Best Weather Widget for Android: Built-In and Free Picks
Most phones already have one: Google's At a Glance or Samsung's Weather widget. For more detail with no ads, Weawow is free. Eleven apps compared.
You may not need to install anything. Most Android phones can show the weather on the home screen through a widget from Google, and Galaxy phones add one from Samsung. Get an app when you want more than a temperature and an icon: an hourly graph, a radar, a flip clock, or a forecast from a weather service you trust.
We read Google’s and Samsung’s help pages for the built-in widgets, then went through the Google Play listings of the weather apps. Nine of the ten apps this article listed in 2019 are still on Google Play. Dark Sky is not, and three of the others no longer fit a list about widgets.
The weather widget already on your phone
Google: At a Glance
At a Glance is Google’s widget for the date, the weather and what is next on your calendar. Google’s Android help says you can add it on most Android devices: it sits under Google in the widget list. On a Pixel it is on by default, and it also shows severe weather warnings on the lock screen and the always-on display. Google says the full version is for Pixels on Android 12 and up.
The Google app has weather in two more places. A weather card sits above the Discover feed when you open the app, and the Search widget can carry a weather shortcut. Open the Google app, tap your profile picture, then Settings and Customize Search widget, and pick the shortcuts you want.
Google’s forecast is its own. Its help page on how Google Weather works says it comes from an in-house system fed by models and observations from agencies such as NOAA, the Met Office, ECMWF and Germany’s DWD.
Pixel Weather
Pixel 6 and later phones, and the Pixel Tablet, have a full weather app from Google. Its help page lists a 10-day forecast, air quality, humidity, a weather map and a pollen count. Google Play shows no ads label on it. The listing also calls it Pixel’s exclusive weather app, so it is not something to go looking for on a Samsung or a Xiaomi.
Samsung Galaxy phones
Samsung says most Galaxy devices come with a Weather widget. If yours is missing, touch and hold an empty part of the home screen, tap Widgets, choose Weather and pick a size. Touch and hold the widget afterwards to change its layout or its location.
How to add a weather widget to the home screen
The steps are the same for a built-in widget and for one that came with an app. This is Google’s version:
- Touch and hold an empty space on a home screen.
- Tap Widgets.
- Find the app that has the widget and tap it to see what it offers.
- Touch and hold the widget, slide it to where you want it and lift your finger.
To resize it, touch and hold the widget and let go. If it can be resized, an outline with dots appears. Drag the dots.
Weather widget apps compared
| App | Maker | On Google Play | What its listing offers |
|---|---|---|---|
| Weather & Widget – Weawow | Weawow | Free, no ads, in-app purchases | 14 widget styles from 1×1 to full screen, forecasts from several providers side by side |
| Today Weather | todayweather.co | Free with ads, in-app purchases | Clock, radar and chart widgets, data from national weather services |
| Overdrop | overdrop.app | Free with ads, in-app purchases | More than 70 widget designs, themes, live radar |
| Meteogram Weather Widget | Meteograms Ltd | Free with ads, in-app purchases | A resizable forecast graph you configure yourself, over 30 data sources |
| Chronus Information Widgets | DvTonder | Free with ads, in-app purchases | Clock and weather widgets that also hold calendar, news and tasks, 12 weather providers |
| Sense Flip Clock & Weather | MACHAPP Software Ltd | Free with ads, in-app purchases | Flip-clock widgets in 4×1, 4×2 and 4×3 with the current weather and daily forecast |
| 1Weather | OneLouder Apps | Free with ads, in-app purchases | Ten widget sizes from 1×1 to 5×2, radar, US National Weather Service alerts |
| AccuWeather | AccuWeather | Free with ads, in-app purchases | MinuteCast rain forecast for the next four hours. The listing mentions widgets only under the paid Premium+ tier |
| The Weather Channel | The Weather Channel | Free with ads, in-app purchases | A widget that follows dark mode, radar, severe weather alerts |
| Weather Forecast by WeatherBug | WeatherBug | Free with ads, in-app purchases | Home screen widgets, lightning alerts, more than 20 map layers |
| YoWindow | Weather View LLC | Free with ads, in-app purchases | Clock and weather, weekly and 14-day widgets, a landscape that changes with the weather |
Ten of the eleven carry Google Play’s “Contains ads” label. Weawow is the exception.
No ads: Weawow
Weawow’s listing says there are no ads and no tracking, and Google Play shows no ads label on it. The in-app purchase is a donation. The developer says it is optional, and that a one-time donation unlocks AccuWeather and Foreca as extra forecast sources.
