EPA's AIRNow

US Environmental Protection Agency

About this app

The AIRNow Android application will provide an increasingly mobile public with real-time air quality information that people can use to protect their health when planning their daily activities

The app will allow users to get location-specific reports on current air quality and air quality forecasts for both ozone and fine particle pollution (PM2.5). Air quality maps from the AIRNow website provide visual depictions of current and forecast air quality nationwide, and a page on air quality-related health effects explains what actions people can take to protect their health at different AQI levels, such as “code orange.”

Ratings and reviews

There have been quite a few apps that I have used for AQI and either it is clunky, you have features that you need to pay for, or it does more than I want (yes that is a thing). If it's hot then it's hot and I can manage it but AQI directly impacts my ability to function and whether I need to mask up or not. This is a simple app with one specific function and it works great for me!

Clean, mostly simple interface It's not obvious that you can rearrange the locations in the [Places] tab. 20260513: Added a new location recently (I had quite a few already) and moved it to the spot where I wanted it. Turned on notifications switch, and the screen went white. Had to kill the app. Now, it loads, I see a white screen briefly, and then it almost immediately crashes. I could probably clear the Data (tried Cache already) and lose all my settings, but I wonder if there's a fix coming.

Clean, easy to use interface that works great! Has a very small footprint (as in kilobytes). In addition to current readings, provides forecast and map. Plus, uses a tiny amount of data (mine averages just kilobytes over several months). Unintrusive - asks for just what it needs (only GPS). Not a battery killer either, doesn't query the GPS excessively, nor will it vampire your device performance (like some apps running/communicating constantly as a background app) Bonus - doesn't have/cause ads, nag-ware, or performance issues -- even though it's free. I've used it for years, and prefer it to (getting just) the emails because it provides updated readings throughout the day. This app is one of the first things I install whenever I change mobile devices. A 'must have' for me, I use it every day!