【AI前沿】IoT gadget maker AcuRite shares reasoning for killing customers’ favorite app

weathering the stormIoT gadget maker AcuRite shares reasoning for killing customers’ favorite app“The move to AcuRite NOW has not been as smooth as some customers expected …”Scharon Harding–May 21, 2026 6:26 pm|54AcuRite’s Atlas weather station.Credit:

      AcuRiteAcuRite's Atlas weather station.Credit:

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    settingsStory textSizeSmallStandardLargeWidth*StandardWideLinksStandardOrange* Subscribers onlyLearn moreMinimize to navAcuRite must kill its customers’ favorite companion app due to “obsolete technology,” VP of product development Jeff Bovee tells Ars Technica.AcuRite, which makes smart weather-monitoring devices, announced this month that the My AcuRite iOS and Android app that has been around since 2016 won’t be available after May 30. After that date, device owners must use AcuRite NOW, which AcuRite released in June 2025, to control their gadgets.The announcement hasfrustrated long-time AcuRite users, largely because the new app lacks some of its predecessors’ capabilities. For example, AcuRite NOW doesn’t allow renaming multiple temperature sensors, organizing on-screen sensors, or reporting temperatures as anything other than whole numbers (AcuRite says it’s working on adding some of these features).Newer platform preferredSpeaking with Ars, Bovee provided insight into AcuRite’s decision. He pointed to AcuRite NOW being built on a “newer cloud-connected platform” that enables more flexibility. My AcuRite was “primarily a weather-station cloud dashboard,” compared to AcuRite NOW, which ” is intended to be a broader, connected-device platform,” per the executive.Explaining further, he said:[My AcuRite] provided app and web access to weather data, but the underlying technology was more limited in terms of long-term app development, modern cloud services, smart home integration, and support for newer connected devices.AcuRite NOW, purportedly being built on a more modern connected-device architecture, provides a “stronger foundation” for feature improvements, per Bovee. The executive claimed that the new platform is better for mobile-first app development, cloud-based feature updates and services, “such as longer weather data history,” as well as user account management, device pairing, and notifications. For people with additional, third-party smart gadgets, AcuRite NOW also works with Tuya’sSmartLife IoT ecosystem.The new app also charges a subscription fee to share data from AcuRite devices with the real-time weather serviceWeather Underground—something My AcuRite supported for free. Bovee claimed that AcuRite NOW provides better support for sharing data with Weather Underground. Although the financial benefits for AcuRite are what’s most obvious.Keeping both apps not “sustainable”Online complaintssuggest that AcuRite has customers who are content with My AcuRite’s capabilities. However, maintaining the app long-term isn’t sustainable for AcuRite, Bovee said.“The technology behind My AcuRite is obsolete and can no longer be maintained,” he said.AcuRite is declining to maintain two apps in order to save money but also due to “long-term supportability,” the executive said.“Even if [My AcuRite] continues to function for many users, the underlying systems require ongoing maintenance, updates, hosting, monitoring, security support, and compatibility work as phones, operating systems, cloud services, and third-party integrations continue to change,” Bovee said.New online dashboard comingAs AcuRite announced the end of its first app, it also removed the online dashboard that let users manage their devices through a web browser.“Because the web dashboard, mobile app, cloud services, and device connections were all tied to the same older system, browser access cannot be maintained separately once the platform is retired,” Bovee explained.He said AcuRite is planning a new web-based dashboard for AcuRite NOW, but he couldn’t confirm the release date.Despite customer frustrations, Bovee hopes that the new app won’t lead to long-time users abandoning their devices, since AcuRite went “to great expense to bring those legacy weather stations along” to the new platform.“We know the move to AcuRite NOW has not been as smooth as some customers expected, and we understand the frustration that creates. We’re not dismissing that feedback,” Bovee said. “We’re asking for patience as our team continues to fix issues, improve usability, and build out the new platform. Our goal is to earn back confidence by making AcuRite NOW the best user experience in home weather stations.”A broader challenge with smart devicesThere’s financial and technological reasoning in Bovee’s statements, but releasing a new app to support new endeavors that many customers may not want is questionable. It’s unfair for a customer who has already paid for a device marketed with specific software to suddenly have to pay to share data with Weather Underground, just so AcuRite can introduce new feat