10 ms·

Privacy respecting weather app for Android

134 points by BurungHantu 4y ago

hnburnsy 4y ago
Here is another great choice in the US, sourced directly from the NOAA, I think it used to be in FDroid but now is a direct download. https://nwsnow.net/ https://nwsnow.net/ >NWS NOW is a FREE weather application with no advertising, no user tracking using the National Weather Service™ and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration™ public API.
- hnburnsy 4y ago
  NWSNow does included various sized widgets too.
BurungHantu 4y ago
Privacy Friendly Weather lets you watch the weather for cities and locations you are interested in. The app has been developed by the research group SECUSO at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology. More info can be found on https://secuso.org/pfa https://secuso.org/pfa
- errantmind 4y ago
  Thanks, just installed it and it has what I need in a weather app
- btzs 4y ago
  From above link: * are Open Source (GPLv3) and their source code can be viewed an GitHub by anybody * used minimal permissions * do not neither tracking mechanisms nor advertisement The app are made by students of the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology.
DarthNebo 4y ago
The fact that it had to be mentioned at all for a weather app is concerning & telling of the state of tech
- cryptoz 4y ago
  Privacy in good weather apps that are innovative can be tricky. Phones have enough sensors like barometers to be useful weather stations, and collecting that data could improve forecasts. But that also includes accurate location data, and making a useful forecast model from data collected on device is significantly more challenging when you account for privacy needs. The “telling state of tech” may be that our hardware has outpaced our ability to socially reason about how useful weather data should be collected and shared, or not shared.
  - donkeyd 4y ago
    Sure, but I'm fine with sharing my data for that purpose. I also have an app that registers any possible earthquakes and shares that data with a centralized server for analysis. I'm perfectly fine with that, as long as they don't sell my data to anyone who wants to market earthquake safety equipment or wants to track my location. Transparency on the use of data is important to make decisions on this type of stuff. If a weather app requests access to my barometer to improve predictions, independent of my personal data, I would fully comply with that.
    - dotancohen 4y ago
      They may not sell your data, but it might be subpoenaed by a court. Or breached by a hacker. Or leaked by a coding error. Or by incorrect AWS permissions. Or an email campaign by a stupid PM.
    - nonrandomstring 4y ago
      "Privacy" has a nebulous definition, and I don't think many of us here have concerns about supplying anonymous data to help build useful systems. We need to re-frame the issue. Individual and aggregated environmental sensor data could be used for so many good things. We can track storms, fires and floods, earthquakes, air and noise pollution, and save lives. But it is abused by a greedy, unethical few, and so the systems can no longer be trusted. Medical data, individual and aggregated, can be used to stop transmissible disease by detecting outbreaks, and improve our personal health through exercise monitoring and early issue diagnosis. But it is abused by a greedy, unethical few, and so the systems can no longer be trusted. Domestic data has the potential to manage energy, water use and air quality, keep homes safe from intruders, protect the elderly and babies. But it is abused by a greedy, unethical few, and so the systems can no longer be trusted. The pattern here looks like a tragedy of the commons. As engineers we can build systems with ostensible social utility which are then hijacked (sold, acquired, infiltrated) by "digital pirates" who turn them into systems of abuse (surveillance, manipulation and control). Each time the empty "assurances" are the same and the corruption predictable, inevitable and painful. Perhaps it is time to stop thinking about "privacy" at the level of technical measures and permissions etc, and deal with corruption and abuse, which seems intrinsic to tech, at a different level. We have the mathematical/cryptological knowledge to build better systems. but it's the unethical few who benefit from stealing our data who don't want computer systems to be secure.
jonas-w 4y ago
The developers [0] of this app have a whole series of different Privacy Friendly Apps, if you search for "org.secuso" on f-droid you can see them all. [0] https://secuso.aifb.kit.edu/index.php https://secuso.aifb.kit.edu/index.php
- account-5 4y ago
  This is brilliant, there's some apps in that collection I was going to try and create myself with dart/flutter. Probably still will for learning but thanks.
- wickedsight 4y ago
  That's pretty awesome. The page with an overview of all their apps is right here: https://secuso.aifb.kit.edu/english/105.php https://secuso.aifb.kit.edu/english/105.php
  - 1f60c 4y ago
    I was curious how a foreign university obtained a .EDU domain, but apparently, foreign universities could register a .EDU domain before 2001.
    - bierjunge 4y ago
      It's the KIT (Karlsruhe Institute for Technology, former Technical University of Karlsruhe) in south western Germany. IIRC they have the oldest computer science institute in the country and sent/received the first emails in Germany. So yes, they have some standing in the research community, but they renamed in 2008 or 2009 and still got a new .edu domain.
