Real planes. Real photos. Really verified.

Release log

1. v0.4.22026-08-24
   • SkyDex has its own home: sky-dex.com ✈️ — old skydex-two.vercel.app links now redirect here automatically. You'll be asked to sign in again once (your catches are all safe).
2. v0.4.12026-08-24
   • The live plane feed now switches between three data networks automatically — if one goes down (like the outage that blanked the map in mid-August), SkyDex fails over in seconds instead of showing an empty sky.
   • Verification gets a second opinion: if the first network can't see the plane you captured, SkyDex asks another before ruling, so fewer honest catches land unverified.
   • Refreshed the Attributions page to credit every source SkyDex uses today — including Flightradar24, which powers the flight details on your cards.
3. v0.4.02026-08-24
   • 🎟 Tickets have landed! Every spotter starts with a 150-Ticket welcome bonus, tops up daily just by opening the app, and earns +1 for every photo reviewed. Your balance lives next to your avatar — tap it for the full Tickets screen.
   • ✦ Frequent Flyer: everyone who joins SkyDex during 2026 gets it included free, forever — double daily Tickets, a bigger stockpile, a ✦ by your name everywhere, and never an ad. After 2026 it's a one-off £4.99 in the app.
   • Spotting stays free: your first 20 verified spots a day are free, and on the web nothing is charged beyond that either — Tickets come into play when the SkyDex mobile app launches.
4. v0.3.222026-08-24
   • Catches are never lost to a bad signal anymore: snap a plane with no service (or if the upload stalls) and SkyDex saves it on your phone, then uploads it automatically the moment you're back online. A little “waiting to upload” note shows how many are pending.
5. v0.3.212026-08-24
   • Fixed airline names that showed up truncated — e.g. “Air France” appearing as just “Air”, and “TAP Air Portugal” as “TAP”. Your existing catches have been corrected too.
6. v0.3.202026-08-24
   • Fixed the “new airline!” flag that could flip to “not new” once you'd caught it (or the reverse): the map and the catch screen now agree on which airlines you already have, including franchise carriers like BA CityFlyer.
7. v0.3.192026-08-24
   • Behind-the-scenes security and reliability hardening — nothing changes in how the app looks or works.
8. v0.3.182026-08-24
   • Catching close-up planes is far more forgiving: if a plane is right in front of you — or you've tapped to track it — you can capture it even when the compass won't quite agree. We double-check it on our side.
   • Fixed aiming when you hold the phone sideways or point it straight up: the app now reads your camera angle correctly in any orientation, so “the plane's right there but it says you're way off” should be gone.
   • A dodgy signal no longer wipes the screen. If the feed skips a beat, your nearby planes (and the one you're tracking) stay put and you'll see “reconnecting…” instead of a false “no planes”.
   • Low and approaching aircraft show up sooner.
9. v0.3.172026-08-14
   • The live map is back. Our flight-position provider (airplanes.live) started blocking API access, so no planes were loading anywhere — SkyDex now gets live positions from adsb.fi instead, with the same coverage and the same friendly type names.
   • Capture verification and the fast-poll on a tracked plane ride the same feed, so catching works again too.
10. v0.3.162026-08-12
    • The photo card is much easier to close: a ✕ pinned top-right plus a proper Close button right under the picture — no more scrolling past the credits link hunting for the small print.
    • The camera zoom slider is back, alongside pinch — use whichever you prefer. Double-tap still resets.
11. v0.3.152026-08-11
    • Overhead catches now verify properly: pointing is judged by true angular separation instead of separate compass/tilt checks, so a plane straight above you no longer fails a direction test that means nothing at the zenith — while catches near the horizon stay just as strict.
    • The camera now shows where the app calculates your target to be: a solid plane marker (with a ghost at its last radar fix, so you can see if the calc runs ahead or behind), plus an edge arrow when it's outside your frame.
    • Tracking is much snappier: every plane's position is projected forward between updates, and the one you're tracking is re-polled every 2 seconds instead of 6.
    • Pinch to zoom on the camera — the slider is gone. Double-tap resets, and −/+ buttons remain for accessibility.
    • The feed catches you up like stories: a banner counts what landed since your last visit — tap it to swipe through the new catches full-screen.
