Weather

Galaxy Watch Studio (GWS) provides weather components that use OpenWeatherMap’s free APIs. Before you can start using these weather components in your watch design, you must create an account with OpenWeather and copy the API key to GWS. See Get a Weather API Key for more information.

If you want to use weather components, you should be aware of the following:

  • The OpenWeatherMap APIs used by GWS may be different from the APIs used by other weather apps on your mobile device or watch. Therefore, weather information displayed by those apps may differ from the weather information displayed on your watch face.

  • If you want to use weather APIs in your watch design other than those provided by OpenWeather, you cannot use GWS.

  • Weather components in GWS cannot be used with:

    • Tag expressions

    • IAP

    • Health components such as:

      • Steps (%)

      • Step counts

      • Steps goal

      • Speed

      • Burned calorie (kcal)

      • Moved distance

      • Heart rate (bpm)

      • Water intake

      • Caffeine intake

      • Floor

  • Weather components should not be rotated. While a rotated weather component displays in the Preview and Run windows in GWS, it does not display on an actual watch.

  • Negative or 0 (zero) readings may display on the watch if weather data is not available.

  • Locations provided on the map (when selecting a city) are where OpenWeather weather stations are located and weather data is pulled from the closest weather station. Therefore, if you are displaying the name of the Current City in your watch face, a location or area may be displayed rather than a city name.

  • If you are thinking about purchasing a paid plan from OpenWeather, you must verify with OpenWeather that this plan is compatible with GWS. See Get a Weather API Key for more information.

Weather type component

The Weather type component is used to display weather conditions, descriptively or graphically, of a selected city or the Current City (the city where the watch is currently physically located).

The Weather type component can display five types of information:

  • Main – A single word that describes the general weather condition. Available in English only.

  • Icon – An image that depicts the general weather condition.

  • Description – A brief but descriptive expression of the weather. The description is available in multiple languages. When the language is set to default, the language used is the same as the phone’s language (the phone to which the watch is paired). If the phone’s language is not supported, English is used.

  • Number – An alphanumeric value that is used to represent general weather conditions during the day or at night.

  • ID – A numerical value that is used to uniquely identify each weather description.


Temperature component

The Temperature component is used to display the current temperature of a selected city or the Current City (the city where the watch is currently physically located).

The temperature can be displayed in Celsius, Fahrenheit, or Kelvin and you can opt to display or not to display the unit of measurement. You can set the Precision (the number of decimal places or digits after the decimal point) and Left-Pads (the number of digits to display before the decimal point, which may be padded with leading zeroes). You can also enable the Set as button feature that allows the user to cycle through the temperature unit measurements by tapping the temperature. See Use Galaxy Watch Designer to Change the Weather for more information about this feature.

Humidity component

The Humidity component is used to display the current humidity of a selected city/location or the Current City (the city where the watch is currently physically located).

The humidity can be displayed with or without the percentage sign. You can also set the Left-Pads (the number of digits to display before the decimal point, which may be padded with leading zeroes).

City Name (Weather) component

The City Name component displays the selected city/location or the Current City (the city where the watch is currently physically located) from which the weather data is taken.


Last update Time (Weather) component

The Last update Time component displays the month, day, and time or just the time when the weather data was last refreshed. You can also enter a different date and time pattern using a valid ICU format. See Formatting Dates and Times for a list of valid symbols that can be used.

Set as button

Weather components can be set as buttons. That is, you can configure the weather component to update the weather data, change the temperature unit of measurement (Temperature component only), or open an app if the user taps or double-taps the component’s area on the watch face.

See Use Galaxy Watch Designer to Change the Weather and How to: Create a Tap Reveal Button to Show Hidden Data for more information about this feature.

Forecast data

Display weather forecasts, from three hours onward up to four days and 21 hours (forecast time is selected in 3-hour increments). By default, the day and hour values are set to zero (0), which displays the current weather data. The time offset for forecast data is from the current time. That is, if you display 1-day forecast data, the weather data is displayed for exactly 24 hours from the current time. For example, if it is noon, you are viewing the forecast weather data for noon tomorrow. If it is 3p, you are viewing the forecast weather data for 3p tomorrow.

Run window

In order to dynamically change the data displayed in the Run window using the Weather run controllers, the component’s City (located under Properties > Data) must be set to Current City. If you have selected a specific city, that city’s data is displayed in the Run window and cannot be changed.

Custom weather icons

You can customize the weather icons displayed by a Weather type component by setting bitmap fonts.