    - witrak 4y ago
      Would you be so kind as to say what you mean by "foreign" in this context? I'm asking because I was sure that .com, .org, and .edu are international domains...
      - 4y ago
muppetman 4y ago
I've never understood why Weather apps are such a huge thing. I just type into Google "Weather" and it tells me that weather. If I was worried about privacy I'd bookmark the local government weather website. Why the need to install an app for a simple query? People are obsessed with them though, they're massively popular so I'm missing something.
- Markoff 4y ago
  Because Weather.com is not the most accurate data source in many places. For instance in Prague by my research Dark Sky is the most accurate, then there is big gap and it's followed by Wunderground/AccuWeather and possibly Weather.com (though I think Wunderground/Weather are often same if chosen specific location)
  - muppetman 4y ago
    Weather itself is so random though. It was dark and hailing a 5 minute drive from my house the other day (it was still sunny with a few clouds on the horizon) I live in a town of 65k people so the weather is for that town. But the forecast was either perfect or totally wrong that day.
  - tasuki 4y ago
    What model does Dark Sky use? I find its interface a bit too simplified, though it does have all the important info. I'm Czech and always looking for better weather apps. Mostly using our local Windy[0], which shows a comparison of the GFS, ECMWF, Meteoblue, and ICON models. [0]: https://windy.com/ https://windy.com/
    - Markoff 4y ago
      I think they have their own model. I've made chart and was checking forecast and comparing with real result for few weeks comparing many data sources for Prague and that was my result. I don't consider Windy weather forecast app at all, I wanna see simple hourly forecast or simple day forecast without watching some animations and wasting my time plus it's horrible touch UI in general trying to see what will be temperature 24 hours from now through animation on phone.
TekMol 4y ago
Why not a web app instead? Web apps are nicely sandboxed, work on every device and give the user tons of interface features they are used to. Like zoom, copy&paste, bookmark urls (each city could be a url, parameters could be query string parameters) etc.
- pizza234 4y ago
  Because one can have a look at the widget very quickly; usability wise, it's a big difference.
- fulafel 4y ago
  There are some privacy techniques the app could use that are hard for a web app. For example it could update the weather information at a fixed rate so it would not leak the usage patterns of the app.
  - TekMol 4y ago
    Web apps can do that too. Google for "pwa sync background" to see how.
    - fulafel 4y ago
      I ended up here https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/Web_Periodic_Background_Synchronization_API https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/Web_Periodi... - but the browser compatbility says it's missing from Firefox which probably many/most F-Droid users are using. But maybe it's possible to use the other PWA support without the periodic sync API to cook up similar functionality?
      - olabyne 4y ago
        It is a feature missing from Firefox. PWA apps are a great compromise for webapps with some APIs from native apps, without having an entire browser packed with them
      - TekMol 4y ago
Markoff 4y ago
What's the point of Weather app respecting privacy if its data source (OpenWeatherMap) has horribly inaccurate data? I use Weawow and Today Weather, none of them have access to Location, actually both of them have no permissions granted at all and works fine. I don't use apps which don't allow manually selecting Location.
- reflexco 4y ago
  Chicken-and-egg problem. You would say the same about the data provider if there was no decent frontend for it.
  - Markoff 4y ago
    Not really, data source is way more important than form how it is delivered. Beatiful app with horrible forecast is useless, while horrible looking app with great forecast is still acceptable. Data source is the most improtant thing at weather app, which is why I won't even bother install some app which has for instance only inaccurate Open Weather data, no matter how good the app.
darkwater 4y ago
I wonder how using an API that is under CC-BY-SA 4.0 [0] is considered an anti-feature. I mean, I understand what they want in f-droid with [1] but there should probably be some middle-ground for cases like this? [0] https://openweathermap.org/full-price#licenses https://openweathermap.org/full-price#licenses [1] https://f-droid.org/en/docs/Anti-Features/#NonFreeNet https://f-droid.org/en/docs/Anti-Features/#NonFreeNet
- csande17 4y ago
  The data might be licensed under CC-BY-SA, but as far as I can tell, the service itself is proprietary. The code isn't open source, and you can't just run your own server to use the app completely privately (which you can do with many other F-Droid apps). IMO it's worth calling out.
- NoboruWataya 4y ago
  I think allowing the app on the f-droid repo while forcing it to disclose the anti-feature is the middle ground.
autoexec 4y ago
