Weather Live°

Review by eFreeware

If you check the forecast before deciding anything about your day, Weather Live is the sort of app that fits that habit. It puts current conditions, hourly and daily forecasts, radar and alerts for several locations into one screen, and it does it without charging for a download. The developer, Mosaic Srl, has a large install base, and the install numbers suggest plenty of people have settled on it as their default weather source.

I'd expect it to appeal most to readers who want more than a single temperature reading: commuters checking whether the drive home will be wet, parents planning a weekend outdoors, travelers keeping an eye on a city on the other side of the world. The app covers all of that, with the caveat that a free download means ads and a premium tier that the developer describes as the way to get interactive maps and remove advertising.

What follows is my read of what the developer promises, where the costs and limits sit, and how the app's features line up with the way people actually use a weather app.

Storm radar and rain alerts lead the pitch

The feature the developer puts front and center is storm tracking. Weather Live includes a storm radar and storm forecast, and it bills the radar as real-time, so you can see precipitation moving toward you rather than just reading a percentage. Rain and snow alerts push notifications when something is on the way, which is the part that matters if you would rather not be caught outside in it.

Alongside that sits RainScope, a minute-by-minute precipitation forecast. That is a much finer resolution than the usual hourly view, and it is the kind of detail that helps when you are deciding whether to start a walk now or wait twenty minutes. A lightning tracker rounds out the severe weather tools, though the developer notes it is among the features limited in the basic version.

The radar map itself is where the premium tier comes in. Interactive weather maps are part of the premium tier. I would treat that as the main dividing line between what you get for nothing and what you pay for.

The everyday data you will actually read

Beyond storms, the app covers the standard measurements in some depth: current and feels-like temperature, wind speed and direction, wind chill, pressure, precipitation, sunrise and sunset times, and visibility, which is useful for driving conditions. It also lists a UV index, a 14-day forecast, Sun and Moon data and an Air Quality Index, some of which are limited in the basic version.

You can follow more than one place at a time, which is the feature I would lean on most. Keeping a home city and a destination side by side is the obvious use. The same screen serves both a quick glance and a longer look ahead.

Customization is more thorough than I expected from a free weather app. You can switch between detailed and compact layouts and rearrange the weather blocks so the readings you care about appear first. That is a small thing, but it decides whether an app feels like yours or like a template, and it is the sort of control that keeps people from switching to something else.

Widgets for people who never open the app

The widget support is the part that would keep Weather Live on my home screen. The developer offers nine widget options, ranging from a full-size panel to a compact one showing only the essentials. If your habit is to glance at your phone rather than launch an app, that range means you can pick a size that fits your layout instead of settling for whatever you are given.

The widget is also listed among the features with basic-version limitations. That is worth knowing before you build your home screen around it. The developer does say these limitations can change, which leaves room for the free tier to shift over time.

Alerts and current condition notifications sit alongside the widget. For anyone who has been caught out by a sudden downpour, that combination of a glanceable widget and a push alert is the practical core of the whole product.

What the free download asks of you

Weather Live is free to install and supported by ads. It also offers in-app purchases, and a premium subscription provides interactive weather maps and removes ads. Those are the two things the developer ties to paying.

The subscription renews automatically through your Google Play account unless you turn auto-renew off or cancel at least 24 hours before the current period ends. If you take up a free trial and then buy a premium subscription during it, any unused part of the trial is forfeited. Those are standard terms, but they are the terms, and they are worth reading before you commit.

The other cost is feature access rather than money. The basic version is limited in places, with the UV index, the 14-day forecast, Sun and Moon, the lightning tracker, visibility, the Air Quality Index and the weather widget named as examples. The list is described as subject to change, so the free tier is not a fixed target.

Getting the most out of it day to day

The sensible way to use an app like this is to decide up front what you actually need. If you mainly want to know whether to take a jacket, the compact layout and a small widget will do everything you need without the busier screens. If you are tracking a storm system or planning around rain, the radar, RainScope and alerts are the features to keep close.

Rearranging the weather blocks is worth doing early. Putting precipitation and wind above the fold, for example, changes the app from a general weather display into one that answers your specific question in a second. The same goes for the layout choice: compact for a quick read, detailed when you want the full picture.

Adding a second location is the other habit I would build in. A city you are traveling to, or where family lives, sits alongside your own, and it turns the app into something you check for other people as well as yourself. The developer's framing of planning vacations and family gatherings around the storm radar is exactly this use case, and it is the one where multiple locations earn their place.

Finally, notifications deserve a deliberate decision. Rain and snow alerts are only useful if they arrive in time, so it is worth thinking about which alerts you want on and which you would rather read in the app. The developer's pitch is that you will not need to look out the window; that only holds if the alerts are tuned to your routine.

A dependable default for weather watchers

Weather Live has the marks of a weather app that has settled into what it does well. It has been available since early 2013, it carries a 4.4 average from more than 920,000 ratings, and it has passed 50 million installs. The most recent update, in August 2025, was a maintenance release focused on bug fixes and performance improvements.

The trade-off is the familiar one. You get a capable free app with ads and a set of features held back for the premium subscription, and the developer is upfront that interactive maps and an ad-free experience are what paying buys. If the free tier covers the readings you care about, that is a fair exchange; if you want the interactive radar in particular, you are looking at a subscription.

I would point this at readers who want a single, detailed weather app for several locations and who value alerts and widgets over a minimalist interface. It is built for people who plan around the forecast rather than glance at it. If that describes your routine, this is an easy one to try.

What's new in version 7.8.6

Bug fixes and performance improvements.