How to Get Air Quality Info on iPhone with Weather
The iPhone Weather app can offer information about the air quality at specific locations, including an Air Quality summary and an Air Quality Index score rating.
Getting air quality details is helpful information for obvious reasons, whether you’re curious about your current location or a destination you intend on visiting or traveling to, but the air quality data should be particularly valuable to iPhone users who are asthmatic or have other breathing issues or sensitivities to air pollution and particulate matter in the air. So with that in mind, here’s how to find air quality information right on the iPhone.
How to Find Air Quality Information on iPhone via Weather App
- Open the “Weather” app on the iPhone
- View the weather for your current location, or select another location in the Weather app
- Scroll all the way to the bottom of the Weather details for a location to reveal Air Quality Index and Air Quality rating scores
The Air Quality data is presented as an index score, as well as a verbal rating like “Unhealthy”, “Good”, “Moderate”, or similar, depending on whatever the data source has determined the air quality to be for that location.
For some destinations or locations that have actively bad air quality, the weather app will prominently display that air quality information at the top of the locations weather details, as you can see in this example of San Francisco, where it states “Unhealthy Air Quality” directly under the current temperature.
Other potential messages on air quality include things like “Unhealthy Air Quality for Sensitive Groups” and, if there is no air quality concern or if the air quality is moderate or less, then no message at the top of the Weather apps overview.
Even if nothing is shown directly under the current temperature in the weather app, you can always scroll down to the bottom of a locations weather details to find the air quality information there.
The Weather app obviously tells you the current temperature and weather conditions, but there’s a lot more information available for those who are interested in finding it, including sunset and sunrise times, the UV index, humidity, chance of rain, wind speed, and much more.
On a similar note, newer versions of iOS can show you the weather forecast on iPhone lock screen in the morning, if you’re fond of knowing the conditions before you head out for a particular day.
Nothing on australian phones. And with all the bushfires we could use it …..
Air quality info appears in the Weather app on my partner’s phone but not mine. It shows for all our city and all her US cities, and none of mine. We have the same phone. She is on a newer version of iOS. What version of iOS added this?
The AQI isn’t showing on any Australian cities and towns.
Can you update this asap as it critical here now.
Thanks
App nearly always appears inaccurate. Usually small towns in WA have worse air quality than cities Seattle and Tacoma.
It’s possible that the small towns simply don’t report their air pollution data, or don’t even collect or gather it.
Is there even any regulation for mandating air quality information be shown or gathered or any this stuff? Probably not in the modern USA, nobody cares about pollution anymore.
Is there a way to display AQI on the Apple Watch complication? Mine just shows weather conditions.
It works here in Mexico.
Hello Paul, Does not work here at all:
iPhone X, latest iOS12.
Below visibility and UV index, there is nothing (France, Netherlands, Belgium, Switzerland…..
( greets to John)
Interesting. This works in the USA and many other international cities that report air quality data to whatever the data source is as used by Weather app.
Where is ‘here’ for you? It would be an effort but interesting to know the cities that do and don’t report air quality data that Weather app on iPhone can access.
Thanks Paul, But here there is nothing below UV :Netherlands, Belgium, France, Switzerland. iPhone X, latest ios12. I have the impression that Europe is retarded, but the weather is independent of politics… (and greets to John I saw here too).
Lex
found this invaluable during recent fires in Bay Area. thanks for being so topical.
Nothing shows after UV Index but info in website
Thanks JD. The weather app isn’t showing quality in Orlando either. But SIRI workes
A more straightforward way is to ask Siri what the air quality is for any given city and it will provide it to you for most cities.
While this approach MIGHT work for most people, as a sufferer of COPD that has difficulty talking due to not being able to breathe properly, I find SIRI almost impossible to use and therefore have it disabled.
This does not work with any location outside the USA. Although the AQI data is available for locations outside USA. When viewing international weather click on the Weather Network icon in the bottom left corner and from there you will land on the weather network website which has the AQI data.
Hi Chip, it appears you missed the part of the article where air quality information is shown for Beijing, China? I just checked it for Shanghai too. Both say the air quality is good, which is questionable if you’ve been to either location as I would describe the air there as ‘thick’ and on days that are cloudy it’s often simply pollution. I also checked New Dehli, which is in India (the country of India, not Indiana USA) and that shows as very unhealthy, which is accurate. I also checked air quality for Berlin, and it shows as good (Berlin is in Germany). That shows that this does work for locations outside of the USA.
But then again, it appears the air quality reporting info is not available for all cities, and that includes some US cities too. Makes you wonder where the air info is coming from? Governments or news or local weather sources or what?
For more detailed information. See the Air Visual app in the AppStore.
For more detailed information, this is a wonderful app.
https://www.airvisual.com/air-quality-app
Does not seem to work with Canadian locations.
It should, assuming Canada shares the air quality data. Canada has better environmental policy than much of the world so I would think they would? Right?
It doesn’t work in France either. Nor Island, Sweden or Italy.
Thank you!
Thanks for the tip this is helpful and it works as described for almost everywhere I checked. I noticed some cities show no AQI info, makes me wonder why but maybe the DEQ or whoever doesn’t report everywhere? Anyone know how the air quality reporting system works?
Some seem accurate, like San Francisco has a lot of smoke at the moment from the awful fires in California. But I can also find towns that I know are smokey and it shows their air quality as ‘good’ which leaves me thinking the data source that iPhone is retrieving is not necessarily up to date. Maybe a dedicated DEQ or AQI app is a better approach for monitoring air pollution if this is an important item for some folks? Just a thought.