to either have too much info or no animation or ugly or crammed with ads... Help!
Thanks for sharing this article. Was searching similar contents on search engines for a case study. Many thanks.
Hi. You could test: The Weather 14 days. A faster Material Design app with nice widgets.
Weather Timeline is by far one of the best out there and certainly worth of this list
Yahoo, Google now ,BBC and looking outside.... Yahoo has a lovely simple ui, I got a little ocd with the widgets tho, so I use Zooper widgets with Yahoo as weather provider. You mentioned Yahoo,s location issues, I find a slight difference between my home forecast and location forecast, even tho both have same location name when I'm home, a difference which I actually like and find useful, like not relying on one provider......
Thanks for sharing this article. Was searching similar contents on google for a case study. Many thanks.
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"best"..? to me the best wheather app is the one that predicts most accurate..
but I cant read anything about the reliability of the above mentioned apps.
Whether apps drains battery true or false please tell
WeatherBug has been my favorite for 3 years
Google Now seems built into the Google Now Launcher (can you toggle it Off?)
Transparent Clock / Weather Widget (that doesn't suck up Battery Life) is something Android Users have enjoyed that iPhone Users wish they had (its the ONLY Widget I use)
Weather apps are very useful especially if you are always on the go. It gives your the present condition of the place and become prepared when there's rain or storm coming.
check weather360, it really worth to be in the list
Elecont's Eweather for me too, hour by hour weather is very useful. That along with rain alarm is usually an accurate combination (uk)
I wish scott was my weatherman
My favorite is eWeather by Elecont. I keep 3 widgets running. An hourly weather clock, a five day forecast, and their GPS linked radar.
check my weather app
play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.vbucko.weatherandclockwidget
I think Amber Weather is one of the great weather app to be mentioned.
I wish the developers of WeatherMate gear themselves up for android as well. It's really a cool app with accurate weather updates and a number of other features including weather maps.
I have yahoo Weather installed on 8 out of 9 Androids I own (1- is due to incompatibility). It is elegant without all the unnecessary statistics and infomation that cluttered the screen. It has very good background photography collections. That is all I need. 3 day weather forecast? what the hell for?it is never accurate anyway.
You could also try Meteogram Widget and App (search for cloud3squared in Play Store): good-looking and informative weather forecast at a glance in a widget, with an interactive app too
1Weather has everything I need... and that says a lot. I appreciate the very accurate forecast and location. I also believe that the UI for the radar is excellent.
Can't fault Arcus. Seems to be the only weather app that accurately predicts Scottish weather...
Weather Foreseer is a Android weather Widget with new unique features that are introduced for the first time in a weather widget.
I would appreciate if you would include it with your review :)
I use Weather Bug (use to use AccuWeather til that app stopped working properly for me). Its nice Google has weather feature in its Google Now , if you use Yahoo Mail ? Yahoo Weather is ported to it (and opens quickly) and is worth dowmload of the app extension.
I've been a long time user of Weather and Clock Widget, but it has been broken even after several recent updates: it won't update the weather and the list of providers is reduced to one, which is greyed out. I came here to see what other app to try, but am discouraged by the inclusion of this nonfunctional app in your list. Did you really test these apps? How recently??
Go Weather for me.
It would have been really nice to have had a comparison of accuracy, or even compare what gave more conservative information and what not. Weather accuracy is very important to me. I've been using The Weather Channel for the last year, but I'd be interested in how it compares in accuracy, unless they all get the same info from the same place.
Weather apps are very useful especially if you are always traveling. It helps you know the current weather in a specific place and therefore, have the idea on what to wear and what to do.
Arcus gets listed twice? Must be really good.
Intellicast is my favorite weather app on my phone and tablet!!!! I like weather radar here in Florida!!
I find looking out the window can give you a more accurate weather report 👍😊
In Australia I like weather Australia. Simple easy to use and links to the B.O.M.
Thanks Stuart! Good to know what our Aussie friends like :-)
No worries mate ;-)