- A developer has revived Dark Sky for Android as an unofficial app weeks after Apple shut it down.
- Darker Sky replicates most of the weather app’s free features.
- It won’t be available on the Play Store, and it might well be shut down soon.
Apple officially shut down Dark Sky for Android on August 1, just over four months after acquiring the weather app, but there’s still a way to keep using it — albeit a very unofficial way.
XDA has learned of an anonymous developer offering Darker Sky, a resurrection of Dark Sky that provides the app’s detailed weather forecast data as well as the familiar look and feel of the defunct official software. Most of the Android client’s free features remain intact, including full forecasts, the time machine, precipitation, temperature, and radar.
You won’t get weather notifications, report submissions, or widgets. Not surprisingly, you also won’t get the paid features. Apple isn’t about to handle those services, especially not when it’s more interested in rolling Dark Sky’s features into iOS 14.
See also: The best weather apps and widgets for Android
The app won’t be available in the Play Store, as you might guess, and you’re taking some risks by installing decidedly unofficial software available solely from the mysterious operator of a Telegram channel. Be careful, then. We also wouldn’t be surprised if Apple clamps down on the app.
If Darker Sky vanishes, you’re not completely out of luck in the near term. Third-party apps can still use Dark Sky data until the end of 2021, so there might be an alternative. This is mainly for diehard fans of Dark Sky’s Android app who want to cling to a well-known interface until they have no choice but to move on. Look at it this way: the app won’t bring back Dark Sky for Android, but it might ease the pain of saying goodbye.