Weather Channel for iOS App Review

The Weather Channel app for iOS recently underwent an update, and I decided to try it out due to the lack of included weather app on iPad. I was also interested in the app since Apple will be sourcing their weather data in iOS 8 from The Weather Channel.

With this being said, it should be noted that I am by no means a hardcore weather app user. I find my needs well met by the default iOS weather app on iPhone. I just need to quickly check the current and near future temperature, the UV index, precipitation chance, and humidity/wind chill. Just about any weather app more than fills this need, so bear this in mind.

Source: http://alliosnews.com/wp-content/uploads/
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For me, the experience of an app begins with its app icon; if an app is going to be on my homescreen, I don't want to hate looking at it. The most recent update makes the icon much flatter, matching the iOS 7 style quite well. I enjoy the color scheme and simple design. It also holds up to the pixel density of the Retina Display on my iPad Air, which at this point every app icon should. I'm not deleting the app for pure ugly factor; that's a win. That being said, everyone has different tastes, so you can check out the design for yourself on the right.

The next part of the experiment is the loading screen, and unfortunately here the app falls short. The load screen is not Retina optimized, and I can definitely make out pixels on my iPad Air. This is a shame, really, since it's a simple, static image, and Retina Displays have been around since the 3rd generation iPad.

The main screen of the app displays a concise summary of the weather (high, low, current temp, description of weather) in an opaque circle atop a nice looking picture. This is not dissimilar to the Yahoo Weather app, although Yahoo puts a lot more emphasis on the photo, in my opinion. Tapping the circle yields a breakdown of more detailed weather information like wind speed, humidity, visibility, UV index, etc. Swiping to the right gives a 10 day forecast, and tapping on any of those days gives more detailed information.

There is a navigation bar across the bottom of the screen that has a section for radar, news, video and health. This is also where you access settings and search for locations. These features aren't really useful to me, so I won't comment on them. If you do like weather radar, though, this is one of the apps that does include that.

A unique section to this app is the "travel" section, located next to the "search" button on the bottom nav-bar. Tapping this airplane shaped button brings up a small window where you can search for and add locations that you will be traveling to in the future. Once you select your location, a new screen transitions in where you can view climate differences related to your current location and you can add dates for when you will be in this location. It's very useful for people who travel, or who are planning on traveling; I really like the idea of the feature. Unfortunately, the implementation is poor. The screen displaying the place you are traveling to only works in landscape orientation, despite the app being generally navigated in portrait. This is a major oversight, and makes the app cumbersome.

My other gripe with this app is that there is no way to clear warning alerts that appear at the top of the app. I have had 3 flood warnings for the area I currently live in, and they have stayed for a week now. I get it: it could flood. The user should be able to clear these warnings once they have been read.

Also, ads. And no ability to pay to remove them. This is unfortunate, especially in today's age of freemium/in-app purchase apps, but I guess that's they only way the company thought they could turn a profit (or break even) on a free app. The ads aren't everywhere, so they aren't as annoying as they could be, though, so there is that.

So, what's the verdict, you ask? Are you keeping the app after this review, or finding another? I am going to keep it for now, and I'll explain why. I like the icon far better than my previous solution, Yahoo Weather. Sure, that's a small thing, but it matters to me. Also, while Yahoo Weather has more advanced/fancy in-app navigation, it feels at times like too much, and even a little confusing for me. You may prefer this, and that's okay. I encourage you to try them both out and see which one you like better (they're free apps, after all). I'm willing to put up with the quirks of The Weather Channel for it's dead simplicity. I'll even put up with ads for it.