It seems like a privacy respecting app shouldn't leave your privacy dependent on the ongoing and unwavering benevolence of the developer or the services their app uses. For a weather app that would mean not sending my location data anywhere, but also not sending the locations I want the weather for anywhere either since if you know that most of the time you'll be able to tell where I am or where I will be. The ideal privacy respecting weather app would download and update a local copy of every location's weather, and any requests you made would never leave your own device. I'm not sure how realistic that is, but as long you trust the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, the government they operate under, and that the data being sent to OpenWeather is non-identifying or that they too can be trusted with your data, then this is probably the closest we're going to get.
- Markoff 4y ago
  What I do is to not install apps which don't work with disabled Location (yes, there are stuypid apps like that not allowing to select location manually, even better are those which don't allow selecting location without gapps in phone), simple as that. I have no problem manually enter my location once in a few months (or more likely once and for good for home address and 1-2x per year for vacation location).
- barsonme 4y ago
  Or, you could use cryptography.
  - autoexec 4y ago
    > Or, you could use cryptography. Even if the traffic is encrypted if a remote server has to understand what location you're requesting data for, find that data for you, and then deliver it back to you, that same server will be able to log that and you're back to having to trust that they won't save and abuse that data.
    - easrng 4y ago
      You could request with something like tor and randomize the times data is requested to avoid your location history leaking.
throwaway892238 4y ago
I really like Rain Alarm (https://app.rain-alarm.com/ https://app.rain-alarm.com/). They do collect data, but they are very explicit about what they collect, how it is treated, and when it is removed. Even if you don't want to use it due to personal reasons, you have to respect them putting this info right at the forefront, as most try to hide it. Also, I didn't even realize until now, but the app's functionality is available via the web (https://rain-alarm.com/ https://rain-alarm.com/).
- krageon 4y ago
  Respect comes from not doing it at all. Honesty and transparency are not worth anything when corporations can change this text at will. It is not permanent and there are no consequences for changing it.
- Timshel 4y ago
  Goal of CCPA and GDPR is to make not disclosing illegal so they don't really gain any points ... The web functionality is not available if you refuse tracking so nothing there too ..
MrksHfmn 4y ago
Really like the app with CalyxOS on my Pixel 6
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
m463 4y ago
You can type "weather san francisco" into duck duck go and it will give you detailed weather.
open-source-ux 4y ago
If you're in the UK, the BBC has a ad-free weather app for Android and iOS. It included forecasts for locations worldwide. However, I don't know if it is ad-free for international users. Perhaps someone can confirm? https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=bbc.mobile.weather https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=bbc.mobile.wea...
kennydude 4y ago
Some of the color choices look a little ugly, at least by the screenshots. Also, kinda surprisingly, Android has the capability to allow for different sources of data through different apps providing it. So they could have allowed for choice of weather service through other "apps" (even if those other apps provided no user interface). It's kinda sad how under-used Android can be tbh,
deng 4y ago
Used it for a while, but unfortunately, the data at Openweathermap was just way off for my location (Germany). Switched to FOSS Weather (https://f-droid.org/en/packages/de.baumann.weather/ https://f-droid.org/en/packages/de.baumann.weather/), which is a wrapper around wetterdienst.de. Unfortunately, this app is no longer maintained, but it still works perfectly fine.
ttctciyf 4y ago
Is any substantial store of endorsements / comments for f-droid apps to be found? I guess the absence of a "like" or review function in the f-droid app is a deliberate choice, but I'd love to see user feedback at a central, or at least easily discoverable, place. This has been discussed [1],[2], and looks like it won't happen "officially", but a third-party site utilising the API and possibly organised like nexusmods, with posts and endorsements, say, would be nice to see! 1: https://forum.f-droid.org/t/reviews-feature-for-f-droid/11975/2 https://forum.f-droid.org/t/reviews-feature-for-f-droid/1197... 2: https://forum.f-droid.org/t/discussion-thread-for-each-app-in-f-droid/16489 https://forum.f-droid.org/t/discussion-thread-for-each-app-i...
- zufallsheld 4y ago
  There's g-droid that has a like functionality: https://f-droid.org/en/packages/org.gdroid.gdroid/ https://f-droid.org/en/packages/org.gdroid.gdroid/ Though it could use more users and reviewers.
  - ttctciyf 4y ago
    Thanks, I'll certainly give that a try!
Sverigevader 4y ago
One of the best (well made, great design, functional) Android apps I'm using currently is a weather app. It's made by the Norwegian Public Service Agency, NRK. The app is simply called Yr and they have a website where you can find the apps (bottom)[0] [0] https://www.yr.no/ https://www.yr.no/
- piaste 4y ago
