December’s Pixel Feature Drop may integrate weather into the Clock app

Local weather in your world clock, plus new widgets

Summary

  • The Android 14 QPR1 Beta 2 release includes weather integration in the Clock app and widget, a feature that other Android phone manufacturers have had for a while.
  • You can see current weather conditions and highs and lows for the day alongside the current time in both the Clock app and the World Clock widget.
  • To enable the weather integration, you need to go into the Clock app’s settings and enable the “local weather on clock” option. This feature may not be available to everyone yet, indicating a potential server-side rollout or app update.


Google’s ongoing Android 14 beta release program is in full steam again with the QPR1 Beta, slated to be released as the Pixel Feature Drop in December this year. With it, Google is finally adding weather to its Clock app and widgets, which is something that other Android phone manufacturers have included for the longest time. This is not all surprising, as we shared the hints a while ago.

The Android 14 QPR1 Beta 2 release shows us what this integrated weather looks like, as spotted by Mishaal Rahman on social media platform X (formerly Twitter).

As you can see in the screenshots, the current weather conditions will be displayed alongside the current time. This weather integration is live in both the app’s Clock section as well as the World Clock widget. When you have multiple places added from different time zones, you will see the weather for these places as well. You can see the current temperature and weather conditions as well as the highs and lows for the day.

After you’ve installed QPR1 Beta 2 on your phone, you will first have to dive into the Clock app’s settings and enable the local weather

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Google Clock gets weather integration

With Android 14 QPR1 Beta 2, a Google Weather experience is now integrated with the Google Clock app.

Update: Shortly after launch, Google appears to have pulled this functionality via a server-side update. The weather and associated settings no longer appear in Google Clock.


After installing Android 14 QPR1 Beta 2, weather will appear in the Google Clock app. In the “Clock” tab, you’ll see the current temperature, as well as high and low. To “Add local weather,” go to Settings and tap “Local weather on clock” to grant the necessary permissions. The temperature and high/low also appear on the “World” widget, which has to be at least 4×4 in size.

That is the extent of the integration, which is good for getting a brief idea of the weather in the places you follow. It would be nice if you could tap the current conditions and see a full forecast somewhere.

Behind-the-scenes, QPR1 Beta 2 adds a com.google.android.apps.weather APK/service that is powering the Google Clock integration. It does not have a launcher icon, but appears in settings as a yellow sun with a blue background.

As such, devices like the Pixel 7 Pro still do not have the redesigned Google Weather introduced with the Pixel Tablet and Fold. You still get the Google (Search) app UI, with Google not yet expanding availability to older phones (though we did see it on the Pixel 8 and 8 Pro yesterday).

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Google’s Weather UI redesign starts appearing on more Android phones

What you need to know

  • The UI redesign for Weather in the Google app is starting to rollout on Android phones, bringing it into the Material You group.
  • The redesign tosses away the old, clunky three tabs for a cleaner, bolder single viewing with a Now, hourly forecast, and 10-day outlook scrollable display.
  • Google rolled out the revamped UI on its Pixel Fold and Pixel Tablet devices earlier this year a month after launch.

It looks like Android phones are starting to receive their Weather UI redesign in the Google app. The rollout was brought to Mishaal Rahman’s attention on X after he received several reports from users about it.

The Weather “app” is essentially tucked into the overall Google app on Android. The redesign swaps out the old three-tabbed view for “Today,” “Tomorrow,” and “10-day outlook” for a single streamlined view.

The redesign fits well with Google’s Material You design language that it features throughout Android and its own apps.

Most of what users are now finding calls back to some early teasers a Google member posted during the spring. A “Now” section welcomes users with quick bits of information such as the current temperature and an hourly forecast followed by the 10-day outlook.

One aspect that’s shown up is the addition of a weather warning for users in between the Now section and the hourly forecast. Looks like this could help those glancing at the weather for any trouble before heading out.

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This is what Google’s new weather app looks like on phones

Google added a little surprise with the launch of the Google Pixel Tablet: A brand-new weather forecast that looks a lot more modern and makes better use of the big screen than the old phone version. It looks like Google is planning to bring this new look to phones, too, as tinkerers have already managed to activate the redesigned weather interface on the small screen.

