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I used to be a happy Plume app user and now all that is gone. Don’t be mislead by the high rating, which this app is riding on the basis of the old version before its redesign for the worse. It always had wildly inaccurate information, but at least the ‘North Africa-through-Asia-black-belt’ on the full World Pollution Map it displayed gave you a conversation starter at parties. Now, the UI/aesthetic look has been refreshed whereas overall UX has tanked into this being just a sales platform for their indicators without which Plume can never get to data accuracy. I worry for Plume because it’s in a “no man’s land” and so succeeding in neither direction. It needs to squarely decide: is it a data company or a hardware company? Are we its customers OR its data providers? If the latter, for such an ambitious project as distributed world pollution tracking, it needs to figure out how to get the AQ sensors into people’s hands for free: either gift them with VC or grant money, or work towards a handset standard so people’s phones include these sensors built in. If the former, it needs to rethink its hardware focus from tracking to aggregating 3rd party AQ data which remains more accurate, and maybe deliver more value like gamify things like Niantic did with indoor mapping and Pokemon Go.

I was shown this app during the CA Lightening Complex Wildfires of August 2020. It seemed like a great resource but quickly became a confusing hassle. I do not recommend anyone use it until they are more transparent about their data and index. As I was checking other reputable air quality sites, their data was WAY off. Turns out they don't use a standard index but rather their own made up index. This should be much more clear when downloading and using. I think it would also be prudent to show the numbers from local gov agencies as a comparison and help users understand how your index related to current indexes. Like 150 on plume equals 50 for the US.

I think it maySeem in accurate because they’re using their own index and not the standardized AQI index. But this is useless to me. I want to know the air quality relative to other sources where I get air quality like the news radio and other Internet sites. Seeing some other random number doesn’t help. And I agree with other users where it does not seem to correspond to all the smoke we’re getting from the fires. I also noticed that the company doesn’t seem to have any legitimate responses for the bad reviews.I can’t imagine why the Review remains above 4.0.