    • Feed cards are photo-first: bigger picture, one-line summary. Tap any photo for the full spec card, same as always.
12. v0.3.142026-07-24
    • Close flybys now verify properly: aircraft passing within 2 km — low helicopters especially — used to fail the pointing check because a nearly-overhead plane moves faster than the flight feed updates. If it's demonstrably right there, your catch is verified. The two helicopter catches this had wrongly left unverified are now verified.
13. v0.3.132026-07-23
    • Feed reactions became votes: 🛫 for a great catch, 🛬 if it's not doing it for you, ❓ if you can't see the plane — one vote per sighting, tap again to clear. ❓ votes from established spotters count toward community review, so dud photos reach the admins straight from the feed.
    • The spot map's new-for-you colouring is fixed: planes from airlines and types you've already caught no longer light up as new. Gold and green now mean what they say.
14. v0.3.122026-07-17
    • The profile banner got a proper design: a flight-chart look with a dotted grid, a dashed route climbing to the plane (now fully in frame), and your home airport stamped as a watermark — no more empty teal slab.
15. v0.3.112026-07-17
    • Share your book: every profile now has a public, read-only book at /u/yourname/books — send it to anyone and they can browse your verified collection, cover photos included. A Share book button lives on your books page.
    • Shared links now unfurl as proper picture cards in WhatsApp and friends — including catches shared straight from the capture screen, which previously showed a bare link until they were verified.
    • Retake: fumbled the shot? The capture screen now has a Retake button that deletes the catch and drops you straight back on the camera.
    • The scrapbook's airport list became an atlas: airports are grouped by continent and country with drop-downs and totals at every level — tap an airport for its name and departure/destination split.
    • Cards and the feed swapped the wall of type pills for a compact type dropdown with counts, a tighter search box, and a live result count.
    • Tapping any photo, anywhere — feed, scrapbook, books, profiles, weekly review, capture screen — now opens the same full sighting card, with the spotter's name always linking to their profile.
    • Fixed the status bar overlapping the top of the page (most visible on the profile banner) when SkyDex is installed to your home screen.
16. v0.3.102026-07-17
    • Books: you now choose which photo fronts each slot — collected slots with more than one shot show an 'N photos' badge; tap to pick your favourite. Your pick sticks (and applies to both the Type and Rarity books).
    • The Rarity book is now its own book: the same aircraft grouped into Common → Legendary sections with tier stamps and per-tier progress, instead of mirroring the Type book. The Type book is now alphabetical.
17. v0.3.92026-07-17
    • The feed now has a Popular tab — the most-reacted sightings from the last 30 days. Great pictures rise to the top; the chronological Latest feed is still the default.
    • Weekly review: from Monday morning, your first visit of the week greets you with a card of last week's spotting — spots, new types, airlines, your rank, and your catch of the week.
    • Avatars are now fully customisable: pick your icon, background colour, icon colour and ring style directly in Settings instead of shuffling blind. Existing avatars are untouched until you re-save.
    • Rarity got hand-tuned pins on top of the measured tiers: the A380 and 747-400 are locked at rare, the Spitfire at legendary, and widebodies are never graded common. Existing sightings re-graded to match.
18. v0.3.82026-07-17
    • Tap a plane on the spot map to see how rare it would be before you catch it — every popup now shows a rarity chip, predicted from the same measured tiers your captures use.
    • Rare, epic and legendary aircraft now glow on the map in their tier colour, so the special stuff jumps out of the traffic at a glance. A 'glow = rare+' row was added to the map key.
19. v0.3.72026-07-17
    • Community review verdicts now have real teeth: when an admin upholds a flag (the community agreed no aircraft was visible), the sighting is deleted outright — it no longer lingers in your books or completion wheels, and the photo itself is removed. You'll still see a notice on your Scrapbook explaining what happened.
    • Admins can now open a flagged photo full-size from the Reports queue before ruling on it.
20. v0.3.62026-07-17
    • Your whole logbook now loads on your profile — history used to stop silently at the 60 most recent catches; now a Load more button pages through everything, with a running 'showing X of Y' count.
    • Pinning favourites is finally easy: a clear Pin to profile button under every card (no more hunting for the tiny star), pins appear in your Favourites tray instantly, and you can unpin straight from the tray. The tray shows how many of your 3 slots are used.
