Description
ADSBWho — Your Personal Sky Radar
Ever looked up at a plane and wondered where it's going? ADSBWho turns your iPhone into a powerful aircraft tracking station, giving you real-time data on every flight overhead.
Your Own ADS-B Receiver, Your Own Data
ADSBWho is designed to work with your personal ADS-B receiver on your local network. Connect directly to devices like FlightAware PiAware, ADS-B Exchange feeders, or any receiver running dump1090 or readsb. Because the data comes straight from your receiver over your local Wi-Fi, there's no internet dependency and no data usage — everything stays on your home network. For times when you're away from your receiver or want extended range, remote feed support is available too. Use local only, remote only, or both together for maximum coverage.
Live Aircraft Radar
Watch planes appear on your map in real time. See callsigns, altitudes, speeds, aircraft types, and registrations at a glance. Local feed updates arrive instantly with no cloud latency — as fast as your receiver can decode them.
Augmented Reality Sky View
Point your phone at the sky and see aircraft labels overlaid in AR. Identify flights instantly with callsign, altitude, and distance — right where you're looking. The AR view filters to your configured radius so you only see what matters.
Spotting Log
Every aircraft you detect is automatically logged with registration, callsign history, route history, and timestamps. Filter by date range to explore your spotting history — today, last 7 days, last 30 days, or all time. Track how many times you've seen the same aircraft and watch your collection grow.
Moon Transit Predictions
A unique feature you won't find anywhere else. ADSBWho calculates whether an aircraft is about to pass in front of the moon from your exact location. Get notified before it happens so you can look up and watch a plane silhouette cross the lunar disc.
Live Activity & Dynamic Island
Keep monitoring even when the app is in the background. The lock screen Live Activity and Dynamic Island show your current aircraft count, nearest flight, and distance — all updating in real time without opening the app.
Smart Notifications
Receive proximity alerts when aircraft enter your chosen radius. Each notification includes the flight's altitude, distance, and compass direction from your location. Duplicate alerts are suppressed, and ground infrastructure like towers is automatically filtered out.
Detailed Statistics
Dive into your data with statistics on most-spotted aircraft, aircraft type breakdowns, busiest spotting days, and more. See which registrations appear most often in your skies.
Aircraft Watchlist
Flag specific registrations or hex codes you want to track. Watchlisted aircraft are highlighted on the map with a distinctive ring so you never miss them.
Coverage Map
Visualise your ADS-B reception coverage over time. See where your setup performs best and identify gaps in your tracking range.
Built for Enthusiasts
Whether you're a seasoned plane spotter running your own receiver, an aviation photographer timing the perfect shot, or just curious about the traffic above your house — ADSBWho gives you the tools to explore the sky like never before.
• Connect to your own ADS-B receiver over local Wi-Fi
• Zero internet usage with local-only mode
• Real-time aircraft tracking on map
• Augmented reality sky overlay
• Automatic spotting log with date filtering
• Moon transit prediction and alerts
• Lock screen Live Activity & Dynamic Island
• Proximity notifications with direction
• Local and remote ADS-B feed support
• Aircraft watchlist with map highlights
• Reception coverage mapping
• Detailed spotting statistics
• Persistent data across app updates
Nouveautés (v1.2.2)
Some 1.1 users found that aircraft occasionally slipped past the background proximity alert without so much as a "beep." Turns out iOS had been dozing at the dispatch desk. This update wakes it up. So I skipped 1.2 and went to 1.2.2 straight away (I kept finding more bugs, so I wanted to keep pushing)
New in 1.2.2
• Choose your own interval — Background check timer is now configurable: 30 s, 1 min (new default), 2 min, 5 min, or 10 min. Fast movers finally get caught; battery nerds can relax the throttle.
• Diagnostics, on demand — Flip on "Show Diagnostics" in Settings → Background Alerts to see exactly when each iOS mechanism last fired, how many aircraft were in range, and why any were suppressed. Leave it off for the clean look.
• "Always" location warning — If you've enabled background alerts but haven't granted Always-location, Settings now nudges you (politely) with a tap-through to fix it. No more silent failures.
• Debug log, now with a BG category — Every schedule, fire, expire, and proximity summary is captured. Export it and send it our way if something still looks off.
Still new to you if you skipped 1.2: seven receivers, one app.
ADSBWho isn't picky about who it talks to. As of 1.2 we speak:
• tar1090 / dump1090 — the classic JSON feed (default)
• SBS-1 (BaseStation) — Kinetic Avionics and anything speaking port 30003
• Beast Binary — raw 0x1A frames from dump1090-fa on port 30005
• AVR / RAW — the old-school text format on port 30002
• GDL 90 — Stratux, SkyEcho, and other UAT receivers (port 4000 UDP)
• Virtual Radar Server — the AircraftList.json endpoint for VRS fans
• Mictronics readsb-protobuf — native Protocol Buffer decode, no conversion required
Mix and match. Save as many sources as you like and hot-swap between them from Settings with a tap. Each one has its own setup guide baked in, plus a "Test Connection" button so you know you're wired up before you walk out the door.
Think of it as giving the background service a proper office, a clock, a logbook — and seven different radios to listen on.