Weather SlateDifferent messages serve different purposes
- Official hazards
- Warnings carry safety instructions from an issuing authority. Keep these distinct from everyday comfort information.
- Rain timing
- A near-term notice can prompt you to check whether a short outing needs to move.
- Morning context
- A day summary can help you prepare before leaving home, without interrupting you at every forecast update.
- Event changes
- A meaningful change around an actual plan may deserve more attention than a small change at an unrelated time.
The Weather Slate direction
Rain timing, meaningful-change notices, morning updates, and event-relevant weather are planned notification areas. The controls and delivery rules are still being developed. This is a design direction, not a list of notification types already shipping.
Relevance starts with choosing a place and a purpose. A tournament venue might matter for one weekend; your current location might matter every day. The interface should make that distinction understandable before asking you to enable a notification.
Avoiding notification overload
A change from one similar forecast to another may not change your decision. A shower moving into the setup period for an event could. A useful system should focus attention on the latter, while giving people clear choices about what they receive.
Check your phone’s notification and Focus settings when a notice seems delayed. Even with permission enabled, source updates, connectivity, and service availability can affect delivery. An app cannot promise that every message reaches you at the ideal moment.
What to do today
Weather Slate is coming soon to iPhone. Pre-release users with existing Weather Alerts controls can consult support for permission and location checks. Those official-alert controls do not establish that all of the enhanced notification ideas described here are available.
For planning, set aside a moment to review your actual time window. For hazards, follow official warnings directly. See privacy choices for how notification permission differs from analytics and other app permissions.