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Top apps for air quality information
Explore some of the great apps for getting real-time information about air quality in your area
In recent years, media reporting of global environmental issues has greatly increased awareness of air quality. Whether at home or traveling abroad, there are some great apps that will give you real-time information about the air quality in your neighborhood or at your destination. Here are our top three picks:
Air Matters
Formerly known as the “China Air Quality Index”, this app provides real-time air quality information for more than 50 countries.
Key features:
- Data provided by over 10,000 monitoring stations and more than 50 countries
- Displays the air quality from the nearest monitoring station
- Provides pollen data and forecasting for the United States
- Option to switch between US, China, UK and India standards
- Pollution and pollen alerts
- Shows real-time air quality index via a desktop icon
- Available for all iOS and Android devices
Air Matters is ad-supported – if you don’t want to see the ads, you can choose the optional “Air Matters Premium” app for an annual subscription.
AirVisual
With no advertising, this app provides real-time and forecasted air pollution and weather data for more than 10,000 cities around the world.
Key features:
- Historical, real-time and forecasted air pollution data on key pollutants for more than 10,000 cities in over 80 countries
- 7-day air pollution and weather forecasts
- Health recommendations to reduce exposure to pollutants – especially useful for asthma sufferers
- Weather information includes temperature, humidity, current conditions and forecast
- Live monitoring of PM2,5, PM10, ozone, nitrogen dioxide, sulfur dioxide and carbon monoxide
- Available for all iOS and Android devices
Plume Air Report
With its fun and intuitive user interface, this app provides global coverage of urban areas and receives great user reviews.
Key features:
- Real-time data for every urban area on the planet, as well as forecasts for the next 24 hours
- Timeline slider shows historical data – you can zoom in to change timescales and reveal month-by-month air quality tracking
- Detailed data – tap the Plume ‘cloud’ to expand the compass and get pollutant-by-pollutant breakdowns
- Swipe between cities to easily compare air quality worldwide
- Choose whether to receive measurements in μg/m3
- Available for all iOS and Android devices