ANDROID POLICE VIDEO OF THE DAYSCROLL TO CONTINUE WITH CONTENT


On the Pixel Tablet, the weather forecast is still part of the Google app itself. That means there isn’t a dedicated app update to download in order to get started with the new design, but it also allows developers to peek into the new design more easily. The Google News Telegram channel managed to activate the redesign early and shared a video of what it looks like on phones.

At the top, you still see the familiar search bar, showing your current location or the place you’ve searched for. It’s a more modern bar, though, with rounded corners and a Material Design 3 blue color. Below it, you can prominently see the current temperature and an icon depicting the weather conditions, along with high and low as well as “feels like” temperatures. A playful graphic featuring the Google Weather frog mascot rounds out the top section.

google-news-google-weather-forecast-anim

The new look completely gets rid of the tabbed interface separating today’s, tomorrow’s, and the next 10 days’ weather forecast, though. Instead, there is an hourly forecast right below the aforementioned top section, showing what weather to expect in a side-scrolling carousel, rounded out by a 10-day forecast right below.

When you scroll on, you can see further details on the weather, including the wind speed, humidity, UV index, pressure, sunrise and sunset, and more hourly details on

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Google Weather rumoured to become a standalone Android app

Android might finally be receiving a stock weather app directly from Google, built natively for the operating system. The app would function as its own independent entity, and receive updates directly from the Play Store.

Hints of this new weather app can be seen within the code of the Google Clock app, under the package name “com.google.android.apps.weather.” This reference was first uncovered by 9to5Google.

Until now, the weather experience on Android has been a rocky one. For many years, Google has neglected to create its own first-party forecasting app, electing instead to provide a shortcut to such information from within the Google app.

This haphazard implementation has resulted in a rather stale interface, and a quirky home screen shortcut workaround that feels tacked-on to say the least.

A few weeks ago, it was reported that the company was working on bringing its modern ‘Material You’ design language to weather. At the time we didn’t know of any plans for it being rebuilt into a dedicated, standalone app.

If proven accurate, this new development will be a positive one for Google’s growing ecosystem of Pixel devices. Other Android OEMs like Samsung have provided their own native weather apps for a while now, which outclass Google’s current offerings.

The conversation surrounding weather interfaces was reignited earlier this year when Apple killed off the well-regarded Dark Sky app. The company instead opted to roll out the feature set into its default weather app.

Dark Sky was once a very popular third-party weather solution on Android, before being bought by Apple in 2020. Not long after the purchase, it was delisted from the Google Play Store entirely.

Via: 9to5Google


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Google Weather for Android finally getting Material You redesign

Android’s Weather experience in 2021 got a Google Material Theme redesign just as Material You was widely rolling out to other first-party apps. Google Weather is now set for a redesign with Material You elements.

The experience, which is powered by the Google app, today features three top tabs (Today, Tomorrow, 10 days) that you can scroll through for more information. At a glance, each screen is designed to provide a high-level overview. 

This redesign, tweeted by a Googler this morning, appears to leverage a single main feed. It starts with a pill-shaped search bar that notes the location being shown. It’s gray in the screenshot with proper support for the system dark theme likely. 

Underneath is “Now” with the current temperature, condition, high/low, and feels like. This is displayed on top of a Froggy illustration that’s somewhat lacking in detail given the width.

L-R: Current, current, redesign

A scrollable “Hourly forecast” is next, while you then get a “10-day forecast” that includes the high/low. Hopefully you can tap on each one, including “Today,” to see other stats like Wind and Sunrise & sunset (if that’s not further down the page).

This experience was rather reminiscent of the Wear OS Weather app, which is already quite nice, in its organization. Moving to a single feed is a good call. Hopefully, it will have a large screen experience as well. 

We’ve called for the need of a weather app made by the Pixel team to improve the experience on Google phones, but this is a start. As evidenced by the status bar, this might still be in development internally, but it’s a good sign that Google is already dogfooding with employees. 

More on Google Weather:

Thanks Raqbit

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