Darksun Weather

Darksun is a user-friendly weather app offering hyperlocal weather data. It is designed to make weather data useful for you in your daily life, and help you understand the shape of the weather at a glance.

1. Easy-to-use, clean, intuitive interface
2. Adapts to your location, time, and conditions to display relevant information.
3. Visualizes weather data through shape, proximity, size, and color.
4. Allows you to quickly view temperature, rain, and wind.
5. Keeps detailed weather info behind a simple tap, remembering your preferences.
6. Makes it effortless to compare weather across multiple days.
7. Supports viewing and saving multiple locations.
8. Offers minute-by-minute precipitation forecasts and weather alerts for your location (supported by certain premium weather providers — currently only available in private beta).
9. Automatically adapts to your device settings (light/dark mode, units, time display).
10. Compatible with both iOS and Android phones and tablets.

Darksun is perfect for individuals of all ages seeking a simple yet comprehensive free weather app with no ads or subscription required.

Whether you're planning outdoor activities, seeking timely weather updates for your commute, or exploring new locations, Darksun's user-friendly interface and detailed information cater to all your needs. The app's visual approach and customization options make it easy for everyone to keep up with both local and remote weather conditions.

Dark Sky was a beloved weather app, known for its hyperlocal forecasts, minute-by-minute rain predictions, and iconic interface. After Apple's acquisition in 2020 the app was discontinued and its data integrated into the iOS Weather app, in a shockingly convoluted way. That left devoted users seeking a worthy successor.

Since then, various spiritual-successor apps have adopted Dark Sky's iconic interface. However, Dark Sky's allure extended beyond individual features. It encompassed the complete fusion of information design, data, and user experience. At the same time, Dark Sky wasn't flawless. There were many aspects of its design that could be improved upon.

Darksun's guiding principle is:

"Help users understand the shape of the weather at a glance, and make weather data useful in people's lives."

Infomation design and Use Experience is high on our agenda. While creating Darksun, I made the following deliberate design choices:

• Free without ads.
• Focus on the core experience and do it well. Don’t try to be everything to everyone. The absence of features that might complicate the experience is a feature in itself.
• Zero clutter UI—no popups, complex navigation, modals, or even settings screens!
• Visualise weather data according to the guiding principle.
• Allow for light customisation where it makes sense.

A prime example of prioritizing essentials while offering customization is that most users likely don't require weather details for the early morning hours (12am–6am) or air-pressure data. Therefore, this information is hidden by default to reduce visual clutter and save screen space for more important information, but is readily available for those who need it with a single tap—and will remain visible without the need for constant toggling.

In terms of weather data, noone can replicate Dark Sky’s weather data / API. The closest thing is Apple Weather, but it's not free. Darksun comes with two free high-quality weather data providers (Open-Meteo & Yr.no). There is a private beta version of Darksun that supports Apple Weather (including minute-by-minute precipitation & weather alerts), but it's not available to the public yet (there's currently no plan for public availability).

Darksun delivers a truly unique experience that aims to delight devoted Dark Sky fans and new users alike.