    • Rarity is now measured from real skies — as promised in 0.3.3, every aircraft type has been re-graded from a live snapshot of European air traffic (9,000+ airframes observed). Your collection and past sightings have been re-tiered: A320s are properly common, and that DC-3 is officially legendary.
    • Community review verdicts land faster: two net no-votes now send a photo to the admins (was three), and two net yes-votes approve it — approved photos leave the review queue for good, so your reviews always count on photos that still need eyes.
    • The map key moved to the top-right and now shows the real marker shapes — filled plane silhouettes in gold/green/black plus the dashed special-livery ring — so the colours actually read against the map.
21. v0.3.52026-07-12
    • The Spot button moved to the middle of the bar and got big — it's THE button. Tap the teal circle, catch a plane.
    • Community review is here (Settings → Community review): help keep the feed honest by checking random spotters' photos really show an aircraft. Unlocks once you have 5 verified sightings.
    • Photos that three independent reviewers can't see a plane in are hidden from the feed and go to an admin for a final decision — honest yes-votes cancel out no-votes, reviews are anonymous and randomly assigned, and nobody can pick whose photos they review.
22. v0.3.42026-07-12
    • Map colours got smarter — gold now means everything about that plane is new for you (type, airline, livery), green means something is, black means you've caught it all before. Tap a plane to see exactly what's new.
    • Special liveries stand out on the map — airframes wearing one get a dashed gold ring, and the tap card names the livery.
23. v0.3.32026-07-12
    • The map now shows your field of view — a gold cone sweeps with your phone's compass so you can see exactly which way you're facing, sized to the same window the camera accepts a capture in.
    • Planes on the map now look like what they are — helicopters get a rotor icon, light aircraft and bizjets a small silhouette, widebodies a big one.
    • Gold planes on the map = a type you haven't caught yet. Go get them.
    • Helicopters have joined the rarity system properly — they're never graded Common again, and military aircraft now carry their own category with a Rare floor.
    • Brand-new aircraft types discovered in the wild now enter the universe as Rare (not Common) — if it's not already in the SkyDex catalogue, it's not an everyday plane.
    • Behind the scenes: we're measuring 24 hours of real European air traffic to re-grade every type's rarity from actual data — proper distinction between common and rare is coming to your whole collection.
24. v0.3.22026-07-06
    • Sign-in is now one tap with Google — no more waiting for magic-link emails. If you joined by email, just use Google with the same address and your logbook carries straight over.
    • We've added privacy-friendly analytics so we can see which parts of SkyDex people love (no cookies, no tracking you around the web).
25. v0.3.12026-07-06
    • Verification got real teeth — every capture is now re-checked server-side against live flight data (position, direction, elevation) before it earns the VERIFIED stamp. Nobody can fake their way onto the boards.
    • Duplicate protection — accidentally double-tapping capture no longer logs the same plane twice.
    • Spotting from altitude now works properly — your GPS elevation feeds the detection cone, so mountain and hilltop spotters see accurate angles.
    • Times on cards now read in UTC (Zulu) — the aviation way, and consistent wherever you are.
    • Sharper around the edges — keyboard and screen-reader support for photo viewers and dialogs, honest error messages when something fails to post, and the tab bar now clears the iPhone home indicator.
    • Under the hood: faster page loads (lighter session checks, cached airline lookups, cached reference photos) and a stack of security hardening.
26. v0.3.02026-06-26
    • A fresh look — “The Logbook”. New luggage-tag logo, bolder rarity stamps, and a warmer, more field-journal feel across the whole app.
    • New bottom tab bar — Spot, Scrapbook, Feed, Boards and Profile are always one tap away, on phone and desktop alike.
    • Redesigned profile — a teal cover band, your home-base tag, a clean stats strip and your rarest catches up top.
    • Books got tidier — luggage-tag tabs, cleaner slots, and an All / Missing filter.
    • Subtle motion — the hero tag sways, progress wheels sweep up as you collect, and the verified stamp lands with a satisfying thunk. All of it respects your reduced-motion setting.
27. v0.2.72026-06-25
    • Tidier aircraft type names — every type now uses one clean, consistent name (so it's “AgustaWestland AW109”, not “AGUSTA AW-109 Grand”). Your existing cards updated automatically.
