Apple-owned Dark Sky weather API shut-down delayed a year to 'end of 2022'

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Apple buys popular weather app, Dark Sky — Android app will shut down
Apple buys popular weather app, Dark Sky — Android app will shut down (Image credit: Joseph Keller/iMore)

What you need to know

  • The Dark Sky API has been given a new lease of life, but only until the end of the year.
  • The app and website will be gone by the beginning of 2023.

When Apple announced that it was buying weather app Dark Sky in March 2020 it said that it would be keeping the App Store but killing the API that many third-party developers relied on. That was supposed to happen on July 1, 2021. But it turns out there's life in the old dog yet.

As spied by developer David Smith, Apple has quietly confirmed that it intends to keep the API around for another year. Instead of being killed off next month, the Dark Sky API will now live on until the "end of 2022."

Update: Support for the Dark Sky API service for existing customers will continue until the end of 2022. The iOS app and Dark Sky website will also be available until the end of 2022.

It's the same for the app and website, too. Both of those will reportedly be gone by the beginning of 2023 which seems like an awfully long way away – until it isn't.

Apple has been building Dark Sky features into its Weather app for the last year and that's sure to continue. It isn't clear why Apple has decided to extend the life of the API used by third-party developers, but it has been suggested that an Apple-made API was supposed to replace it and that it wasn't ready for WWDC21. In lieu of a replacement, Apple may have decided to extend the existing API's life another year.

You don't need an app like Dark Sky or Weather to know what's going on around you, though. These are just some of the best HomeKit temperature sensors you can buy and they'll put their data right into the Home app for you.

Oliver Haslam
Oliver Haslam
Contributor

Oliver Haslam has written about Apple and the wider technology business for more than a decade with bylines on How-To Geek, PC Mag, iDownloadBlog, and many more. He has also been published in print for Macworld, including cover stories. At iMore, Oliver is involved in daily news coverage and, not being short of opinions, has been known to 'explain' those thoughts in more detail, too. Having grown up using PCs and spending far too much money on graphics card and flashy RAM, Oliver switched to the Mac with a G5 iMac and hasn't looked back. Since then he's seen the growth of the smartphone world, backed by iPhone, and new product categories come and go. Current expertise includes iOS, macOS, streaming services, and pretty much anything that has a battery or plugs into a wall. Oliver also covers mobile gaming for iMore, with Apple Arcade a particular focus. He's been gaming since the Atari 2600 days and still struggles to comprehend the fact he can play console quality titles on his pocket computer.