After Apple acquired Dark Sky in March of 2020, we all knew the super-granular weather app was probably headed for shutdown. But while the company announced that the Android app would go dark in July of the same year, things were left a bit more open-ended for the iOS app. There would be “no changes” for Dark Sky on iOS, they said, “at this time.”
A year later, a small update to the Dark Sky blog (as pointed out by 9to5mac) seems to be putting a new expiration date on the Dark Sky iOS App, API, and website. Writes co-founder Adam Grossman:
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 worth noting that there’s a little room for interpretation there, in that they don’t explicitly say it will shut down at the end of 2022 — just that they’re committing to running it until the end of 2022, perhaps suggesting its fate after that is in flux. We’ve reached out to Apple for clarification on that point — but until we hear back, we’re taking this as a heads up that shutdown is on the horizon.
On the upside, this is actually an extension for the API and the Dark Sky website. The website was previously scheduled to shutdown in August of 2020; the API, meanwhile, was scheduled to be shuttered at the end of 2021.
This news comes just a few days after Apple announced an overhaul to iOS’ built-in Weather app during WWDC.