Overflight FAQ.

This is the question Overflight exists to answer. It reads your position, queries the airplanes.live ADS-B network for the traffic around you, and identifies the aircraft most directly overhead: airline, flight number, route, type, altitude, speed, and which way to look, with the rest of the visible sky ranked behind it on a radar scope. How it works has the full mechanics.

Yes, when they're broadcasting. Military and otherwise notable airframes are scored separately, and one genuinely closing on your position takes over the instrument in amber with a countdown to closest approach. The honest caveat: traffic flying with transponders dark is invisible to every ADS-B app, this one included.

It starts from the TV's own coarse fix, which is enough to put traffic on the scope. For a precise position, press play/pause and scan the QR code with your iPhone camera. One exact fix is handed off through the pairing server and deleted within minutes. More on the Apple TV page.

No. There is nothing to sign into. The beta is free; pricing for 1.0 isn't final, and we'd rather say that plainly than guess at it here.

Yes. The receiver network is worldwide and volunteer-run, so coverage tracks receiver density: excellent near populated areas, thinner over oceans and remote terrain. If you run your own ADS-B receiver, you're part of why this works.

Almost always: it isn't broadcasting ADS-B, or no receiver near you heard it. Some general aviation, gliders, and dark military traffic fall in this gap. Occasionally the visibility model has honestly concluded you shouldn't be able to see it; widening the reach setting tells the model to be more generous.

Your coordinates leave the device only to query nearby aircraft, to look up terrain elevation, and during the optional Apple TV pairing handoff, which is deleted within minutes. No account, no location history. The privacy policy spells out where each coordinate goes.

The TestFlight beta opens soon. Waitlist members get invites first, and the waitlist is below.