If you are an iPhone owner, you have probably heard of Dark Sky, one of the best and most popular iOS weather app. Today, the company announced it’s been acquired by Apple.

Dark Sky says its team will be joining Cupertino, but it isn’t exactly clear what Apple plans to do with Dark Sky’s talent and technology.

“Our goal has always been to provide the world with the best weather information possible, to help as many people as we can stay dry and safe, and to do so in a way that respects your privacy. There is no better place to accomplish these goals than at Apple. We’re thrilled to have the opportunity to reach far more people, with far more impact, than we ever could alone,” said Dark Sky creator Adam Grossman in a blog post. 

Being acquired by Apple means Dark Sky will be stopping its services on other platforms. The company says there won’t be any changes to the Dark Sky iOS app right now. It will continue to be available at the usual price of $3.99.

However, the Android and Wear OS app will no longer be available for download. Existing users and subscribers will be able to continue using the app until July 1, 2020 — and subscribers who are still active will receive a refund. Dark Sky is actually really popular on Android, too, with more than 1 million installs to date. Apple is, of course, killing Dark Sky on Android out of spite.

The company’s website will also stop providing weather forecasts, maps, and embeds after July 1, 2020.

As for its API, Dark Sky is going to eventually take that away, too. The service is no longer accepting new signups for its API, and it will continue to function through the end of 2021. After that, the Dark Sky API will stop working completely.

Apple probably doesn’t have a lot of big plans for Dark Sky apart from replacing Weather Channel’s service on the official iOS Weather app with Dark Sky’s data. It’s possible Apple will eventually kill the Dark Sky iOS app, too, but that might only happen once the Weather app on iOS gets all the features of Dark Sky.

Tagged with Apple, Dark Sky