NEVER GET CAUGHT UP IN THE RAIN WITH THE PRIVACY FRIENDLY WEATHER APP

I’d never really thought about having a weather app. Most of us never do. Maybe it stems from our beliefs that the weather cannot be entirely predicted by a man or man-made device. Even when it affects or disrupts our plans over and over again. Or maybe we just don’t trust it’s readings due to failing in its predictions in the past.

Due to advancements in technology, readings get more accurate with every passing year. We now have instruments giving weather reports to a greater level of precision. According to SciJinks;

A seven-day forecast can accurately predict the weather about 80 percent of the time and a five-day forecast can accurately predict the weather approximately 90 percent of the time. However, a 10-day—or longer—forecast is only right about half the time.
source

It’s been raining all week over here. It feels like the Sun has gone on vacation. For days like this, you need a guide to plan your week and consequent events. For this reason, I downloaded the Privacy weather app. An app that can give me close-to-accurate predictions while maintaining my privacy. I’ve enjoyed using the app so far, which prompted this review. Here it goes;

PRIVACY FRIENDLY WEATHER APP

I always take matters of privacy quite seriously. The Privacy-friendly weather app promise this in the app description that says;

The app belongs to the group of Privacy Friendly Apps developed at the SECUSO research group of Technische Universitaet Darmstadt. It does not require any permission and relinquishes advertisements and tracking mechanisms.

I was skeptical about the app’s promise of privacy at first. But then, I discovered it was developed at the SECUSO research center. The SECUSO group is well known for developing privacy friendly apps. One of which I reviewed in one of my previous posts. See here

The weather app uses open weather map services for the weather info given within the app. I did a little background check on the open weather map. And I found out they were kind of a big deal when it comes to weather forecasts. Here’s the description I found on Wikipedia;

OpenWeatherMap is an online service that provides weather data, including current weather data, forecasts, and historical data to the developers of web services and mobile applications.

That’s just a little proof of the authenticity and accuracy of the forecast info that is available on the App. In this review, to ensure readability, I’ll be breaking it into two major sections. The first will look at the User interface/user experience (UI/UX), and the other, the features of the app.

USER INTERFACE/EXPERIENCE (UI/UX)

On opening the app, you are greeted with a welcome page, telling how to use the app.

The second slide gave me the information I needed to understand the radius search. I was wondering initially how it’ll be initiated since there was no location access.

The app has a very sleek design. I also found the app to be user-friendly. I didn’t need to brainstorm much about any of the features before I understood its features. The theme is a calming blue. The same color for one of SECUSO apps (Finance Manager) I reviewed in one of my previous posts.

The design follows the same pattern as the Finance Manager, which usually has a sidebar menu where you find all the main features. I do feel the design model allows for easy navigation. The graphical layout is also good but could be better with a few animations.

Although, there were a few letdowns in the app. There was no night mode theme. And there were no options for changing theme colors either. I think this is synonymous with all SECUSO group apps. Or maybe I’m being unfair being that, this is just the second SECUSO’s app I’m reviewing.

FEATURES

The app is very straight forward. It has a sort of an official feel sometimes. The features of the app are aligned in a sidebar menu and they include;

• Main page (Home page)

• Manage locations

• Radius Search

HOMEPAGE

The homepage feature displays the weather forecast for the location that was entered. Due to privacy concerns, the app does not use GPS on one’s device. So one is required to enter the location you want to see its forecast manually. To see the forecast for the different locations, one is required to swipe in the right direction of the page.

The app gives a three-hour interval forecast for each day. And also displays the forecast for 5 more days. I can easily plan my week with the info it gives. Although, with the forecast am seeing on the app, I don’t think we’ll be seeing sunlight any time soon.
Also, on the homepage, there is a refresh button. It is placed there In case there was a dramatic change in the weather, and you want to avoid having any surprises.

MANAGE LOCATIONS

One can add locations with this feature, I’ve added up to eight locations already. I can’t find out the limit to the number of locations one can add. One can also delete locations that were entered with this feature.
To add location, all you have to do is tap on the big plus icon. Then save the entered location. To delete an already saved location, just swipe left!

RADIUS SEARCH

This feature is really helpful. Imagine you are on a journey to a place, and you want to find out the forecast info about the place you are traveling to. This feature helps to achieve that. All you have to do is to input some needed parameters such as;

• Name of the place

• The edge length of the search square

• Number of locations to retrieve

Clicking the search button will give a forecast of all the areas around the main reference point of the radius search.

SETTINGS

The settings parameters are quite simple. it only comprises of a few user-preference options such as;

• change of unit of measurement for temperature and distances
• intervals for automatic updates of the weather forecast information

The two listed above are the two useful parameters in the apps settings. Again, SECUSO is trying to achieve their high level of simplicity in design like in all their other apps.

SUMMARY

In this article I’ve been able to review the privacy friendly weather app by SECUSO group. In this review, I’ve been able to share my personal experience as well as my opinions about the app.
Although the app has some limitations, it still gets the work done. It would be nice having some theme options though in future versions. And I really do hope improvements can be made in the graphics too. I’ll suggest that to the developers on Github and hope it’ll effect a change.
But overall, the app is great, as it gets the job done. So far, there has been no bug issues. So, if you searching for a weather forecast app that does not infringe on your privacy, then, give “the privacy friendly weather app” a try.
Thanks for reading!

LINKS SECTION

• Github Repository: https://github.com/SecUSo/privacy-friendly-weather

• Download link: https://github.com/SecUSo/privacy-friendly-weather/releases/download/v2.1.1/pfa-weather-release-v2.1.1.apk

RESOURCES

The content of this post was created based on my knowledge of the project, and mostly from my experience. The images used in this article are screenshots from my mobile phone. Other images used, have their source links provided just below them.

Github Profile

• https://www.github.com/cuteflames