The free sources already include the US National Weather Service, Germany’s DWD, Meteo France, MET Norway and OpenWeather, and the app can plot several of them on one graph so you can see where they disagree. For the home screen there are 14 widget styles, from a 1×1 square to a full-screen layout, and you choose what each one shows: wind, UV index, air quality and so on.
Apps built around the widget
Overdrop is the one to look at if appearance matters most. Its listing counts more than 70 widget designs and a dozen themes. The premium upgrade removes the ads and unlocks more designs and all of its weather providers.
Meteogram Weather Widget draws the forecast as a graph: temperature, wind, pressure and whatever else you switch on, in a widget you can stretch to any size. The listing claims over 5,000 settings. The paid upgrade removes the adverts and the watermark on the chart.
Today Weather names its sources by country in its listing, among them the US National Weather Service, the UK Met Office, Australia’s Bureau of Meteorology and the Japan Meteorological Agency. Its widgets include clock and weather, radar and weather charts.
Chronus suits people who want one widget for several things. Its main widgets combine a clock, the weather, your calendar, news and tasks, and its maker says they share the same background services to save battery and data. Sense Flip Clock & Weather puts the time, the date, the current weather and the daily forecast in a flip-clock widget. If the clock is the part you care about, see our guide to clock apps for Android.
The big forecasters
AccuWeather, The Weather Channel, WeatherBug and 1Weather are full weather services with a widget attached. Their listings lead with radar, storm tracking and alerts. All four carry ads. AccuWeather, The Weather Channel and WeatherBug each mention a paid tier that removes them, and AccuWeather’s listing mentions widgets only as part of that tier.
Pick one of these if you already follow that forecaster. 1Weather’s listing names ten widget sizes, which is more detail than the other three give. YoWindow is a different kind of app: its screen is a landscape where it rains when it rains outside, and its widgets cover clock and weather, the week and 14 days.
When a widget stops updating
A weather widget has to fetch a new forecast while you are not looking at it, and battery settings can stop that. The listing for Simple weather & clock widget says so directly: some phones and battery saving apps turn off the background tasks of widgets from other developers.
On a Pixel, open Settings, Apps, the weather app, App battery usage and check that background usage is allowed. On a Galaxy phone, open Settings, Battery, Background usage limits. Samsung says a deep sleeping app never runs in the background, which is no use to a widget. Add the weather app to Never auto sleeping apps. Our piece on battery saver apps for Android explains these settings.
Which one to pick
- You want the temperature and today’s conditions: At a Glance, or Samsung’s Weather widget. Nothing to install.
- You want detail with no ads: Weawow.
- You want the best-looking home screen: Overdrop, accepting ads unless you pay.
- You want the forecast as a graph: Meteogram Weather Widget.
- You want a clock and the weather in one widget: Chronus, or Sense Flip Clock & Weather for the flip style.
- You follow storms in the US: one of the big forecasters, for the alerts more than the widget.
What happened to the old list
Dark Sky is gone. Its makers announced in 2020 that the company had joined Apple, and their own blog records that the Android app shut down on 1 August 2020.
CARROT Weather is still on Google Play, but its listing says the widget is for Premium Club subscribers only. Weather Underground and Yahoo Weather are still listed too. Neither listing mentions a home screen widget, so we have left them out. 1Weather, AccuWeather, YoWindow, WeatherBug and The Weather Channel are in the table, and the Google app is covered at the top.
Quick answers
Does Android have a built-in weather widget?
Yes. Google says At a Glance can be added on most Android devices from the widget list, under Google. Galaxy phones also have Samsung’s own Weather widget.
Which weather widget for Android has no ads?
Of the apps here, Weawow is the only one with no ads label on Google Play, and its listing says it has no ads and no tracking. Pixel Weather has no ads label either, but it is for Pixel phones.
Can I get the Pixel Weather app on a Samsung phone?
Google’s help page limits it to Pixel 6 and later devices, and the Google Play listing calls it Pixel’s exclusive weather app. On a Galaxy, use Samsung’s Weather app or one of the apps above.
Why did my Google weather widget disappear?
For the weather card inside the Google app, Google’s fix is to check that you are signed in and that Discover is turned on. On the home screen, add At a Glance again from the widget list.
Why is my weather widget not updating?
Usually because the phone has stopped the app from working in the background. Allow background usage for the weather app in the battery settings, and on a Galaxy keep it out of the sleeping apps lists.
