Two flight-tracking apps on Android are worth a serious look right now, and the source material on the better one is unusual. Most Android flight apps still feel like ports of an iOS product. Aviate and byAir do not. After testing both, the recommendation depends on one question: do you live entirely on Android, or do you bounce between Android and iOS?
Both apps are free to install and both are close to what Flighty delivers on iOS. The pricing is where the math starts to diverge, and the cross-platform story is where the recommendation splits.
What Flighty is, and why Android users keep asking
Flighty is the gold-standard flight tracker on iOS. Per the App Store and the developer, it has long held a reputation for proactive alerts (telling you about gate changes, delays, and schedule shifts before the airline app does), a clean Apple-style interface, and integrations with Calendar, Wallet, and Live Activities (small persistent notifications that show on the lock screen and Dynamic Island). None of that is technically impossible on Android. The developer simply has not shipped an Android version, and years of requests from Android users have not changed that.
Two Android apps now stand out as the closest thing to Flighty: Aviate and byAir. They take different approaches to the same problem, and they price the features very differently.
Aviate is the closer match for an Android-only user
Aviate is the newer of the two apps, and it is built specifically with Android in mind. The interface uses Google’s Material 3 Expressive design language (the latest Android design system, focused on motion, color, and large touch targets) throughout, which makes it feel native on a Pixel or a Galaxy. The home screen opens to a world map with your upcoming trips further down. Per the developer’s listing, the app is ad-free and the company claims no third-party trackers and no data resale, both of which are worth noticing in a category that is overrun with ad networks.
The free tier covers the parts most travelers care about. You get flight tracking, real-time gate changes, push notifications for delays, calendar syncing for upcoming trips, and the ability to import flights automatically, manually enter airline plus flight number, or scan a boarding pass with the camera. A Starlink Wi-Fi checker tells you whether your upcoming flight supports Starlink internet. A Jetlag Advisor and an AI-powered lounge recommender round out the feature set.
Pro features sit behind a paywall. Airport indoor navigation, public flight sharing, and the built-in LiveATC (a network of streamed air-traffic-control radio feeds) player are the headline Pro features. Per the Play Store listing, a one-week Pro pass costs $1.29, two weeks cost $2.49, and three weeks cost $2.99. There is also a $199.99 lifetime option. For almost everyone, the free tier is enough.
byAir is the better fit for multi-OS households
byAir takes a different angle. It is a paid app from day one, and it is built to sync across platforms. Sign in once and your flights show up on Android and iOS, with the same trip data, the same notifications, and the same preferences. For someone who carries both an Android phone and an iPhone (or splits time between work and personal devices), that is the killer feature.
The home screen puts your next flight front and center instead of the world map. Annual travel stats, total flight time, delay history, and the world map itself live in a separate profile section, so the main view stays focused. byAir also ships MCP support (Model Context Protocol, a standard for connecting AI assistants to external apps), which lets you wire Claude or other AI tools directly into your flight data. That is a niche feature today, but it signals where the developer is heading.
The pricing is the catch. byAir starts at $5.49 for a one-week pass, $9.99 per month, or roughly $39.99 per year. Even basic flight notifications, calendar syncing, and the Live Updates integration (Samsung’s Now Bar persistent notification that surfaces on the lock screen) are gated behind the paid plan.
How they compare on the things you actually use
For a side-by-side on the parts that matter:
- Notifications for delays and gate changes. Aviate includes these in the free tier. byAir locks them behind the paid plan.
- Calendar syncing. Aviate free tier includes it. byAir requires a subscription.
- Cross-platform sync. Aviate is Android-only today, with an iOS app reportedly in development. byAir already syncs between Android and iOS.
- Boarding pass scanning. Both apps support it.
- Free tier value. Aviate covers most of what a casual traveler needs. byAir’s free tier is closer to a trial.
Pricing is where the gap is largest. A one-week Pro pass on byAir costs more than a three-week pass on Aviate. Over a year, the difference adds up.
What you give up either way
No flight tracker is perfect, and these two are no exception.
Picking Aviate means accepting that the iOS version is not out yet. For anyone who lives on Android, that does not matter. For anyone who splits devices, it is a real limitation. The other hesitation is that Aviate is young and the developer is shipping features fast, which is good for the app’s direction but means the $199.99 lifetime plan is a bet on a roadmap rather than a finished product.
Picking byAir means accepting that the free tier is thin. If you do not subscribe, the app is closer to a flight lookup tool than a Flighty-class tracker. The cross-platform sync is genuinely useful, but you pay for it.
Neither app ships the Apple Watch-style glanceable experience that Flighty is known for. Wear OS support on both apps is limited compared to the iOS experience.
Trade-offs
The trade-off between the two apps is the trade-off between free-tier generosity and cross-platform flexibility. Aviate’s free tier covers what most Android-only travelers need. byAir’s cross-platform sync is the right call for anyone who lives across Android and iOS.
A few real things that complicate the choice:
- The iOS app on Aviate. If you only carry one device today but might switch tomorrow, Aviate’s planned iOS version will probably make it the obvious pick. Today, it is not out.
- The $199.99 lifetime plan. Per Aviate’s Play Store listing, this is the highest-priced option. If the developer keeps shipping features for the next five years, that bet looks good. If they get bored or run out of runway, it does not.
- The subscription cost on byAir. $39.99 per year is real money, and it puts byAir in the same price band as a streaming service. If you do not use the cross-platform sync, the value is hard to justify.
Bottom line
Anyone who lives on Android should get Aviate. The free tier covers the parts that matter, the design is genuinely native to Android, and the pricing is a tenth of what byAir charges for comparable features.
Anyone who bounces between Android and iOS and wants flight data to follow them should pay for byAir’s subscription. The cross-platform sync is the reason to pick it, and you should plan to pay for the subscription to unlock the parts that make it useful.
The single thing to remember: install Aviate before your next trip. The free tier is good enough that you can stop thinking about it, and it is the closest thing Android has to the Flighty experience people keep asking for.