28. v0.2.62026-06-25
    • Cards now carry richer, more accurate flight info — your sighting is verified against Flightradar24 at the moment of capture, so the route, operator and registration are spot-on.
    • New on every card: the plane's phase of flight when you caught it (climbing, cruising or descending) and its speed, plus the arrival time.
    • Spotted a wet-lease? Aircraft flying for one airline but painted in another's colours now get a Wet-lease badge.
29. v0.2.52026-06-25
    • Routes are back! Departure → destination shows on your cards again — but now we check the plane's actual heading against the airport positions, so a flight caught on its way home is no longer shown flying the wrong way. If we can't confirm the direction, we leave it off rather than guess.
    • Departures and Destinations are back in your Scrapbook, plus the Airports leaderboard and profile stat.
30. v0.2.42026-06-19
    • Special liveries! Over 2,000 specially-painted aircraft — anniversaries, sponsors, retro schemes, one-offs — are now collectibles. Catch one and its card gets an animated holographic frame and a ✦ Special Livery mark.
    • New Liveries checklist (in the nav) to tick off every special livery, with search and an All · Collected · Missing filter. Your progress also shows on the Scrapbook.
31. v0.2.32026-06-18
    • Airports are taking a break — the route data behind them was often wrong (a flight landing in one place could show up as another), so we've hidden it until we can do it properly.
    • Wider catch range — aircraft a little further overhead now show up in range.
32. v0.2.22026-06-18
    • Plane details now come from a single live source, so aircraft types read consistently (e.g. “787-8 Dreamliner” instead of a bare code).
33. v0.2.12026-06-17
    • The 'In range' list on the Spot screen now shows each aircraft's altitude (in feet).
    • Tidier top bar — the menu is now compact icons on a single line, and the page you're on is highlighted.
34. v0.2.02026-06-17
    • The Scrapbook, reimagined — open it and your collection progress is the first thing you see, with completion wheels for Types and Carriers.
    • Less clutter: Types, Carriers, Departures and Destinations now tuck away into tidy sections you tap to open.
    • Airports now count how many times you've spotted each one, e.g. LHR 152 (tap for the full name).
    • Totals by rarity — see your collection broken down across common → legendary at a glance.
35. v0.1.272026-06-17
    • Airline logos now appear next to each carrier in your scrapbook.
36. v0.1.262026-06-17
    • Usernames and comments now run through a profanity filter to keep things friendly.
    • Your home airport now offers a type-ahead list of airports and is validated when you save.
37. v0.1.252026-06-17
    • Live map! Tap Map on the Spot screen to see the aircraft around you on a real map, each pointing the way it's flying.
    • Tap a plane on the map to track it, then switch back to Camera to line up your shot.
    • The map is a spotting aid only — as always, a sighting is only logged when you capture a verified photo.
38. v0.1.242026-06-17
    • Rarity is now obvious at a glance — every card has a border in its tier colour.
    • Tap an airport code on a card or in your scrapbook to see the airport's full name.
    • Filter the scrapbook's Types and Carriers by All, Collected or Missing.
39. v0.1.232026-06-17
    • Public profiles! Tap anyone's @name to see their profile — favourite sightings, stats and how they rank. Your name (top-right) now opens a menu: Profile and Settings.
    • Pick up to 3 favourite sightings to feature on your profile (tap the ☆ on your cards).
40. v0.1.222026-06-17
    • Leaderboards! See the world's top spotters by total spots (today / this week / all-time), and all-time by aircraft types, carriers, airports and rarity score. Find them under 'Boards'.
41. v0.1.212026-06-17
    • Catches no longer go missing their aircraft type — when the live feed doesn't recognise the model (common for brand-new aircraft), SkyDex now cross-checks other sources so your Dreamliners and A380s get logged properly.
42. v0.1.202026-06-17
    • Discovery moment — every catch now opens a reward screen showing how rare it is: how many spotters have caught the type today / this week / this month / ever, what's new to your collection, and the grail line when you're the only one in the world to have it.
43. v0.1.192026-06-17
    • React to sightings on the feed — tap 🛫 🔥 😍 👀 🏆 to react, not just comment.