  Doesn't seem to be open source though. NRK has a bunch of open-source projects on github [0], but the app isn't one of them, only some support libraries [1] [0]: https://github.com/orgs/nrkno/ https://github.com/orgs/nrkno/ [1]: https://github.com/orgs/nrkno/repositories?q=yr&type=all&language=&sort= https://github.com/orgs/nrkno/repositories?q=yr&type=all&lan...
trabant00 4y ago
I've tested https://openweathermap.org/ https://openweathermap.org/ multiple times in different places in Europe. The forecasts are far from accurate when compared to weather.com (which is the data source for google weather). Right now for example it show 6 degrees C less than real for my location for the entire week.
jacooper 4y ago
I find Geometric weather to be better, also on F-droid.
- piaste 4y ago
  +1. Geometric Weather is one of the rare FOSS apps that also have slick, modern UX.
jonnycomputer 4y ago
Are there no open-source weather apps on Play Store? For US weather at least we have https://www.weather.gov/documentation/services-web-api https://www.weather.gov/documentation/services-web-api, so it doesn't seem like it would be that hard to do. Is there something about the Play Store eco-system that makes such a thing not viable or trustworthy? Seems like all you'd need is a minimalist web page doing a single http request to the api
- mathstuf 4y ago
  I suspect the main issue is getting discovered. Without filters like "no ads" or "no in-app purchases" in Play Store, it's hard to see how Google would ever organically bubble results for such an app to the top (since Google Ads is by far the most popular and there are definitely financial incentives to promote those apps over more privacy-conscious ones).
  - throwup 4y ago
    I prefer to use apps from F-Droid, but when that fails, I use a third-party search for the Play Store that has both of those filters - https://playsearch.kaki87.net/ https://playsearch.kaki87.net/ Your broader point is right though. It doesn't benefit the app devs since 99.99% of users just use the first-party search.
- gmiller123456 4y ago
  If there were an open source app that was popular, the spammers would copy it and put it out there 10,000 times over, loaded down with spyware. I generally release all of my code as public domain, but never publish the source code to an app. The first day I got an Android phone, the first app I wanted was a flashlight app. After clicking through the permissions on some for a couple of minutes, I realized it was just going to be faster just to learn to write my own. It's just appalling that Google, the so called "master of search" won't let you filter results by permissions required. None of my apps require more permissions than what's required, and some require none. And people give them 1 star reviews stating the "permissions screen is blank", or back when there used to be a popup with the permissions: "Warning! This app doesn't display a permissions popup!". They've literally never seen an app that doesn't require permissions.
IG_Semmelweiss 4y ago
I have used the app. Its Ok but of limited use - and has no widget. At some point I had to use a china-based app (that i would normally not touch with a 10 foot pole) despite privacy considerations Why? Because they had a widget that did the trick. I could see forecast by the hour on the widget, including % rain by the hour and wind. A user needs to be able to plan his day (or week) out with a mere glance. If I have to tap more than once foe this information, thats a problem. Is it going to rain at the time im scheduling this lunch meeting? Will it pour during my daughter's little League game? Will the mild cold going to be frigid because of severe wind gusts? Those are answers i need on my home screen, viewable at.all.times. I commend weather app for their privacy considerations but its too basic to be useable in most use cases except for generic 'just give me temp and precip '
- infamia 4y ago
  Try Geometric Weather in the F-Droid store. It is quite a lot more than simple precipitation and it has a widget. Also, WX if you're in the US for really advanced weather info.
- zufallsheld 4y ago
  The app has a widget.
  - ryukafalz 4y ago
    Yup, had to go check as well after installing and it does indeed. With four different options even!
- AlexandrB 4y ago
  > At some point I had to use a china-based app (that i would normally not touch with a 10 foot pole) despite privacy considerations Scary stuff. The fact that a well-informed user would compromise privacy consideration to save a tap or two when checking the weather is why we're all probably doomed. Even the slightest inconvenience seems to outweigh any long term privacy implications.
  - 4y ago
JeremyNT 4y ago
I've used this app, and it's OK, but for power users in the US, wX weather has a much better feature set: https://f-droid.org/en/packages/joshuatee.wx/ https://f-droid.org/en/packages/joshuatee.wx/ https://gitlab.com/joshua.tee/wx https://gitlab.com/joshua.tee/wx
prego_xo 4y ago
I use Geometric Weather. It's also on F-Droid, has widgets, material design, and a GPL3 license. You can choose the source for your weather, and it has just about any feature you'd ever need (wind speed, barometric pressure, weekly, daily, and hourly forecasts). It's very pretty, too.
- morsch 4y ago
  Not every feature, unfortunately, no radar map.
zikduruqe 4y ago
Maybe try https://www.yr.no/en https://www.yr.no/en
ThePowerOfFuet 4y ago
Why does this look almost exactly like RadarWeather? https://f-droid.org/repo/org.woheller69.weather https://f-droid.org/repo/org.woheller69.weather

