Google Weather redesign slowly drops Pixel exclusivity, appearing on Samsung

Google Weather rolled out to all Pixel phones in October, and the redesign is now appearing on Samsung and other Android devices. 

Google launched the revamped Weather experience, which is powered by the Google app, on the Pixel Tablet and Fold. It was also available on the Pixel 8 and 8 Pro at launch.

On phones, it replaces the old three-tab layout for a single feed that starts by noting the current condition, with the Froggy mascot remaining. You then get an Hourly forecast carousel and a 10-day forecast, which can be tapped to get more details.

Cards at the bottom show Wind, Humidity, UV Index, Pressure, and Sunrise & sunset, while you can also see Precipitation, Wind, and Humidity by the hour. On tablets and foldables, you get a two-column layout with the forecast appearing at the left.

Under the hood, “Google Nowcast“ — specifically MetNet-3 — powers rain, hail, and snow predictions in the contiguous United States and some European countries. (Weather.com is still leveraged for everything else.) These 12-hour “Rain starting soon” forecasts appear between the current forecast and the hourly carousel at the top of the app. The timeline shows whether it will be a light, medium, or heavy downpour.

In recent weeks, we’ve seen more reports of the Google Weather redesign appearing on non-Pixel devices, like Samsung phones and tablets (in my case). This has not been widely launched yet. With this rollout, the two Material You weather widgets remain exclusive to Pixel, which is highly unfortunate. Instead, you can access it from a homescreen shortcut – tap your profile avatar in the app to set – that is visually unchanged from before, or At a Glance.

Meanwhile, Google is slowly rolling out a “Weather” shortcut in the app launcher that can be placed on your homescreen. It is still powered by the Google app.

Another question is whether Google plans to bring the weather integration in its Clock app to non-Pixel devices. That is powered by a separate “Weather“ app/background service.