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Tech > Mobile > Phones
You've got a built-in flight tracker on your iPhone, and it's probably on your home screen.
Reporter 2
July 17, 2026, 2:45 pm ET
It’s easy to use iMessage to track your flight status quickly.
Severe weather made Thursday a mess at airports across the US, with 3,636 flight delays and 83 cancellations, per Travel and Tour World. While changes to flight plans will always cause trouble, it’s easy to track the latest developments of your flights using an iPhone app that comes standard with iOS.
Most travelers don’t realize their iPhone already has a streamlined flight tracker buried inside the software they use every day. It’s a hidden feature that completely bypasses the need for third-party downloads or constant Google refreshes, but it stays out of sight unless you know exactly how to trigger it.
Below, we’ll show you how to access the flight tracker so you’re just a tap away from the latest flight stats, giving you a little more peace of mind before your trip.
Before we start, there are a few prerequisites you must meet:
Launch the native Messages app on your iPhone and open the text message thread that contains your flight information. You’ll know the flight tracker feature works when the text with the flight information appears underlined, which means it’s actionable and you can tap on it.
If your flight is still several months away or it’s already passed, you might see a message that says, “Flight information unavailable.” You might also see another flight that’s not yours because airlines recycle flight numbers.
You can drop your flight number into your iPhone’s Spotlight Search to quickly get the latest details and status of your upcoming flight.
If getting your flight information from Messages wasn’t easy enough, you can also grab the details right from your iPhone’s home screen by swiping down and adding your flight number into Spotlight Search. This works with Spotlight Search on your Mac computer, too.
Although the airline name/flight number format highlighted above is the best way to go, there are other texting options that will lead you to the same result. So let’s say we stick with American Airlines 9707, other options that may bring up the flight tracker include:
I would suggest you keep the airline name spelled out completely and add a space between the two pieces of information — like in the previous section — because for some airlines, these alternative options may not work.
Text the code to preview your flight.
Once everything is set, tap on the flight information in your text messages. If the feature works correctly, you should see the following two options appear in a quick-action menu:
If you select Preview Flight, at the top of the window, you’ll see the best part of this feature: a real-time flight tracker map. A line will connect the two destinations, and a tiny airplane will move between them, indicating where the flight is at that exact moment.
Underneath the map, you’ll see important flight information:
If you swipe left on the bottom half of the flight tracker, you can switch between flights, but only if there’s a return flight.
For more travel tips, don’t miss our feature on whether AI can help you fly more sustainably.
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