134 points by BurungHantu 4y ago

Here is another great choice in the US, sourced directly from the NOAA, I think it used to be in FDroid but now is a direct download. https://nwsnow.net/ https://nwsnow.net/ >NWS NOW is a FREE weather application with no advertising, no user tracking using the National Weather Service™ and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration™ public API.

hnburnsy 4y ago
NWSNow does included various sized widgets too.

BurungHantu 4y ago

Privacy Friendly Weather lets you watch the weather for cities and locations you are interested in. The app has been developed by the research group SECUSO at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology. More info can be found on https://secuso.org/pfa https://secuso.org/pfa

errantmind 4y ago
Thanks, just installed it and it has what I need in a weather app
btzs 4y ago
From above link: * are Open Source (GPLv3) and their source code can be viewed an GitHub by anybody * used minimal permissions * do not neither tracking mechanisms nor advertisement The app are made by students of the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology.

DarthNebo 4y ago

The fact that it had to be mentioned at all for a weather app is concerning & telling of the state of tech

cryptoz 4y ago
Privacy in good weather apps that are innovative can be tricky. Phones have enough sensors like barometers to be useful weather stations, and collecting that data could improve forecasts. But that also includes accurate location data, and making a useful forecast model from data collected on device is significantly more challenging when you account for privacy needs. The “telling state of tech” may be that our hardware has outpaced our ability to socially reason about how useful weather data should be collected and shared, or not shared.
- donkeyd 4y ago
  Sure, but I'm fine with sharing my data for that purpose. I also have an app that registers any possible earthquakes and shares that data with a centralized server for analysis. I'm perfectly fine with that, as long as they don't sell my data to anyone who wants to market earthquake safety equipment or wants to track my location. Transparency on the use of data is important to make decisions on this type of stuff. If a weather app requests access to my barometer to improve predictions, independent of my personal data, I would fully comply with that.
  - dotancohen 4y ago
    They may not sell your data, but it might be subpoenaed by a court. Or breached by a hacker. Or leaked by a coding error. Or by incorrect AWS permissions. Or an email campaign by a stupid PM.
  - nonrandomstring 4y ago
    "Privacy" has a nebulous definition, and I don't think many of us here have concerns about supplying anonymous data to help build useful systems. We need to re-frame the issue. Individual and aggregated environmental sensor data could be used for so many good things. We can track storms, fires and floods, earthquakes, air and noise pollution, and save lives. But it is abused by a greedy, unethical few, and so the systems can no longer be trusted. Medical data, individual and aggregated, can be used to stop transmissible disease by detecting outbreaks, and improve our personal health through exercise monitoring and early issue diagnosis. But it is abused by a greedy, unethical few, and so the systems can no longer be trusted. Domestic data has the potential to manage energy, water use and air quality, keep homes safe from intruders, protect the elderly and babies. But it is abused by a greedy, unethical few, and so the systems can no longer be trusted. The pattern here looks like a tragedy of the commons. As engineers we can build systems with ostensible social utility which are then hijacked (sold, acquired, infiltrated) by "digital pirates" who turn them into systems of abuse (surveillance, manipulation and control). Each time the empty "assurances" are the same and the corruption predictable, inevitable and painful. Perhaps it is time to stop thinking about "privacy" at the level of technical measures and permissions etc, and deal with corruption and abuse, which seems intrinsic to tech, at a different level. We have the mathematical/cryptological knowledge to build better systems. but it's the unethical few who benefit from stealing our data who don't want computer systems to be secure.

jonas-w 4y ago

The developers [0] of this app have a whole series of different Privacy Friendly Apps, if you search for "org.secuso" on f-droid you can see them all. [0] https://secuso.aifb.kit.edu/index.php https://secuso.aifb.kit.edu/index.php

account-5 4y ago
This is brilliant, there's some apps in that collection I was going to try and create myself with dart/flutter. Probably still will for learning but thanks.
wickedsight 4y ago
That's pretty awesome. The page with an overview of all their apps is right here: https://secuso.aifb.kit.edu/english/105.php https://secuso.aifb.kit.edu/english/105.php
- 1f60c 4y ago
  I was curious how a foreign university obtained a .EDU domain, but apparently, foreign universities could register a .EDU domain before 2001.
  - bierjunge 4y ago
    It's the KIT (Karlsruhe Institute for Technology, former Technical University of Karlsruhe) in south western Germany. IIRC they have the oldest computer science institute in the country and sent/received the first emails in Germany. So yes, they have some standing in the research community, but they renamed in 2008 or 2009 and still got a new .edu domain.
  - witrak 4y ago
    Would you be so kind as to say what you mean by "foreign" in this context? I'm asking because I was sure that .com, .org, and .edu are international domains...
    - 4y ago

muppetman 4y ago

I've never understood why Weather apps are such a huge thing. I just type into Google "Weather" and it tells me that weather. If I was worried about privacy I'd bookmark the local government weather website. Why the need to install an app for a simple query? People are obsessed with them though, they're massively popular so I'm missing something.

