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Not sure if your flight will be on time? Use your iPhone’s hidden flight tracker

Even if you didn’t fly anywhere this summer, you probably heard about the massive IT outage that affected computers running both Crowdstrike and the Windows operating system. The outage rendered these devices useless, preventing employees in hospitals, banking institutions, airlines and other businesses from performing their basic duties. It was a mess.

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For airlines, this resulted in thousands of flight cancellations and delays, and worse, people who expected to fly during the outage couldn’t even find out if their flight was affected. That’s all in the past, with the hope that nothing of that magnitude will happen anytime soon, but you may have another option to check your flight status if your airline’s website or app breaks: your iPhone.

Hidden in your iPhone’s Messages app is a built-in flight tracker that lets you view flight status data and share it with someone in an instant. Below we’ll show you how.

To learn more, don’t miss the best and worst airlines for flight cancellations and the best hidden features in iOS 18.

How to track your flight via iMessage

Before we start, there are some requirements you must meet:

  • Take care of it iMessage is enabled (it doesn’t work with SMS/MMS).
  • You need your flight number somewhere in your text messages, whether you sent that information to someone (even yourself) or it was sent to you.
  • The flight number must be sent in this format: [Airline] [Flight number]for example American Airlines 9707.

Launch the native Messages app on your iPhone and open the text message thread containing your flight information. You’ll know the flight tracking feature is working when the flight information text appears underlined, meaning it can be acted upon and tapped.

If your flight is still several months away or has already passed, you may see a “Flight information unavailable” message. You may also see another flight that is not yours because airlines recycle flight numbers.

How to access the hidden flight tracker

While the airline name and flight number format highlighted above is the best way, there are other SMS options that will lead you to the same result. So let’s say we stick with it American airline 9707Other options that can bring up the flight tracker include:

  • AmericanAirlines9707 (no spaces)
  • American Airlines 9707 (only one space)
  • AA9707 (airline name is abbreviated and without spaces)
  • AA9707 (abbreviated and space)

I suggest that you keep the airline name spelled out in full and add a space between the two pieces of information (as in the previous section), as these alternative options may not work for some airlines.

Flight code in text message

Text the code to preview your flight.

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Follow the details of your flight in real time

imessage flight tracker

Blake Stimac/CNET

Once everything is set up, tap the flight information in your text messages. If the feature works correctly, the following two options should appear in a quick action menu:

  • Example flight: view the flight details. Tap this to view more information about the flight.
  • Copy flight code: Copy the flight code to your clipboard (in case you want to send your flight details to someone else via SMS or email).

If you select Example flightAt the top of the window you’ll see the best part of this feature: a real-time flight tracking map. A line connects the two destinations and a small plane moves between them, indicating where the flight is at that exact moment.

Below the map you will see important flight information:

  • Airline name and flight number
  • Flight status (arrive on time, delayed, canceled, etc.)
  • Terminal and port numbers (before arrival and departure)
  • Arrival and departure time
  • Flight duration
  • Baggage claim (the number of the baggage carousel)

If you swipe left on the bottom half of the flight tracker, you can switch between flights, but only if there is a return flight.

To learn more, don’t read how to get your iPhone out of Emergency SOS mode and how to use the hidden Safari feature on your Mac that makes multitasking a breeze.

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