InstaWeather: Your Weathershot

The premium restore button that never works

The app loads quickly. You take a photo or pick one from the gallery. A menu pops up with weather skins. You pick one, and the app overlays temperature and location data onto the image. Then you hit save. A full-screen ad appears. You wait five seconds, close it, and the image saves. This is the core loop. But there is another loop that happens in the background, one that involves money. The app offers a premium version that removes ads and unlocks all skins. Many users paid for it years ago, when the app was called InstaWeather. Now the app is called Weathershot, and the restore purchase button does not work. It spins. It says "restoring." Nothing happens. The developer's response? The old app is defunct. This is a different app. Your money is gone.

This is not an isolated incident. Multiple users across different platforms report the same experience. They paid for Pro, the app updated, and their purchase vanished. The new version asks for a subscription. $9.99 a month. Or $20 a year. The skins they had access to before are now locked behind a paywall. The developer's defense is that the app has changed. But the package ID is the same. The functionality is the same. The only thing that changed is the pricing model. This creates a specific kind of user: someone who paid once, feels cheated, and now uses the free version with ads, bitterly.

What makes it different from Overcast or other weather apps

This app is not a weather app. It is a photo app that uses weather data. That distinction matters. Overcast, AccuWeather, and Weather Underground give you forecasts. They show you radar maps and hourly predictions. This app does none of that. It gives you one thing: a temperature reading and a location stamp that you can paste onto a photo. The forecast data is secondary. The primary function is the overlay. You choose a skin, the weather data appears, and you share it. It is simple. It is fast. And it is unlike any other weather app on the market. The closest competitor is OshareWeather, which targets a similar niche but with a different aesthetic. Weathershot's strength is its skin library. Over 100 designs, from minimalist to colorful, from serious to whimsical. You can make a photo look like a vintage postcard or a modern infographic. No other app offers that level of customization for weather overlays.

The downside is the data quality. Users report that the weather information is often wrong. The app might say it is 0°C in August. It might show rain when the sky is clear. The location picker sometimes fails, locking you to your current location even when you want to show the weather somewhere else. This is a critical flaw. If the weather data is wrong, the whole point of the app collapses. You are not sharing a weather report. You are sharing a lie. The developer has not publicly addressed these data accuracy issues, and the app's changelog only mentions "bugfixes" without specifying what was fixed. This lack of transparency undermines trust.

What actually changed between versions 6.2 and 6.4

The version history tells a story. Version 6.2.82, released in October 2023, had a file size of 42.6 MB and required Android 6.0. By version 6.4.88, released in July 2026, the file size had grown to 52.1 MB and the requirement was Android 7.0. The app grew by nearly 10 MB. What was added? The changelog says only "Bugfixes". No new features are listed. No performance improvements are described. Just bugfixes. Yet the app got heavier and more demanding. This suggests that the updates were not about adding functionality. They were about changing the business model. The shift from a one-time purchase to a subscription model happened during this period. Users who paid for the Pro version before the update found their purchases invalidated. The developer's response to one user confirms this: the old app is "defunct". But the package ID is the same. The app is the same. Only the pricing changed.

The iOS version tells a similar story. The app is ranked #1 in weather in over 100 countries. It has a 4.4 rating on the App Store. But reviews on the App Store also mention the same issues: ads, subscription problems, and data inaccuracies. The iOS version has 60+ skins instead of 100+, but the core experience is identical. The app is popular. It has millions of downloads. But the user base is divided between those who love the concept and those who feel betrayed by the pricing changes.

The iCloud backup that doesn't exist on Android

One of the most requested features on the iOS version is iCloud backup and sync. Android users have no equivalent. The app does not offer Google Drive backup, Dropbox sync, or any form of cloud storage. Your photos and your overlays live only on your device. If you uninstall the app, everything is gone. There is no export function for your settings or your saved overlays. You cannot transfer your premium purchase to a new device. The restore button is broken. This is a technical limitation that directly impacts the user experience. It is also a deliberate choice by the developer. By not offering cloud backup, the app keeps users locked into their current device. If you get a new phone, you have to start over. You have to re-select your skins, re-enter your preferences, and re-purchase the premium features if you want them. This is not a bug. It is a feature that benefits the developer, not the user.