PlaneLens
Hear a jet, look at your phone. PlaneLens shows the airline, flight number, route, aircraft and altitude of the planes above you, lit up dot by dot on a flight wall. Turn your phone sideways and the whole screen becomes the wall.
Free beta on TestFlight
No account · no ads · no tracking
How it works
It uses your location, or a place you choose: home, the office, your favorite spot by the runway.
Nearby flights cycle on the wall: airline, flight number, route, aircraft, altitude and which way to look.
See a photo of the actual aircraft, how far along its route it is, and a map with its trail.
Pick a style, track your own flights, add widgets, and let night mode dim the wall at sunset.
The wall
A Widescreen or Mini panel, drawn dot by dot in the same 5×7 font as the open-source FlightWall. Long names and routes scroll across like a real sign, and it keeps the screen awake so it can sit on a shelf by the window.
Features
Live positions from a community network of ADS-B receivers, checked and filled in so what you see matches what's really up there.
Flight details
A photo of the actual aircraft, credited to the photographer. The route with how far along it is and about how long until it lands. A map that follows the plane and draws a yellow trail behind it while you watch.
Tail fins and badges
Airline names glow in their brand colors next to a pixel tail fin in the airline's livery. Private planes and helicopters get a maker badge instead: Cessna, Piper, Cirrus, Beechcraft, Robinson and more, with a silhouette of the aircraft.
Tracking
Track up to five flight numbers or tail numbers, like DL1042 or N172SP. PlaneLens shows each one's route, progress, altitude and about how long until it lands, or tells you it isn't flying yet. Tracked flights in the air join the wall too.
Widgets
Small, Medium and Large widgets, plus Lock Screen widgets with the nearest flight. Between refreshes the planes keep moving along their paths minute by minute, and a tap brings in fresh data.
Places
Use your location, or search any city, address or airport. Your last ten places stay one tap away, each with a short label like Home or KAUS. Set how far to look and how high, from the ground up.
Siri and Shortcuts
Ask Siri and hear the nearest flight, with the flight card on screen. Ask where a tracked flight is, or add a new one, hands-free. Every action is in the Shortcuts app too.
“What's flying over me in PlaneLens?”
“Where's DL1042 in PlaneLens?”
Sync and backup
Turn on iCloud sync and your places, labels, tracked flights, filters and style follow you to your other iPhone and iPad. Or export your settings as a file to keep or share.
Why people love it
Where's that one going? What is it? How high? Look down and you know, before it's out of sight.
Prop your phone or an old iPad on a shelf and it becomes the flight wall everyone asks about.
Routes are matched against where the plane really is, and aircraft database mix-ups are caught, so a trainer doesn't show up as an airliner.
Registrations, type codes, size classes, maker badges and real photos. Plenty for people who already know their A321neo from their 737 MAX.
Night mode dims the wall or turns it red from sunset to sunrise, so it can stay on in the bedroom.
No account, no ads, no tracking. Your location is rounded to about a kilometer before it's used to find nearby planes.
The beta
PlaneLens is in beta on TestFlight. Join, use everything, and tell us what you'd change. Feedback from beta testers shapes what comes next.
Questions
Install Apple's free TestFlight app from the App Store, then open the PlaneLens beta link on your iPhone and tap Accept and Install. The beta is free; send feedback from TestFlight or to support@planelens.app.
PlaneLens shows aircraft that broadcast ADS-B and are heard by a volunteer receiver near you. Coverage is best near cities and airports. Try a bigger radius or a higher max altitude, or search for a busy airport to see it working.
Live positions from adsb.lol (with OpenSky Network as a backup), routes from adsbdb.com, aircraft photos from planespotters.net, and airline and aircraft names from the FlightWall open-source project. Routes are crowd-sourced, so some may be missing or out of date.
The free flight data services limit how often each internet connection can ask. When that happens PlaneLens waits quietly and shows the time flights come back; switching to cellular or another Wi-Fi network gets a fresh limit. See the support page for details.
Up to five flight numbers (DL1042, WN3484) or tail numbers (N172SP). PlaneLens finds them anywhere they're being received, and tells you when one isn't flying.
No. Turn off Use my location in Settings and search for a city, address or airport instead. Either way, only a point rounded to about a kilometer is sent to find nearby aircraft.
iOS decides how often widgets refresh. Between refreshes PlaneLens moves the planes along their paths minute by minute; tap the widget for fresh data, or open the app and the widgets catch up.
See the support page or email support@planelens.app. A real person reads every message.
For fun, not for navigation. PlaneLens shows what volunteer receivers hear and what community databases say, so some flights may be missing, late or wrong. Don't use it for navigation or flight safety.
Free while in beta. Join on TestFlight and tell us what you think.
Credits
