The move comes as Google renews its commitment to tablets as a whole
Weather seems like an obvious fit for tablets — those big screens are perfect for radar — but up until recently, most major companies have ignored them. At WWDC 2022, Apple announced its iPad lineup would finally get a Weather app with iPadOS 16. It was a big deal coming out of the company’s developer conference, and it also seems to have inspired Google to make a similar move. Coinciding with its moves to double-down on Android tablets, the company’s Weather service is also becoming available on tablets.
Google Weather was, up until this point, only available on Android phones. If you were rocking any of the best Android tablets available today, you were forced to use Google Search to get weather info — arguably a much more limited experience than what the app offers, even on larger displays. Now, the app is finally offered on tablets as well, as spotted by 9to5Google.
Image credits: 9to5Google
Searching for weather info now gives you the familiar weather frog graphic, showing the hourly temperature, with a button saying “Hourly, humidity, wind and more” that opens up the full experience. The app seems to work identically on both tablets and phones, down to the same portrait-only UI, which, to some, might look a little too stretched out. That said, it works well, especially given how dense the full info page actually is. Given Google’s renewed love for tablets and large-screen devices, though, we wouldn’t be surprised if the app gets a proper tablet-compatible UI down the road.
If you want to give it a spin, make sure your Google app is fully updated, and do a quick search for the weather. If your tablet has the new interface, you should see the weather frog and an option to expand. If you don’t see it yet, wait a bit — it might be rolling out in waves.