Markoff 4y ago
Because Weather.com is not the most accurate data source in many places. For instance in Prague by my research Dark Sky is the most accurate, then there is big gap and it's followed by Wunderground/AccuWeather and possibly Weather.com (though I think Wunderground/Weather are often same if chosen specific location)
- muppetman 4y ago
  Weather itself is so random though. It was dark and hailing a 5 minute drive from my house the other day (it was still sunny with a few clouds on the horizon) I live in a town of 65k people so the weather is for that town. But the forecast was either perfect or totally wrong that day.
- tasuki 4y ago
  What model does Dark Sky use? I find its interface a bit too simplified, though it does have all the important info. I'm Czech and always looking for better weather apps. Mostly using our local Windy[0], which shows a comparison of the GFS, ECMWF, Meteoblue, and ICON models. [0]: https://windy.com/ https://windy.com/
  - Markoff 4y ago
    I think they have their own model. I've made chart and was checking forecast and comparing with real result for few weeks comparing many data sources for Prague and that was my result. I don't consider Windy weather forecast app at all, I wanna see simple hourly forecast or simple day forecast without watching some animations and wasting my time plus it's horrible touch UI in general trying to see what will be temperature 24 hours from now through animation on phone.

TekMol 4y ago

Why not a web app instead? Web apps are nicely sandboxed, work on every device and give the user tons of interface features they are used to. Like zoom, copy&paste, bookmark urls (each city could be a url, parameters could be query string parameters) etc.

pizza234 4y ago
Because one can have a look at the widget very quickly; usability wise, it's a big difference.
fulafel 4y ago
There are some privacy techniques the app could use that are hard for a web app. For example it could update the weather information at a fixed rate so it would not leak the usage patterns of the app.
- TekMol 4y ago
  Web apps can do that too. Google for "pwa sync background" to see how.
  - fulafel 4y ago
    I ended up here https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/Web_Periodic_Background_Synchronization_API https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/Web_Periodi... - but the browser compatbility says it's missing from Firefox which probably many/most F-Droid users are using. But maybe it's possible to use the other PWA support without the periodic sync API to cook up similar functionality?
    - olabyne 4y ago
      It is a feature missing from Firefox. PWA apps are a great compromise for webapps with some APIs from native apps, without having an entire browser packed with them
    - TekMol 4y ago

Markoff 4y ago

What's the point of Weather app respecting privacy if its data source (OpenWeatherMap) has horribly inaccurate data? I use Weawow and Today Weather, none of them have access to Location, actually both of them have no permissions granted at all and works fine. I don't use apps which don't allow manually selecting Location.

reflexco 4y ago
Chicken-and-egg problem. You would say the same about the data provider if there was no decent frontend for it.
- Markoff 4y ago
  Not really, data source is way more important than form how it is delivered. Beatiful app with horrible forecast is useless, while horrible looking app with great forecast is still acceptable. Data source is the most improtant thing at weather app, which is why I won't even bother install some app which has for instance only inaccurate Open Weather data, no matter how good the app.

darkwater 4y ago

I wonder how using an API that is under CC-BY-SA 4.0 [0] is considered an anti-feature. I mean, I understand what they want in f-droid with [1] but there should probably be some middle-ground for cases like this? [0] https://openweathermap.org/full-price#licenses https://openweathermap.org/full-price#licenses [1] https://f-droid.org/en/docs/Anti-Features/#NonFreeNet https://f-droid.org/en/docs/Anti-Features/#NonFreeNet

csande17 4y ago
The data might be licensed under CC-BY-SA, but as far as I can tell, the service itself is proprietary. The code isn't open source, and you can't just run your own server to use the app completely privately (which you can do with many other F-Droid apps). IMO it's worth calling out.
NoboruWataya 4y ago
I think allowing the app on the f-droid repo while forcing it to disclose the anti-feature is the middle ground.

autoexec 4y ago

It seems like a privacy respecting app shouldn't leave your privacy dependent on the ongoing and unwavering benevolence of the developer or the services their app uses. For a weather app that would mean not sending my location data anywhere, but also not sending the locations I want the weather for anywhere either since if you know that most of the time you'll be able to tell where I am or where I will be. The ideal privacy respecting weather app would download and update a local copy of every location's weather, and any requests you made would never leave your own device. I'm not sure how realistic that is, but as long you trust the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, the government they operate under, and that the data being sent to OpenWeather is non-identifying or that they too can be trusted with your data, then this is probably the closest we're going to get.

