Summary
- Google’s Wear OS Weather app is no longer available for new installs; existing installs keep working.
- Pixel Weather replaces it on Pixel Watches with a Material 3 look; rollout via Wear OS and auto-upgrade.
- Google now follows OEM model: watchmakers ship their own weather apps, not a universal Wear OS app.
Google has a weird history with weather apps. Pretty much every phone comes pre-installed with a weather app, but for a long time, Google simply didn’t have one. However, it did have a weather app that any Wear OS smartwatch could install. That app is going away, and the replacement is not straightforward.
The official Weather app from Google has been available for smartwatches since Wear OS 3 in 2021. It’s a simple, clean app that gives you all the basic weather information you might want to see from a tiny display on your wrist. That includes the current temp, daily high and low, UV index, and forecasts for the next 8 hours and 5 days. The app also included a number of Tiles for the daily forecast, sun position, and UV index.
Google Weather app
Google has announced that the app is “no longer available for new installations.” However, if you already have the app installed on your watch, you can keep using it. Google points to OEMs having their own default weather apps as the reasoning. That includes Google itself, which is bringing the Pixel Weather app to Pixel Watches.
The Pixel Weather app for Wear OS offers essentially the same information and Tiles as the old app, but it has the Material 3 Expressive design. As of the writing of this article, it’s not yet available to install from the Play Store. Pixel Watch owners will need Wear OS to use the Pixel Weather app, and when that happens, the old Google Weather app will be automatically upgraded to it.
Pixel Weather app
If this all sounds convoluted and confusing, you’re not alone. Essentially, Google is placing itself in the same position as other OEMs. Rather than offering a weather app that can be installed on any Wear OS watch, it’s reserving the app specifically for its own watches. Samsung does this with its own weather app on Galaxy Watches, and now Google does, too. So, if you preferred using Google’s take on a weather app on your non-Pixel smartwatch, you’ll soon be out of luck.
Source: Google via 9to5Google
