Air Traffic - flight tracker

Review by eFreeware

Air Traffic is a flight tracker from the developer scoutant.org, published in the Maps & Navigation category. It puts live aircraft on a map in the style of a radar, with position updates as planes move and a set of details attached to each one. The app has been on Google Play since the end of October 2015 and now sits past ten million installs with a 4.6 average from a large body of ratings.

The main reason to consider it is simple: the developer says every feature is available without a subscription or any payment to unlock them. That is a rare arrangement for this category, where live tracking often sits behind a recurring fee. The app does carry ads, and there are no in-app purchases.

The most recent update, version 25, rebuilt the 3D side of the app, so you can watch aircraft from above as they land, take off and move around on the ground. That combination of a live map, aircraft details and a free price is what shapes everything below.

Following a specific flight, from departure to gate

The core of the app is the map full of moving planes. Tap one and you get the details the developer lists: which airline operates it, the flight number, where it left from and where it is going, along with scheduled departure and arrival times. You also see the aircraft type, with photos, plus its altitude, speed and heading at that moment.

That set of facts is what turns a moving dot into something you can reason about. If you are meeting someone at the airport, the origin and destination pairing tells you which leg of a journey you are looking at, while the altitude and heading give a rough sense of whether the plane is still climbing out or already on its way down. The aircraft type and photos add context that a bare flight number does not.

The map uses about ten icons, each one tied to a different aircraft type, and helicopters appear alongside fixed-wing traffic. So the picture is not uniform: a glance at the shape of the markers tells you roughly what kind of machine you are looking at before you open anything. For anyone who spends time watching the sky over a city, that variety is part of the appeal.

Search, favorites and the 3D view

If you already know what you are looking for, the search engine takes a flight number or a registration and finds the matching aircraft. The developer describes it as very responsive, and responsiveness matters here: a search that lags is useless when the thing you are chasing is moving. Once you have found a flight, you can add it to a favorites list, which gives you a way to jump back to it later instead of hunting through the map again. The app lets you swap between saved flights.

A real-time 3D view of the ground stands out, giving a bird's-eye perspective from the aircraft's position, which makes a landing worth watching. Version 25 reworked this 3D experience entirely, extending it to takeoffs and to aircraft taxiing on the ground. For a plane spotter who cannot get to the airport, following a landing from that angle is the closest thing to being aboard.

Panning and zooming are described as very responsive, which is the other half of the experience. A live map that stutters while you drag it is frustrating regardless of how much data sits behind each plane. Settings let you choose the type of map and the units displayed, so you can set the view up the way you prefer.

What the app asks of you

Getting going is a matter of installing the app and opening the map. There is no payment step, since the app is free and offers no in-app purchases, and nothing is locked behind a subscription. Ads are present.

On permissions, the developer is explicit: location is requested only for the around me feature, and you are free to deny it.

The app was last updated in early September 2026, so the 3D redesign is recent rather than historical. Anyone installing now gets the version that follows aircraft through landing, takeoff and taxiing.

Where this tracker fits

This is a good fit for casual plane spotters who want to know what is overhead without paying for the privilege. It also suits travelers and the people meeting them, since the route and timing details attached to each flight answer the practical question of where an aircraft is in its journey. Anyone curious about a particular registration they have seen on the apron can search it directly.

The free model is the deciding factor for many people. A tracker that shows everything and runs ads instead is an easier sell. The developer's claim that all features are free, with no subscription and no unlock, is the pitch that separates this from the paid end of the category.

Watching a landing in the 3D ground view is a niche pleasure, but it is the sort of niche pleasure that keeps people coming back to a tracker. If you enjoy following aviation rather than simply checking a status, the combination of live map, aircraft detail and that view is what the app is built around.

A free tracker worth keeping on your phone

Air Traffic covers the ground a flight tracker needs to cover: live positions on a map, the details behind each aircraft, search by flight or registration, favorites for the ones you follow often, and a 3D view that has just been rebuilt. It does all of this without a subscription or any in-app purchase, which is the strongest argument in its favor. The trade-off is the ad support.

I would suggest it to plane spotters, to travelers tracking their own flight, and to anyone meeting a passenger who wants to see where the aircraft actually is. The 4.6 average across a large number of ratings suggests the approach has landed well with the people who use it. If you want a free way to watch live air traffic and read the story behind each plane, this is a straightforward one to install.

What's new in version 25.0

Welcome aboard, aviation enthusiasts! Version 25 introduces a completely redesigned 3D experience. Follow aircraft from the sky as they land, take off, and even taxi on the ground.