"What's Overhead makes me feel like I have a superpower."–A friend of mine.

What is it?

Have you ever heard or seen an aircraft and wondered who or what it was? Maybe you were in a car and didn't want to take your hands off the wheel, or you were walking and didn't want to use a fiddly phone browser to check a flight tracking website.

What's Overhead is a Shortcut that gives you a hands-free way to find out what the plane or helicopter flying over you is. It's a one-click install, and you can use it on any Apple device (except TVs–for now). It's also free.

Quick Start

Click this link on either a phone or computer, it doesn't matter which. You'll see a "Get Shortcut" or "Add Shortcut" button to install it. For more detailed instructions, see Installation.

Once it's installed, you just say "Hey, Siri, what's overhead?" and Siri will respond with information about the nearest aircraft to you, wherever you happen to be. 

N5997V1 is a 1977 PIPER PA-28-1812
at bearing 1073, 4.0 miles away4 at
5900 feet5. Speed 100 knots6. Closing
at 99 knots7. Registered to AERO
ASSOCIATION OF CALTECH INC8.

The information displayed and/or spoken includes

  1. the aircraft registration,
  2. the aircraft type,
  3. the bearing from you,
  4. the distance from you,
  5. the altitude,
  6. the speed,
  7. the relative speed at which the aircraft is approaching or moving away from you, and
  8. the registered owner of the aircraft.

What's Overhead uses data from ADS-B Exchange, a provider of uncensored flight data. It works anywhere in the world (as long as a volunteer is feeding data to ADS-B Exchange). The more people that feed data the better, so you should consider becoming a feeder.