The Weather Channel App Gets A Custom Twitter Timeline, But Is It Useful?

Most of us have ever changing weather, therefore, we find ourselves checking forecasts and current conditions several times throughout the day. The Weather Channel app has been around since nearly the beginning of the App Store, but it has gone through a lot of changes, one of those including social network integration. Within the past week, TWC has expanded that integration from simply sharing to both sharing and viewing. The Weather Channel v3.0 was the first release to bring social-networking to the app via Facebook Connect, allowing iPhone and iPod touch users to post weather conditions to their wall. In later versions, you can also tweet the details for others to be informed of your location's weather conditions. Last Thursday, the app moved to v4.0, but we didn't report on it just then. Why? The release contained a Location Services bug that left it running constantly. Today's v4.0.1 update corrects that issue, and now we can get back to highlighting the new features. Many people enjoy sharing weather conditions, especially in severe circumstances, and most of us will check in to see how neighboring areas are fairing in comparison to our own situation. That type of communication would be a logical inclusion to a weather app, right? Unfortunately, the results provided by such an implementation aren't what you'd likely expect. TWC v4.0 added regular tweeting integration, and a custom Twitter feed for both local and nearby tweets. You can tweet anything with the TWC app, just like a standard Twitter client, but, of course, TWC's integration of the service is intended for brief weather reports straight from users. The app doesn't add any special hashtags or links to associate a tweet with the weather feed. So, how does it work? The Twitter feed employed by The Weather Channel app appears to be a combination of weather term search results: weather, rain, sunny, etc. Because of this, most of the tweets TWC picks up are technical forecasts and conditions one can find within the app anyway or aren't a weather report. For example, a person may be tweeting a generalized weather comment, recapping historic weather, or an unrelated topic that includes a weather term, such as the band The Dead Weather. Basically, very few of the tweets are of any real use for people hoping to get a personal insight on current outdoor conditions. Is this new feature pointless? I don't think so. However, you're probably better off just searching nearby tweets, a feature included in apps like Twittelator, or keeping an eye on the weather on your own. If anything, you won't need to switch apps to tweet about your region exceeding 110º, flooding or tornado warnings, etc. Not quite a discussion piece like the Twitter enhancement, but v4.0 had one other addition for The Weather Channel Max iPhone app users: Map Gallery. The map gallery is another section, separate from the radar and other areas, that provides 18 different overview maps. These are the same maps you can view on the TWC site, such as precipitation forecast, thunderstorm forecast, grass pollen forecast, actual lows and highs, infrared satellite image, water vapor satellite image, lightning strikes, and so on. What are your thoughts about the enhanced Twitter functionality? How do you feel about The Weather Channel app in general? Personally, I don't have any interest in the social-networking portions of the app -- not to say that I'm against them -- but I do maintain an opinion that despite the flaws, TWC is still the best resource for weather information. The Weather Channel is designed for iPhone and iPod touch running iOS 4.0 or later, and available in the App Store as a free download. The Weather Channel Max is designed for iPhone and iPod touch running iOS 4.0 or later, and available in the App Store for $3.99.