C. Scott Brown / Android Authority
In brief
- Pixel Weather brings a new look and AI-powered tools to weather forecasts on your phone.
- Google has redesigned its app with a minimalist, customizable design.
- Gemini Nano provides concise summaries and informs you about the weather in an easy-to-understand format.
Google does a lot of things really well, and its apps and services offer a ton of value to Android users. While Gmail is great for email, and Maps is great—well, it says so on the tin—sometimes we’re really tempted to look at the exciting things that third-party developers have come up with. One of the biggest categories we love to explore there is certainly weather apps. Today, however, it might be worth taking a second look at what Google can do with weather forecasts, as a brand new Weather app is coming along with the Pixel 9.
It wasn’t just the Pixel 9’s hardware that was leaking in the weeks and months leading up to today’s launch, but also the software associated with the phone. And just over a week ago, we gave you an exclusive look at Google’s new Weather app. Just a few days later, you had the opportunity to try the app yourself with the release of an APK for sideloading. Even though the cat has been out of the bag for a minute, there is still a lot to see here.
C. Scott Brown / Android Authority
Compared to the old Weather app, the new interface feels less cluttered overall without losing detail. Data elements like wind speed and barometric pressure are presented with widget-like cards that you can now reposition in the main app view, allowing you to prioritize access to the elements that are most important to you.
Weather’s biggest new trick, however, may be its AI-powered summaries (it is 2024, after all). Harnessing the power of Google’s new Tensor G4 chip, the reimagined Weather app uses Gemini Nano to condense its forecasts into succinct, actionable summaries—and if you’ve got 10 seconds to get out the door before you’re late and just want to know whether or not you should pack a coat or umbrella, that’s exactly the kind of curated information you need.
Summaries by themselves aren’t exactly groundbreaking, so it will really be up to Gemini to show us how well it understands both the weather itself and our needs to prepare for it.
Hopefully, launching as a standalone app like this will give development a little boost, as we’d love to see Google prioritize software like this. While the new Pixel Weather makes its debut with the Pixel 9, we’re optimistic that Google will officially expand support to more phones.