44. v0.1.182026-06-17
    • Added an Attributions page (in the footer) crediting the open data behind SkyDex — adsb.lol, airplanes.live, adsbdb and Planespotters.
    • Tidied our live data sources to lean on commercial-friendly open data.
45. v0.1.172026-06-16
    • Admins now wear a captain's badge avatar.
    • Full-screen view shows your photo and the reference aircraft BeReal-style — tap the corner thumbnail to swap which is big.
46. v0.1.162026-06-16
    • Customise your avatar — shuffle and save (once a day) from your profile.
    • Your avatar + name now live top-right (tap for your profile); sign out moved into the profile.
47. v0.1.152026-06-16
    • Full-screen view now shows a reference photo of the actual aircraft (right livery), credited to Planespotters.
    • Spotting range opened up a bit after the last tightening.
48. v0.1.142026-06-16
    • Everyone now has a unique plane-spotter avatar, shown on the feed and comments.
49. v0.1.132026-06-16
    • Tighter spotting range — distant, low aircraft no longer clutter the list; range now scales with how high a plane sits overhead.
    • Scrapbook airports split into Departures and Destinations.
50. v0.1.122026-06-16
    • Track a specific plane — tap it in the in-range list to capture only that one (resets if it flies out of range).
    • Tap any photo to view it full screen, on the feed and your scrapbook.
51. v0.1.112026-06-16
    • Sign in with Google — no email needed.
    • A first-time guide (reopen any time from your profile).
    • Delete your own sightings from the scrapbook.
    • Comment counts shown on the feed.
    • Dev tools tidied into the profile; privacy fixes.
52. v0.1.102026-06-16
    • Bigger rarity stamps on cards.
    • Removed 'Log from map' — every sighting is now a real verified photo.
53. v0.1.92026-06-16
    • Share button on verified sightings — posts a clean card image to socials.
    • Add SkyDex to your home screen (installable app).
    • New Feedback box on your profile — tell us bugs and ideas directly.
54. v0.1.82026-06-16
    • Carriers are now consolidated by brand (easyJet, not easyJet Europe).
    • The types and carriers universe now grows automatically from real captures, so everything you catch always matches.
55. v0.1.72026-06-16
    • Scrapbook 'book' view — polaroid albums by Type, Airline and Rarity, with empty gaps to fill.
    • Rarity stamps on every card, replacing the side bar.
    • Friendlier aircraft names (A380 instead of A388).
56. v0.1.62026-06-16
    • Rarity! Every sighting is now graded Common → Legendary by aircraft type.
    • Scrapbook shows the full Types and Carriers universes — collected ones lit up, the rest greyed, with X/N progress.
    • Spot the A380, 747 or A340 for Rare; Concorde or a warbird would be Legendary.
57. v0.1.52026-06-16
    • Sightings now record the flight's route — departure and destination airports.
    • Scrapbook Airports checklist populates, and cards show the route.
    • Camera: a small unzoomed overview in the corner when zoomed, to help you find the aircraft.
    • Switched to semantic versioning (MAJOR.MINOR.PATCH).
58. v0.1.42026-06-16
    • Report a sighting or comment — flagged items go to admins for review.
    • Zoom slider in the camera when spotting.
59. v0.1.32026-06-16
    • Privacy and Terms pages, linked in the footer.
    • Export all your data, or permanently delete your account, from your profile.
    • Admin moderation and unverified-view tools now live behind dev mode.
60. v0.1.22026-06-16
    • Moderation tools for site admins — remove any photo or comment.
    • Admin dev mode: optionally view unverified sightings in the feed.
61. v0.1.12026-06-16
    • Global feed of everyone's verified sightings.
    • Comments — anyone signed in can comment on a sighting, shown with their @username.
    • Search and filtering (by aircraft type) on both the feed and your scrapbook.
    • Scrapbook gains a Verified-only filter.
62. v0.1.02026-06-16
    • First public build — the capture-and-verify loop is live.
    • Sign in with a magic link; a username is now required before spotting.
    • Spot: live aircraft targeting using your camera, compass and GPS.
    • Verified sightings saved as cards with your photo, registration and aircraft type.
    • Scrapbook with Types and Carriers checklists, and capture time on every card.
    • Editable profile (username + home airport).