94
Why are there so few open source weather apps for iOS, compared to the very many that are on Android?
(lemmy-u6723.vm.elestio.app)
this post was submitted on 23 Aug 2023
94 points (92.0% liked)
Open Source
30398 readers
557 users here now
All about open source! Feel free to ask questions, and share news, and interesting stuff!
Useful Links
- Open Source Initiative
- Free Software Foundation
- Electronic Frontier Foundation
- Software Freedom Conservancy
- It's FOSS
- Android FOSS Apps Megathread
Rules
- Posts must be relevant to the open source ideology
- No NSFW content
- No hate speech, bigotry, etc
Related Communities
Community icon from opensource.org, but we are not affiliated with them.
founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
iOS is kind of annoying to develop for. You kind of need to be entrenched in the Apple ecosystem to do it.
I also think there’s the niche part of it. Weather apps are kind of niche, if I’m going out I only care about the temps and whether or not it might rain, and iOS already has a great built in app for that. I love FOSS, but I’m not sure I care enough about my weather app to seek out a FOSS alternative to the default one.
Also I’m not sure Android has a weather app by default? I have a Pixel 6 as a work phone but don’t think I’ve ever checked for a weather app on it.
IOS has a preinstalled weather app and people just use that. For whatever reason. Everything is so integrated, I guess 3rd party weather apps wouldnt even display correctly. On Android, simply use a Notification and thats it.
What? There are plenty of third party weather apps on iOS. I’m not sure if iOS has those sticky Daemon notifications that Android has though, I don’t think I’ve ever seen them.
There are widgets though, both for the Home Screen and the Lock Screen, as well as little widgets for the watch if you have one of those.
Modern iOS is quite polished. Android could use a touch up with their widgets honestly.
Apple bought darksky and has been integrating all of the technology into their app so it is becoming the best one without having to bother looking for another. You have to be a super weather nerd to even want to bother looking for something else. I happen to be that much of a weather nerd and use a third party app. There’s tons of them in the App Store.
I saw they use some british Weather stuff? I just always assume these models are way worse than something like DWD in Germany. Thats why I currently use a KleineWettervorschau, an app for the DWD but not by them, as they had stupid legal problems as they, as a state institution, have an app without Ads, wow crazy.