Plume Labs: Air Quality App Reviews

I used to be a happy Plume app user and now all that is gone. Don’t be mislead by the high rating, which PlumeLabs 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've been using Plume for almost a year and have introduced it to many people who were not aware of how important it is to monitor AQI especially when you have young children. My children also use PlumeLabs on their own now.
I love the new improvements and the ease of use. As an outdoor athlete it has helped me tremendously in managing the quality and amount of time I spend outside over the last year which in turn has impacted my health and the health of my family. I highly recommend.

Plume Labs has not provided its privacy policy to Apple, which would have allowed its users to easily understand its privacy tenets and, in particular, whether advertising cookies are used (they are) and if those cookies are good or bad Samaritans (I.e tracking you ALL AROUND the web.) Setting my privacy qualms aside for now, PlumeLabs is good, albeit a bit heavy on the marketing side of their mobile pollution sensor.

EDIT: after reading Plume Labs privacy policies on their web site- I can confirm that they use third-party ad trackers (I.e those little « gremlin » trackers which follow you wherever you go….). For being late to fill out Apple’s own privacy labels and using me as a product to monetize without asking me if it is OK, I am removing one more star and will abstain from using the product for now

PlumeLabs does what is says and quite well.

I’ve used it in Chinese, Japanese and English and the functionality was consistent across all three languages.

The limitations I could see were;

(1) there was no way to modify the city list; you have to first delete the cities and re-enter them in the order you prefer.

(2) when you delete a city, the last city in your list is “promoted” to top of the list. That makes it even harder to re-sequence your list...

and,

(3) there is no way to select which city appears in the widget, so if you want to see your city at a glance (in the widget) it has to be at the top of your cities. Otherwise you have to fiddle around with the list, back to (1) and (2).

Finally (4), there is no way to add air quality tracking stations that may not otherwise be listed in the city list.

Truth be said, these are really minor points that don’t take away from the functionality and useful information, at all.

Great app. Recommend it if you’re tracking air quality in your area.

Where exactly is plume getting its data from??!

We are experiencing some serious forest for smoke in my corner of the world, and plume lab keeps projecting AQI scores that seem to have nothing to do with reality. The nearest EPA and purple air sensors say our pm2.5 levels are high and ozone even higher, but plume has pm10 as the highest pollution, with pm2.5 and ozone as moderate. Maybe plume has it’s own AQI absolute scores, but it’s concerning that the pollution trumped aren’t ranked relative to one another the same way that nearby sensors rank them.

I used to trust plume to make decisions about when my children were safe to play out side and when I could ride a bike to work, but now that I see that plume’s projections do not correlate to any of the sensors around me, I do not trust plume. I also notice that when plume gets it wrong, they revise their AQI history retroactively.

I will just have to rely on purple air and the EPA Air Now sites to guess the present pollution levels.

I did direct questions to plume’s customer service before leaving this feedback, but they did not clarify anything with their response

Just learned about this and got it on the basis of the reviews. I intend to go with the Flow as well. I cannot judge the accuracy but it seems to offer so much more than the apps I had been using, and I am very susceptible to pollution-related health issues. I do have the luxury of choosing where I get my exercise and I expect this to help me decide where to spend time. If it helps me I will also be sharing information about this product with elderly neighbors as respiratory issues loom large in this part of the world.

I use this daily so I know the best time to go out for exercise. You can set up morning and evening notification updates. Love that it automatically locates the city you are in which is great since I travel a lot.

The developer is very timely in responding to requests. Would like to see option for am/pm in addition to the 24 hour clock.

Under the Settings tab, there is an offer for a hand held air quality monitor for those who are interested in taking their own readings.

This awesome app is giving me real time data in the midsts of heavy, dangerous smoke. I live in northwestern Washington State. My family lives in a line from southern Cal through the Bay Area and on up to southern Oregon. I’ve been able to follow the air quality all up and down the west coast. In some cases the readings have been worrisome. Other readings have calmed my concerns. I’m so grateful to the developer for providing this great, free applet. Did I mention it’s free? Just try it!!!

The data visualization/interface is intuitive, effective and powerful. I have not analyzed the accuracy of the data, and I am sure that in a large city such as Toulouse it might be inaccurate depending on where you are, but as far as using it as a general indicator as when to plan our outings with our infant, it's useful. I wish there were more data samplings that would allow PlumeLabs to differentiate pollution levels between a secluded park and a major motorway. If this could tap into amateur data readings, that would be ideal!

