Flighty is a fairly seasoned iPhone app that you’re probably familiar with if you need to take flights frequently for some reason. Its developers recently updated it to accommodate new features in iOS 16, including updating flight information via live activity.
But there’s one brilliant little detail about this update that’s quite a lesson in how to take advantage of every loophole that the external terms and APIs of iOS itself give us. And it is that Flighty realizes what seems impossible: update the information of these flights even in airplane mode.
4 KB is more than enough
Everyone wonders how @FlightyAppAirplane mode works:
1. Airplane WiFi Enables iMessage
2. Guess what else uses this protocol? new live activities
3. Then send LA updates (max 4kb payload!) and have the app load *those* dataPresto! The app updates via Live Activities 😎
– by @ifrins pic.twitter.com/oThVYDBna7
— Ryan Jones (@rjonesy) November 21, 2022
This is one of the new features of Flighty: display your updated flight information at all times, even when airplane mode is active. In theory, this mode restricts almost all connectivity, but the developers took advantage of a loophole provided by special airline Wi-Fi networks.
Many US airplanes have a special Wi-Fi network with very limited functionality: sending and receiving messages (it’s a network designed to be used while keeping airplane mode on). Among these messages, Apple’s iMessage protocol is accepted… and live activities are able to receive data packets using this protocol.
So Flighty uses this permissiveness of limited aircraft networks to send and receive data packets up to 4 KB, with which you can update live activities on iPhones locked screen. Maybe this can serve as an idea for other apps that can do the same with their services.
You can download Flighty for free from the App Store, though the service requires a subscription to unlock all of its features (or a one-time perpetual license for $299.99).
