Customization is one of the main reasons why folks flock to the Android operating system. The ability to customize nearly every aspect of your user experience is a major selling point, and the ability to replace stock applications with open-source alternatives makes it even more enticing. It may sound silly, but one of the first things I always look to replace is the stock weather app. As someone obsessed with seeing what the weather is going to be like, I’d rather have something that is both accurate and adorable.
I’ve tried a few other apps in the past, but I always find myself going back to Rain. Not only is it absolutely adorable to look at, bringing a smile to my face even on the nastiest of days, but it’s also incredibly accurate. When the weather gets nasty, this is the one I trust.
It uses Open-Meteo for accurate weather reporting
Rain is far more than just an adorable little face. It’s also incredibly accurate
I’ll be honest; I was initially drawn into Rain because I thought it was just the cutest thing I’d ever seen. But after pitting it against other apps like Open Weather and the stock weather app, I found that it not only provided just as much information, but oftentimes surpassed these other applications in accuracy. Plus, there are no ads for this, unlike Open Weather, and it gives you as much customization and flexibility as you’d like.
Rain uses Open-Meteo, an open-source weather API that sources data from NOAA and DWD to make it incredibly accurate in its forecasting. Seeing as predicting what the weather is completely capable of, I don’t think that any weather forecast can be completely spot on, but it’s one of the most accurate that I’ve seen. If rocky weather is on the horizon, I always suggest checking something like the NOAA Severe Weather forecast to ensure you’re not in danger.
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Change your data to your liking
You can view the upcoming weather however you’d like
Credit:Â Shaun Cichacki/MUO
While the majority of the world uses Celsius to determine the temperature, many folks prefer to use Fahrenheit. Being based in the United States, I’m all in on Fahrenheit and like to see what’s going on around the globe when it comes to the weather. That’s one of the nicest parts about Rain to me is the ability to customize your app to perform exactly as you’d like, with detailed weather data and my preferred temperature reading, regardless of where I’m viewing it.
Plus, I can set it to receive notifications if bad weather or storms are on the way, set the time to be either a standard 12-hour or 24-hour military time, hourly weather updates by clicking on a location, and so much more. It’s rather customizable, and that’s not even getting into the theming of the app itself. You can set it to follow your system theme if you’d like, or you can go all in on customizing it to look exactly as you’d like. It’s great in that regard.
Rain is fully open-source and community-driven
If you want to see a new feature? Someone can likely make it happen
There are a lot of reasons to like open-source applications. A lot of open-source applications are created with the user in mind, building features around what the “average” user will need. Open-source applications are more customizable, offer more features, and do things that other companies would typically lock behind a paywall. Plus, they’re incredibly transparent about what they’re doing, offering their code to the masses and allowing community members to start contributing to their projects.
More often than not, open-source developers know what the typical user wants. That’s why so many people, myself included, are finding ways to replace stock applications with open-source alternatives. It doesn’t matter if you’re on Windows or Android, if you have an app you’d like to replace? There’s likely an open-source version that has more features, a smaller install size, and runs better than you’d ever expect.
I do hope they add a radar eventually
That’s the one thing I think Rain is missing right now, at least
Credit:Â Shaun Cichacki/MUO
While I do adore Rain for what it brings to the table, I would love to see the ability to check a weather radar directly from the application itself. Accuweather does a great job of showing off what is coming down the pipeline, but it also features aggressive pop-up ads. If I’m in the middle of a severe weather situation, the last thing I want to see is an advertisement for Chewy, yet if I check it on my phone, this is exactly what I’m seeing. Maybe I’ll just need to install Windy on my device to see what kind of weather is forming in real-time.
Maybe this could be the inspiration for me to learn how to add features to an open-source project? Who knows — I’ll likely have to leave the coding up to people who know far more about it than I do. But if I were to request one small feature added to my new favorite weather app in the future, it would absolutely be this. Getting a chance to check the Doppler radar in the midst of a bad storm and not be inundated with ads would be a blessing for many folks, myself included. Wisconsin can be treacherous because of weird weather, and when things can change on the fly, this could be a game-changer.
Rain is stylish, accurate, and my new favorite
It’s just so cute! But it’s also so good at what it does
They always say to never judge a book by its cover, but I absolutely did when it came to Rain. I thought it was just going to be a cutesy little weather app, something I could recommend to my wife because she’s a big fan of adorable little programs like this. Little did I know that it was quickly going to become my go-to weather application across all of my devices. Even my budget tablet is running this, so I can check it at a glance whenever I need to plan my day.
There are a ton of beautiful, open-source weather apps that I’ve tried in the past, but Rain has staying power. With its open-source roots, I can only imagine that it will continue to grow from here, and I want to watch that happen in real-time. Plus, the little smiling clouds are just the icing on the proverbial cake.
OS
Android
Developer
Dark Moon
Individual Pricing
Free
Mobile App
Yes