Changelog
Every version of Skyty, from launch to the latest update.
1.3 — Live Events
Aurora forecasts, earthquakes, volcanic activity and rocket launches — surfaced when they happen near your route, cached for the offline part of the flight.
New
- Live Events layer — four real-world event types now appear on the map and in the timeline alongside flight data:
- Aurora forecasts — NOAA SWPC Kp index and auroral oval, refreshed at boarding, projected onto your route
- Earthquakes — global seismic activity (USGS), filtered to magnitude ≥ 4.5, last 24 hours
- Volcanic activity — Smithsonian GVP feed, with current eruption status and ash plume bearing
- Rocket launches — upcoming and recent launches with visibility window calculations from your position
- Pre-flight primer — one tap before boarding pulls everything relevant for the next 24 hours into local cache. Once the cabin door closes, every event keeps working without a network
- Event timeline — chronological list of what’s happening (or about to happen) near your route, with bearing and visibility cues
- Map overlays — events appear directly on the offline map: aurora oval as a translucent band, earthquakes as graduated circles, volcanoes as dots, rockets as launch-window markers
Improved
- Map performance unchanged at altitude — events render in a separate layer that the GPU handles independently of the base tiles
- Reverse-geocoder enriched with launch-site and active-volcano names
Architecture
- New
EventSourceandEventCacheabstractions so future event types (eclipses, satellite passes, noctilucent clouds) can plug in without redesigning the layer - All event data is fetched at the pre-flight primer step. In-flight, only stored data is queried — true to the offline-first promise
1.2 — Night Sky
Identify constellations and bright planets from your window seat — auto-activated at twilight, with altitude-corrected horizon.
New
- Night Sky / Constellation View — see which constellations and planets are visible from your current position, altitude and heading, computed entirely offline
- Altitude-corrected horizon — at FL350 the geometric horizon dips ~3.4°, revealing celestial objects hidden from the ground. Skyty accounts for this so what you see in the app matches what you see out the window
- Auto-activation at civil twilight — the view appears automatically when the sun drops below −6°, then disappears at sunrise. Manual toggle remains available
- Bright Star Catalogue — Yale BSC filtered to magnitude ≤ 4.0, ~500 stars, public domain, all bundled (~80 KB)
- Planet positions — Mercury through Neptune, computed from VSOP87 perturbation series, no ephemeris download needed
Improved
- Sun position computation reused for both the existing daytime sun marker and the new Night Sky activation logic — no duplicated math
- Compass band shared with the Landmark Spotter view for visual consistency
Fixed
- Live Activity altitude readings no longer briefly flicker to ”—” during background-to-foreground transitions
1.1 — Landmark Spotter
What's that mountain? Skyty now answers — for ~6,800 landmarks worldwide, fully offline.
New
- Landmark Spotter — tap to see what’s outside your window: mountains, lakes, volcanoes, cities, islands, capes, rivers and notable buildings, ranked by relevance and distance
- POI database — ~6,800 curated points of interest bundled inside the app (~600 KB gzipped), no network required
- Side-of-plane awareness — combined with your current heading, Skyty tells you whether each landmark is on the left or the right of the cabin
- Compass band UI — consistent with the Night Sky view, showing direction and distance at a glance
- Free vs Premium split — top 3 nearest POIs free; full results plus event overlays unlocked with Premium
Improved
- Map theme transitions are smoother during scroll
- Reverse-geocoder now uses the new POI database when no city is within 200 km — better answers over wilderness and remote regions
Fixed
- Cleared up a handful of duplicate Swift files that had crept into the project after merge conflicts
- Background recording correctly respects the 30-second sampling interval on iOS 18+
1.0 — Initial release
Offline world map, real-time GPS, AGL via SRTM, flight recording, Apple Watch, Live Activity.
New
- Bundled offline world map (Protomaps PMTiles, ~46 MB)
- Four map themes: Aviation Dark / Light, Satellite, Topographic
- Real-time GPS: position, altitude, speed, course, accuracy
- Offline reverse-geocoding: city, country, ocean
- Altitude modes: MSL, WGS84, plus AGL with optional SRTM terrain pack
- Manual flight recording with GPX export
- iCloud sync for the flight archive
- Live Activity (Dynamic Island + Lock Screen)
- Apple Watch app, complications, home-screen widgets
- Nearest-airport lookup with bearing and distance