Giving Weather A Wake Up. The Poncho app.
Weather is boring. Apps are boring, Therefore Weather Apps must be the most boring. We agree. Weather needs a wake up.
What does weather mean? 73 Degrees? Wind speed 15mph? Humidity at 55%? Mumbo jumbo! That’s not human. Humans don’t want that. That’s being really lazy with data. There is a lot of data out there. Too much in fact. We want to distill all that data down into something you’ll actually enjoy — like a fine single malt.
We call this thin media.
Here’s something crazy from a weather company: most people don’t actually want to know what the weather is going to be. They really want to know if they are going to get rained on when they step outside. They want to get to work or meet their friends on time. And we know that people don’t want to open another app — they just want to enjoy their evening.
That’s why when we started Poncho we only delivered forecasts by text or email. We did not plan on making another weather app. And yet, here it is. So why did we? Well, a lot of people asked us to and we just turned on forecasting to all 48 continental US states.
More importantly, we loved the potential of iOS notifications. Not the way some people use notifications, as annoying clickbait, but as its own thing. One that gets you the information you need, with a smile or two, and even wakes you up in the morning. Yes, if you want it to, our app will use notifications to wake you up in the morning with a forecast and super cute music.
We have made an app you never have to open.
Well, we’d like you to open it once to set up some stuff, like where you live, what time you get up, if you have a pooch that needs walking or damned allergies. Once you’ve done that, we’ve got you covered. You’re free to get on with your life without having to think about the weather or apps again that day.
Here’s a little sneak peak at how the app works.
We think your personal forecasts should fit into your life seamlessly. That’s what we mean by thin. They are useful but throwaway. We don’t want you to share your forecast. It’s a personal forecast — it’s for you. If you think it’s funny and you want to share it then knock yourself out, but we thought you might like a break from being asked to share absolutely everything.
We know your interaction with us is at exactly the moment in the day when you have the least time. Your forecasts hit you when you have a split second to make a decision. You wake up — our charming alarm music tells you it’s raining and the forecast gives you a little extra color. Without thinking you know what clothes to wear, whether you can rock your new superlight flyknits or need something more sturdy. And, of course, if you need an umbrella.
Everything is designed with maximum attention on our part for minimal effort on your part.
It’s the same with your evening forecast. We know you often leave work in a rush or need to run errands before your evening plans. So a quick weather and travel update is all you need.
By the way, travel is a little more tricky than weather because two people live in the same zip code get exactly the same weather but may have totally different travel schedules. Also, it’s hard to be funny about travel updates. Most of the time it’s bad news and there are only so many jokes about the L Train or the 405 or icy roads in Kankakee. But now that we are national we certainly have more material.
Right now our idea is to give you a quick heads-up on travel by mass transit. We’ll keep it thin. If you commute by car we will be testing some new ideas on how to handle traffic Poncho-style (if you are interested in being a beta-tester, let us know). If you want real time turn-by-turn driving information, Google and Waze are there for you.
We have also been experimenting in New York City with something a little different: a midday forecast using emoji. We see this as thin fun but also serving a purpose. Although we wouldn’t admit it ourselves, most people are too lazy to look outside the window at lunch time. Or maybe you don’t have a window? So we thought about a quick simple midday forecast that mixed it up a little. Our emoji forecasts are little puzzles that people love trying to solve. Watch for this feature coming to our slackbot soon.
Oh, we didn’t mention we made a poncho robot? That’s right. If you currently use Slack for group messaging — and if not, why not? — you can summon up a Poncho forecast for any zip code in the country right there in slack. It’s really good fun and just the start of our plans. You can read more here.
In case you are worried, you can still get Poncho via email or text message. Look for us soon on other thin platforms, like chat apps and watches and…well, anywhere else you might need a quick update on what’s happening outside.
A question we get asked a lot is, what’s next for Poncho? What’s the plan for world domination? Well, we do plan on world domination, but modest domination. Right now, we want to create the best weather experience for the way we live now — that is, on mobile and in chat and messages (almost the post-facebook/buzzfeed era).
We may do more than weather. But whatever we do, we promise to keep it thin. Giving you more information than you need puts more pressure on you to choose, filter, select, optimize. And that’s our job, not yours.
Download the app here. Give it a spin, we’d love to know what you think.
XOXO
Poncho