Markoff 4y ago
What I do is to not install apps which don't work with disabled Location (yes, there are stuypid apps like that not allowing to select location manually, even better are those which don't allow selecting location without gapps in phone), simple as that. I have no problem manually enter my location once in a few months (or more likely once and for good for home address and 1-2x per year for vacation location).
barsonme 4y ago
Or, you could use cryptography.
- autoexec 4y ago
  > Or, you could use cryptography. Even if the traffic is encrypted if a remote server has to understand what location you're requesting data for, find that data for you, and then deliver it back to you, that same server will be able to log that and you're back to having to trust that they won't save and abuse that data.
  - easrng 4y ago
    You could request with something like tor and randomize the times data is requested to avoid your location history leaking.

throwaway892238 4y ago

I really like Rain Alarm (https://app.rain-alarm.com/ https://app.rain-alarm.com/). They do collect data, but they are very explicit about what they collect, how it is treated, and when it is removed. Even if you don't want to use it due to personal reasons, you have to respect them putting this info right at the forefront, as most try to hide it. Also, I didn't even realize until now, but the app's functionality is available via the web (https://rain-alarm.com/ https://rain-alarm.com/).

krageon 4y ago
Respect comes from not doing it at all. Honesty and transparency are not worth anything when corporations can change this text at will. It is not permanent and there are no consequences for changing it.
Timshel 4y ago
Goal of CCPA and GDPR is to make not disclosing illegal so they don't really gain any points ... The web functionality is not available if you refuse tracking so nothing there too ..

MrksHfmn 4y ago

Really like the app with CalyxOS on my Pixel 6

deleted 4y ago
[deleted]

m463 4y ago

You can type "weather san francisco" into duck duck go and it will give you detailed weather.

open-source-ux 4y ago

If you're in the UK, the BBC has a ad-free weather app for Android and iOS. It included forecasts for locations worldwide. However, I don't know if it is ad-free for international users. Perhaps someone can confirm? https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=bbc.mobile.weather https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=bbc.mobile.wea...

kennydude 4y ago

Some of the color choices look a little ugly, at least by the screenshots. Also, kinda surprisingly, Android has the capability to allow for different sources of data through different apps providing it. So they could have allowed for choice of weather service through other "apps" (even if those other apps provided no user interface). It's kinda sad how under-used Android can be tbh,

deng 4y ago

Used it for a while, but unfortunately, the data at Openweathermap was just way off for my location (Germany). Switched to FOSS Weather (https://f-droid.org/en/packages/de.baumann.weather/ https://f-droid.org/en/packages/de.baumann.weather/), which is a wrapper around wetterdienst.de. Unfortunately, this app is no longer maintained, but it still works perfectly fine.

ttctciyf 4y ago

Is any substantial store of endorsements / comments for f-droid apps to be found? I guess the absence of a "like" or review function in the f-droid app is a deliberate choice, but I'd love to see user feedback at a central, or at least easily discoverable, place. This has been discussed [1],[2], and looks like it won't happen "officially", but a third-party site utilising the API and possibly organised like nexusmods, with posts and endorsements, say, would be nice to see! 1: https://forum.f-droid.org/t/reviews-feature-for-f-droid/11975/2 https://forum.f-droid.org/t/reviews-feature-for-f-droid/1197... 2: https://forum.f-droid.org/t/discussion-thread-for-each-app-in-f-droid/16489 https://forum.f-droid.org/t/discussion-thread-for-each-app-i...

zufallsheld 4y ago
There's g-droid that has a like functionality: https://f-droid.org/en/packages/org.gdroid.gdroid/ https://f-droid.org/en/packages/org.gdroid.gdroid/ Though it could use more users and reviewers.
- ttctciyf 4y ago
  Thanks, I'll certainly give that a try!

