Update, November 2019

Update

Update, November 2019's cover picture

November 2019 update has arrived. Find out what is the new features for your best Northern Lights experiences.

New update again?

Well, it was about a week ago since our first update was available for users and not even a month since our app launched. You may wonder why do we update it so often? The answer is very easy. It's just to keep the app well-running :p The second answer is that we also received a lot of positive feedbacks and suggestions from our users. Unfortunately, we cannot complete the suggested list now, but we will definitely keep them on our to-do list!.

So what's new?

Besides all the fixes across the app, we added several features and settings. The two new big features are:

Cloud Coverage

Hooray! The cloud coverage is finally here after a long work in process! We know this is very important to you when it comes to northern lights hunting. So finally, we now have the first version working. We are using the data from the Icelandic Meteorological Office, aka Veðustofa. The cloud coverage map should be beneficial for you to check the cloud movement in order for you to be more precise where you should go to see the aurora borealis.

The white colour on the map will display the cloud movement, so a good rule is to go to the opposite side of the cloud or to the direction where the cloud is likely to fade.

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Pins shared show on the map page in the Northern Lights application

Long-term forecast 

Thanks to our users who sent us requests for this feature. In the previous version, we have only one, two, or three-day northern lights forecast. But after many emails from you, we now have 27 days aurora forecast! It will be, of course, less accurate than the short-term but it will be very helpful for you to see what is coming!

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Long-term aurora forecast on hello aurora

So if you are planning for your upcoming northern lights trip to Iceland, you can now check the data in our app in advance and note where people see the aurora borealis to give your idea where and when you should go out for a northern lights hunt!

But we are not done yet, we also added couples of improvements

  • Notification settings. Since the launch, there have been many weather alerts in Iceland, and our users were spammed by us (sorry). So to avoid that annoying notification, we have the option where you can opt-out both the weather alerts and aurora alerts. You can choose to turn off either one of it or both just as you fancy :)
  • Map settings. Seeing many things on the map may make look too messy for you. So you can toggle out the weather alerts coverage or the cloud coverage easily just on press :)
  • Worldwide forecast. Yup! the aurora forecast is now available world-widely. So if you are in another country than Iceland, the app will display you the prediction in your location, and you will be able to share your location with friends around you as well. 
  • Our supporters' list. Now you will be able to see our generous supporters who support us working on the app. We currently have only one, but one is a good number to start, isn't it? If you will be so kind and would like to support us to pay for the server we are using, we will be appreciated! We now have the 1$ plan which costs less than a chocolate bar, we know you love chocolate but you also love aurora, right?
  • Reset button. Unfortunately, the app might crash sometime, and we cannot always control it (sad, right?). So we added a reset button for you to clear and reset the app when there are problems.

These are just some features we could add in this update right now, but we have many more in our to-do list, so stay tuned and bear with us.

That's all for this update, and we hope you gonna like these new features. We still have a lot more features and ideas on our to-do list, like for example, choosing a custom location, so stay tuned and bear with us, we are coming back soon!

And as always, if you have any suggestions feel free to message us we still are very happy to hear back from you, and we appreciate your small talk as well :p

Cheers 👌🏻

Support us

If you like what we do, please consider supporting us. We have donations available in the app. We also have a Pro account available for $1.99 /month. This will give you access to exclusive features in the app to connect and share with the community.

Donations and subscriptions help us with the infrastructure's cost that's necessary to keep the app running and let you sharing your best aurora moments. 💚

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