The Google Weather shortcut icon, featuring the familiar sun partly obscured by a cloud and the famous “G”, no longer directs to the classic full-screen page.
If you were among those who relied on this interface to plan your day, you may soon receive a notification informing you of a transfer in progress.
The Google Weather app is gone; now you access weather via search
Instead of the dedicated screen, the link now redirects users to Google search results for the word “weather”. Here a reduced and integrated version of the previous interface is shown, condensing the main weather information within the search results page itself.
This means the disappearance of the button to view all details on full screen, replaced by navigation based on scrolling through related results.
On the one hand, this demonstrates yet another closure of a service by the Mountain View company; on the other hand, the essential information for facing the day remains immediately accessible.
No fear for the most loved mascot
For those fearing the worst, there is reassuring news. The famous frog Froggy, the amphibian that has for years accompanied weather forecasts on Android devices, has not disappeared. The integration of AI systems to summarize current conditions has left room for the mascot intact.
In the new search tab, Froggy makes an appearance inside the box dedicated to the six-hour hourly forecasts.
The animation still adapts to the real weather: if precipitation is forecast for your area, you’ll find the frog with its unmistakable umbrella in Google’s colors, immersed in an animation that reproduces rain or snow.
A small consolation for longtime users, who can maintain a touch of lightness in their daily temperature-check experience.
The treatment reserved for Pixel owners
Users of Pixel smartphones, starting from the 6 model onwards, enjoy a privileged situation. The company has in fact developed an application named Pixel Weather, available directly on the Play Store. This software represents a complete and richly detailed solution, including radar maps and extended forecasts.
By installing this exclusive application, users get access to two types of widgets for the home screen.
The first is a wide and detailed panel that shows the city name, the current conditions, the actual temperature, the wind chill, as well as the daily highs and lows, completing everything with an hourly breakdown of the forecasts.
The second widget offers instead a more compact format, ideal for those who want to display only the illustration of the current weather and the degrees Celsius without taking up too much space on the display.
Alternatives and informed choices
Google’s habit of closing, modifying or reinventing its products is well known to longtime consumers. For Android purists, the ecosystem offers wide workarounds without resorting to unnecessary expenses. Historical and widely tested apps, easily traceable on the official store, offer complete tools and proprietary widgets to customize your device.
There is no reason to invest in paid apps if you do not need meteorological monitoring tools of a highly technical level, such as those required in aviation or maritime contexts.
Free solutions cover every information need, from humidity to winds, up to precipitation.
The move of Google Weather directly into the search bar simply represents a reorganization of space to reduce maintenance costs, centralizing the functions for the end user in a single environment.
