GoKawiilRita El Khoury / Android Authority
A few months ago, I went through the process of shifting my entire family to my older Google Pixel phones. I did it to simplify remote troubleshooting, reduce issues with unfamiliar Android UIs and skins, give them a more solid camera experience, and keep them updated with the latest security patches.
One side effect I hadn’t anticipated, though, is how much my mom, aunt, and specifically, my dad would fall in love with the simplest app on their Pixels — Pixel Weather.
Do you use Pixel Weather on your Pixel phone, or do you have another app? 57 votes Pixel Weather. 68 % Something else (tell us in the comments) 28 % I don't care about weather apps. I look out the window. 4 %
What is it with parents and weather applications?
Rita El Khoury / Android Authority
My parents have had Android smartphones since the mid-2010s. 10 years or so, now, of using these wonderful machines, and yet one thing hasn’t changed since the moment I first set up my mom’s Galaxy S7 Edge: “Put the weather on the screen, please, Rita.”
I care about the weather, too, and I have it on my home screen just like them, but there’s a certain fascination and urgency that my family has around the weather widget and application on their phones that I can’t explain. You have to be there when my dad mistakenly deletes the widget or moves it to the second home screen, and it’s suddenly DEFCON 1, call Rita, get her to fix it ASAP. My dad mysteriously resetting his OnePlus phone four times in the span of two years didn’t elicit as much panic as a disappeared weather widget from his home screen.
When your dad goes DEFCON 1 after the weather widget disappears from his home screen, you know he takes his weather very seriously.
Maybe it’s because my parents are getting older and they need to know when it’s safe for them to drive or not. Or because my mom still hangs clothes to dry outside and has to know when she needs to bring them back in. Or because my dad has to know when to water the garden and when to leave it up to the elements. Or maybe they’re just crazy people (I say this lovingly) who are obsessed with knowing exactly what kind of weather is coming in 10 days to prepare in advance. The jury is out.
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