Google Introduces AI-Powered Weather App for Pixel Phones

Pixel 6 and Newer Phones Get AI-Powered Weather App

Google released its own weather app in the Made by Google 2024 event Google released the Pixel Weather app with the Pixel 9 lineup in August at its annual Made by Google event. Now the app is making its way to older Pixel smartphones including the Pixel 6 and later, and the Pixel Table. All supported devices are receiving the Pixel Weather app as part of the October Feature Drop. Users can access weather forecasts with Pixel Weather and it includes a customised detail page, notifications, and summary. Eligible Pixel phone users can spot the new Google Weather app as an update in the Play Store. As part of the latest October Pixel Feature Drop, the Pixel Weather app is expanding to more Pixel devices, as spotted by 9to5Google. All models in the Pixel 6, Pixel 7, and Pixel 8 series are eligible to receive the new app. Pixel A series phones including Pixel 6a, Pixel 7a, Pixel 8a, and Google Pixel Tablet are also supported. A Pixel Weather app update should be available via the Google Play Store. At the time of writing, the version number available was seen to be 1.0.20240910.687035637 in India. The app also provides an AI-generated weather overview with tips and includes a customisable detail page, notifications, and summary. Users can get a 10-day forecast, air quality index (AQI), humidity, weather map and pollen count through the app. The pollen count feature is currently exclusive to select markets including the UK, Germany, France, and Italy. It offers AI-generated weather backgrounds and precipitation maps as well. Once installed, the new "Weather" icon will be available in the app drawer. Users have to allow app notifications and precise locations for the Pixel Weather app. Taping the profile avatar > Pixel Weather settings will set the app as the primary source of weather notifications. Google released a separate weather app at the Made by Google 2024 event. The app uses Gemini Nano -- Google's AI model -- for custom weather reports. It was earlier exclusive to Pixel 9 series phones including the Pixel 9, Pixel 9 Pro, Pixel 9 Pro XL, and the Pixel 9 Pro Fold.

Pixel phones are getting an actual weather app in 2024, with a bit of AI

Google's stated mission is to "organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful." For a very long time, then, it has been odd that one of its biggest platforms, Android, lacked for a real default weather app. You know, weather -- the kind of information that's relevant to almost everybody, every single day and is one of humanity's default topics of conversation. Android phones had, for a while, a "Weather" widget (and an icon inside the "At a Glance" widget) that essentially provided a framed webpage of useful weather data, accompanied by a plucky frog who illustrated the conditions. The frog was popular (even getting his own New Year's doodle), and the basic weather stats were useful. But it couldn't compare to Apple's weather, which nabbed the minute-by-minute precipitation of Dark Sky and ended its life on Android. There were lots of third-party weather apps -- Ars staffers like RadarScope and Carrot Weather, for example -- but it remained an odd choice for Google to mostly ignore the category. Google, and its all-in AI obsession, cedes no longer. As suggested by Google in October, and spotted by blogs like 9to5Google, an honest-to-goodness weather app, named "Weather," is rolling out to Pixel phones model 6 and newer running Android 15, having started on the Pixel 9 models. There's a prominent "AI generated weather report" on top of the weather stack, which is a combination of summary and familiarity. "Cold and rainy day, bring your umbrella and hold onto your hat!" is Google's example; I can't provide another one, because an update to "Gemini Nano" is pending.