There are, currently, four different apps associated with weatherlink.com and released by Davis Instruments. The role of these different apps is potentially confusing to new users and so this topic briefly summarises what each one does. The four apps are:
- Main browser app;
- Weatherlink smartphone app;
- Enviromonitor smartphone app;
- Mobilize smartphone app;
All Davis smartphone apps are available in either iOS or Android versions (though the version numbering may not necessarily be the same) and are free downloads from the Apple or Google Play stores. In general, the features offered by iOS and Android versions are closely matched but may not be 100% identical. The smartphone apps can usually also be installed on tablets of different sizes and so they should really be considered smartphone/tablet apps.
There are also likely to be an increasing number of third-party apps able to access and present data from weatherlink.com and which will show up in a search for eg Weatherlink on the appropriate app stores.
Specific features of each app are as follows:
Browser app:
This is an app in the sense that it provides the views and features when the weatherlink.com website is viewed in any standard web browser like Chrome, Firefox or Safari. Weatherlink.com shows good browser compatibility across most modern browsers except that Internet Explorer, even in later versions, may not render or function accurately.
The browser app is the key application for viewing and analysing your data in detail – the much greater screen real-estate available on PC screens and larger tablets allows scope for fully detailed graphical displays such as the Bulletin dashboard or the powerful charting tool and also allows the full range of menu and configuration options to be displayed. In contrast, the smartphone apps fill three main roles:
- Access to current weather conditions and additional limited data from any arbitrary location;
- Installation & configuration of upload devices such as Enviromonitor and Weatherlink Live via a direct Bluetooth connection;
- Certain other specialised roles, eg features provided by the Mobilize app, for which the app itself is the primary configuration tool;
Overall, the browser app is the main office-based tool for reviewing data and account/station configurations.
Weatherlink smartphone app
The Weatherlink app is the default application for viewing data on smartphones and hence is the fully mobile option for monitoring current weather conditions. The Weatherlink app has an important second role in being the only tool able to install and configure the Weatherlink Live device.
Enviromonitor smartphone app
The Enviromonitor app is essential for the installation and configuration Davis Enviromonitor stations. But once an EM station is installed then its data will be viewed and analysed by a combination of the browser app, the Weatherlink app (for gateway ISS data only) and the Mobilize app to access different features.
Mobilize smartphone app
The Mobilize app is a specialised application devoted to generating specific ‘views’ or reports of data in one of four general categories:
- Weather
- Frost risk
- Crop (growing conditions for crops)
- Irrigation (assessing the need for irrigation based on rainfall, ET etc)
These views can only be set up and customised using the Mobilize app and, for now at least, appear only to be available for use with Enviromonitor stations. Each view is individually named and set up for a specific station and for other parameters such as alert thresholds. All the views created within an individual account appear in a single list for later recall.
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