PlumeLabs is so accurate!! Really shows you the true AQI in your area. Before, I was using IQ Airs app, and realized the ratings never matched my personal experience. I would walk outside to fire soaked pollution air, and IQ would say all was fine. I am so glad I found this Plume Labs AQI app— I trust it much more. I have an infant and check this every time before I go outside since we are in the fire territory.

Have been trying out PlumeLabs during the latest apocalyptic fire situation in the SF Bay for about a week and have found that, overall, PlumeLabs is pretty nice to use. The UI is beautiful and usability is in the top tier. However, the data does not always jive with the other sources. Today, for example, it is saying an aqi of 94 which might invite one to take at least a walk. But then you look and see all the other sources saying closer to 200 and going outside and smelling confirms that. Keep that in mind while using this.

I was shown PlumeLabs 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 like the light mode, but I can't zoom into new York in the map, but I can zoom into Philadelphia for some reason. Whenever I try to zoom into new York, the air quality on the streets disappear after I release my fingers

Why did someone lie in a review about PlumeLabs sending them advertisements? I don't know if it's because I used PlumeLabs for years but I don't know if he's talking about the daily overview notification

I like how PlumeLabs works, it’s practical and it looks for a lot of particles in the air that could cause allergy sufferers to have an episode. Problems I gave it a 4 Star is Hawaii has something unique called vog. I noticed it did saw it could measure this. But I saw on PlumeLabs that today October 1st we had clean air, when I looked outside my apartment window you can’t even see the ocean or mountains because the haze was so thick. Figured maybe you could people in Hawaii out :) other than that when I travel it helps a lot.

Plume worked so well to protect my family members that I purchased the economical portable Flow device to track air quality. We’ve used the software and the portable device for a year in many cities in the USA. Plume and Flow apps are very easy to use and are extremely accurate and effective. We highly recommend the software and the portable device to others around the world.

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.

I don’t know what has happened to the team behind Plume. Once upon a time they used to be responsive. Not anymore, folks. I have had a red ‘1’ on PlumeLabs icon for MONTHS now, without any message that would relate to it. It is irksome and I wrote to the support team about it twice and once with a screen shot. They never even bothered to acknowledge my request. I have given up and will now delete PlumeLabs and move on to ‘air visual’. I concur with another reviewer. They have moved their focus on the plume hardware gadget they are now selling. Good luck.

Plume is by far the absolute best monitor and reporter of air quality. Plume allows me to be proactive. Plume shows the air quality so that I can make sure that I am located by an air filter when the air quality index is high and this shows why my asthma is bad. No other app does this. Other apps show pollen and other pollutants but not what plume shows you. Breathe easy and clear with Plume. You need Plume now!

Make sure to check all the settings. Then you’ll have the correct information or rather information you understand. Plume has helped me through several years of California fires. It’s nice to see the predicted AQI.
Something however is off this year (2021).
The aqi (us) is showing lower than breezeometer. Not sure why but plume seems to be accurate on the rise and fall of the aqi. So while the number is a off by a good bit the prediction is useful.

Pollution data shouldn’t stop you from exercising. Studies have shown that even in cities as polluted as many Chinese or Indian cities, up to 30 minutes of exercise is still beneficial. In western cities with lower pollution levels, it would often take 15-20 hours of constant exposure prior to the exercise outside being bad for your health. For people in the west, it’s never a bad time to exercise.

This is really a great app if you or a loved one has respiratory issues or you are just interested in tracking air pollution. There are many features and a lot of ways to look at various pollutants in many major international population areas. I love the various history graphs showing short, medium, and long range views.

It’s hard to understand PlumeLabs, but the general message is always worse than everything else I see. One time it was green and the AQI was good (low). Plume had a frown and said high. Things are bad enough without exaggerating. Since it’s so different from other apps it would be nice to have a key.

It is cute, but the information I’m looking for is pretty simple and as far as I can tell it’s inaccurate here.

PlumeLabs provides wonderful information on air quality. This is especially helpful because I have a small daughter and want to protect her as much as possible. However, we live in a smaller city and PlumeLabs only update every few hours, so it is not always reliable in real-time. It's great for a historic view of air quality. To see the typical times air quality is bad/good.