Sverigevader 4y ago

One of the best (well made, great design, functional) Android apps I'm using currently is a weather app. It's made by the Norwegian Public Service Agency, NRK. The app is simply called Yr and they have a website where you can find the apps (bottom)[0] [0] https://www.yr.no/ https://www.yr.no/

piaste 4y ago
Doesn't seem to be open source though. NRK has a bunch of open-source projects on github [0], but the app isn't one of them, only some support libraries [1] [0]: https://github.com/orgs/nrkno/ https://github.com/orgs/nrkno/ [1]: https://github.com/orgs/nrkno/repositories?q=yr&type=all&language=&sort= https://github.com/orgs/nrkno/repositories?q=yr&type=all&lan...

trabant00 4y ago

I've tested https://openweathermap.org/ https://openweathermap.org/ multiple times in different places in Europe. The forecasts are far from accurate when compared to weather.com (which is the data source for google weather). Right now for example it show 6 degrees C less than real for my location for the entire week.

jacooper 4y ago

I find Geometric weather to be better, also on F-droid.

piaste 4y ago
+1. Geometric Weather is one of the rare FOSS apps that also have slick, modern UX.

jonnycomputer 4y ago

Are there no open-source weather apps on Play Store? For US weather at least we have https://www.weather.gov/documentation/services-web-api https://www.weather.gov/documentation/services-web-api, so it doesn't seem like it would be that hard to do. Is there something about the Play Store eco-system that makes such a thing not viable or trustworthy? Seems like all you'd need is a minimalist web page doing a single http request to the api

mathstuf 4y ago
I suspect the main issue is getting discovered. Without filters like "no ads" or "no in-app purchases" in Play Store, it's hard to see how Google would ever organically bubble results for such an app to the top (since Google Ads is by far the most popular and there are definitely financial incentives to promote those apps over more privacy-conscious ones).
- throwup 4y ago
  I prefer to use apps from F-Droid, but when that fails, I use a third-party search for the Play Store that has both of those filters - https://playsearch.kaki87.net/ https://playsearch.kaki87.net/ Your broader point is right though. It doesn't benefit the app devs since 99.99% of users just use the first-party search.
gmiller123456 4y ago
If there were an open source app that was popular, the spammers would copy it and put it out there 10,000 times over, loaded down with spyware. I generally release all of my code as public domain, but never publish the source code to an app. The first day I got an Android phone, the first app I wanted was a flashlight app. After clicking through the permissions on some for a couple of minutes, I realized it was just going to be faster just to learn to write my own. It's just appalling that Google, the so called "master of search" won't let you filter results by permissions required. None of my apps require more permissions than what's required, and some require none. And people give them 1 star reviews stating the "permissions screen is blank", or back when there used to be a popup with the permissions: "Warning! This app doesn't display a permissions popup!". They've literally never seen an app that doesn't require permissions.

IG_Semmelweiss 4y ago

I have used the app. Its Ok but of limited use - and has no widget. At some point I had to use a china-based app (that i would normally not touch with a 10 foot pole) despite privacy considerations Why? Because they had a widget that did the trick. I could see forecast by the hour on the widget, including % rain by the hour and wind. A user needs to be able to plan his day (or week) out with a mere glance. If I have to tap more than once foe this information, thats a problem. Is it going to rain at the time im scheduling this lunch meeting? Will it pour during my daughter's little League game? Will the mild cold going to be frigid because of severe wind gusts? Those are answers i need on my home screen, viewable at.all.times. I commend weather app for their privacy considerations but its too basic to be useable in most use cases except for generic 'just give me temp and precip '

infamia 4y ago
Try Geometric Weather in the F-Droid store. It is quite a lot more than simple precipitation and it has a widget. Also, WX if you're in the US for really advanced weather info.
zufallsheld 4y ago
The app has a widget.
- ryukafalz 4y ago
  Yup, had to go check as well after installing and it does indeed. With four different options even!
AlexandrB 4y ago
> At some point I had to use a china-based app (that i would normally not touch with a 10 foot pole) despite privacy considerations Scary stuff. The fact that a well-informed user would compromise privacy consideration to save a tap or two when checking the weather is why we're all probably doomed. Even the slightest inconvenience seems to outweigh any long term privacy implications.
- 4y ago

JeremyNT 4y ago

I've used this app, and it's OK, but for power users in the US, wX weather has a much better feature set: https://f-droid.org/en/packages/joshuatee.wx/ https://f-droid.org/en/packages/joshuatee.wx/ https://gitlab.com/joshua.tee/wx https://gitlab.com/joshua.tee/wx

prego_xo 4y ago

I use Geometric Weather. It's also on F-Droid, has widgets, material design, and a GPL3 license. You can choose the source for your weather, and it has just about any feature you'd ever need (wind speed, barometric pressure, weekly, daily, and hourly forecasts). It's very pretty, too.

morsch 4y ago
Not every feature, unfortunately, no radar map.

zikduruqe 4y ago

Maybe try https://www.yr.no/en https://www.yr.no/en

ThePowerOfFuet 4y ago

Why does this look almost exactly like RadarWeather? https://f-droid.org/repo/org.woheller69.weather https://f-droid.org/repo/org.woheller69.weather