GWS uses the data provided by OpenWeather and maps them to display types. OpenWeather provides 18 numbers and 54 codes that define the current weather type (see the Icon list and Weather condition codes on https://openweathermap.org/weather-conditions for the most current definitions).

OpenWeather file names of each icon are mapped to the Number display type used in GWS (for example, the OpenWeather file 01d.png maps to the GWS number 01d and represents clear sky during the day). There are 10 weather descriptions that apply to both day time and night time weather.

OpenWeather weather condition codes are mapped to the Main, Description, and ID display types used in GWS (for example, the OpenWeather ID 800 maps to the GWS ID 800 and represents a clear sky).

GWS Weather Type Component Display Types and Values
Main Icon Description Number ID Other Notes
Thunderstorm Thunderstorm with light rain 11d 200
Thunderstorm thunderstorm with rain 11d 201
Thunderstorm thunderstorm with heavy rain 11d 202
Thunderstorm light thunderstorm 11d 210
Thunderstorm thunderstorm 11d 211 Day time
11n Night time
Thunderstorm heavy thunderstorm 11d 212
Thunderstorm ragged thunderstorm 11d 221
Thunderstorm thunderstorm with light drizzle 11d 230
Thunderstorm thunderstorm with drizzle 11d 231
Thunderstorm thunderstorm with heavy drizzle 11d 232
Drizzle light intensity drizzle 09d 300
Drizzle drizzle 09d 301
Drizzle heavy intensity drizzle 09d 302
Drizzle light intensity drizzle rain 09d 310
Drizzle drizzle rain 09d 311
Drizzle heavy intensity drizzle rain 09d 312
Drizzle shower rain and drizzle 09d 313
Drizzle heavy shower rain and drizzle 09d 314
Drizzle shower drizzle 09d 321
Rain light rain 10d 500 Day time
10n Night time
Rain moderate rain 10d 501
Rain heavy intensity rain 10d 502
Rain very heavy rain 10d 503
Rain extreme rain 10d 504
Rain freezing rain 10d 511
Rain light intensity shower rain 10d 520 Day time
10n Night time
Rain shower rain 10d 521
Rain heavy intensity shower rain 10d 522
Rain ragged shower rain 10d 531
Snow light snow 13d 600
Snow Snow 13d 601 Day time
13n Night time
Snow heavy snow 13d 602
Snow sleet 13d 611
Snow shower sleet 13d 612
Snow light rain and snow 13d 615
Snow rain and snow 13d 616
Snow light shower snow 13d 620
Snow shower snow 13d 621
Snow heavy shower snow 13d 622
Mist mist 50d 701 Day time
50n Night time
Smoke smoke 50d 711
Haze haze 50d 721
Dust sand, dust whirls 50d 731
Fog fog 50d 741
Sand sand 50d 751
Dust dust 50d 761
Ash volcanic ash 50d 762
Squall squalls 50d 771
Tornado tornado 50d 781
Clear clear sky 01d 800 Day time
01n Night time
Clouds few clouds 02d 801 Day time
02n Night time
Clouds scattered clouds 03d 802 Day time
03n Night time
Clouds broken clouds 04d 803 Day time
04n Night time
Clouds overcast clouds 04d 804 Day time
04n Night time

To customize the icon associated with the display types, do the following:

  1. Add a Weather type component to your watch face. Select Text > Weather type.

  2. If a Warning window displays, read and acknowledge that the listed features and components cannot be used when this weather component is used. Click OK.

  3. Position the weather component in the watch face by dragging and dropping it to the desired location.

  4. With the weather component selected, in the Properties window and Data section, change the Display Type that you want to customize.

  1. If a Warning window displays, read and acknowledge the message. Click OK. Note that the selected display type displays in the Preview and Run windows.

  2. In the Properties window and Appearance section, select Bitmap Font.

  3. Click the Bitmap Font Setting button and select the Custom tab.

  4. Click the Add Text String button, enter one of the values of the display type you selected (for example, enter 01d for a Number or 800 for an ID), and click OK.

  1. Repeat step 8 until you have entered all values.

If you enter a value that is not used by the API, the image associated with the value will never display in your watch face.

  1. For each value, click the + symbol next to it and select the image file that you want associated with it. The image file must be the exact size and color you want to display on the watch face. You cannot resize the image in GWS.

  1. Click OK.

  2. In the Run window, set the Weather Type field to one of your customized values to view how the custom icon will appear in the watch face.