Airthings

Review by eFreeware

Airthings is the software half of a hardware purchase. The app pairs with the company's air quality monitors and purifiers and turns their readings into something you can look at, compare and act on. It is free, it carries no ads and there are no in-app purchases, which makes sense for a product that exists to support devices you buy separately.

That shapes who it is for. If you own an Airthings monitor or purifier, this is the screen where the numbers live. If you don't, there is nothing here to measure, and the app is a catalog of functions waiting for a sensor to talk to. The developer notes that it works with all Airthings products, so the app is meant to cover the range rather than a single model.

Readings you can scan in a second

The core of the app is the sensor tile view. Each reading gets a color-coded indicator and a trend line, so you can tell at a glance whether a room is drifting in the wrong direction without reading a number and remembering what it was last week. For a household with several monitors, that is the difference between checking air quality and studying it.

When you want the longer picture, the app opens detailed graphs so you can track readings over time and spot patterns. This is where an air quality app earns its keep: a single high reading is noise, but the same reading every evening for a month is a habit worth changing. The graphs are the part I would expect people to return to when something in the house starts feeling off.

The developer also lets you set focuses on your devices, which breaks the data down around the problems you care about rather than presenting everything with equal weight. That is a sensible way to handle a dashboard that can otherwise show several measurements at once.

When the air turns bad, and when it turns seasonal

The app sends notifications when air quality drops and suggests ways to improve it. That pairing matters more than the alert itself; a warning without a next step just creates worry. The app also suggests ways to handle typical indoor air quality issues and to get more from your device.

There is also a five-day pollen forecast for your location, with advice attached to it. For anyone whose symptoms track the pollen count, having that forecast in the same place as the indoor readings is a genuinely useful arrangement, since it connects what is happening outside with what your monitor is picking up inside.

For owners of the Renew purifier, the app lets you control it from anywhere. That sounds like a small feature, but it means you can start cleaning the air before you get home rather than after.

Setup, support and the monthly report

The developer describes device setup as quick and easy, and that is the extent of what the app promises on that front. Beyond pairing, the app offers recommendations on which Airthings monitor suits your needs, which is useful if you are deciding what to add next or buying your first unit.

One part of the app sits behind a subscription, and the app itself shows no ads.

The app has been updated regularly, with the most recent release covering performance improvements and bug fixes. It arrived in December 2022 and now sits at a 4.6 average from more than 6,400 ratings, with over 100,000 installs.

Households that will get the most from it

This app fits people who have already committed to measuring their indoor air. That includes allergy sufferers who want to know whether the problem is inside or outside, parents tracking a nursery or bedroom, and anyone in a tightly sealed home who wants evidence before spending money on ventilation or filtration. The pollen forecast and the notification advice both point toward that audience.

It also suits the tinkerer in a household, the person who enjoys a graph and will actually change a habit because a line went up. If nobody in the house looks at the data, the monitor still works, but the app's value goes unused.

What I would keep in mind is that this is a companion, not a standalone tool. Its usefulness scales with the hardware you own, and the depth of the graphs and focuses is only meaningful once a device is feeding it readings. The developer's own recommendation feature assumes you are shopping within the same ecosystem.

A companion worth having if the hardware is already in place

I would recommend Airthings to anyone who owns an Airthings monitor or purifier, or who is about to. It is free, it shows no ads, and it does the job a companion app should do: turn sensor output into color-coded tiles, trend lines and graphs you can read without a manual, then nudge you when something needs attention. The pollen forecast and purifier control are the extras that make it feel like more than a readout.

The main cost to be aware of is the optional Air Reports subscription. There is no advertising to work around.

If you are still deciding on hardware, the app's monitor recommendations may help you choose, but the app itself will not tell you anything about your air until a device is connected. Buy the sensor first, then install this.

What's new in version 8.1.6

This update includes general performance improvements and bug fixes to make your experience smoother and more reliable.