A safety app is supposed to tell you when the people you love are in danger. In large parts of India, for months of the year, one of the most constant dangers is the air itself.
Delhi, Gurugram, Noida, Sonepat: through the winter the air regularly reaches Very Poor and Severe, the levels where even healthy lungs feel it and where children, elders and anyone with asthma are genuinely at risk. It is a slow danger, so it is easy to ignore. It should not be.
So the latest ORBII update brings the air onto the screen you already check.
On your home screen
There is now an air-quality card at the top of Home. It shows the AQI where you are, its category from Good to Severe in the CPCB’s own colours, and one line of advice that is actually specific, not “stay safe”.
When the air is Very Poor, it tells you the thing people in North India learn the hard way: the air is worst from the evening into the dawn, so that is when to keep the windows shut and move the morning walk later or indoors. When it is Severe, it says plainly that a day outside is like smoking a pack, and that breathlessness or dizziness is a reason to see a doctor, not wait it out.
On the people you care about
If someone in your circle shares their location with you, their row now carries a small air-quality chip: a coloured dot and the AQI number for where they are. Tap it and you get their category and the same practical advice.
This is the part that matters for a family spread across a city. You can see that your daughter’s hostel is in Severe air today while your own neighbourhood is merely Poor, and you can tell her to keep the N95 on. Air quality is tied to a place, not a person, so this shows nothing her location pin was not already showing. It just makes it legible.
The honest limits
The number comes from an air-quality model for your area, not a sensor on your street, so a busy main road or a construction site can be worse than the figure suggests. Treat it as the weather report for air: right about the day, not precise to the metre. And ORBII rounds your location before it asks, so the data source never learns exactly where you are.
Clean air is not something an app can give you. Knowing when the air is against you, for yourself and for the people in your circle, is something it can.
Frequently asked questions
Which AQI does ORBII use?
India's CPCB index, the same one Indian news and the SAFAR app report. It is based on the last 24 hours of PM2.5 and PM10, not a single instant, because that is how the CPCB defines it. A number that matches what people around you are already talking about is more useful than a different scale that needs translating.
Where does the air-quality data come from?
An open air-quality model (Open-Meteo), read for the area around you. ORBII rounds your location to about a kilometre before asking, so the data source is never given anyone's exact position.
Can my circle see the air quality where I am?
Yes, if you already share your location with them. Air quality describes a roughly one-kilometre area, not a person, so it reveals nothing your map pin does not. It shows as a small tap-for-detail chip on your row in their circle.
Does ORBII notify me when the air is dangerous?
Once a day, when the air where you are is Very Poor or Severe on the CPCB scale. It is a quiet health notice, never the SOS siren, which is reserved for real emergencies.