aprs.fi iPhone app: New user guide and other features

A few updates have been released for the aprs.fi app recently, and I haven't been posting about them. It's about time!

Version 2.7.1 in August 2025 added a brand new User Guide for the aprs.fi iPhone app, which is available online and within the app. It contains much more information than the old little Help view, and provides proper documentation for things like attaching a TNC/radio. A new, complete translation to the Slovak language was also enabled, thanks to a contributor! Thank you!

Version 2.7.0 in July 2025 added:

• Manual configuration of TCP KISS TNCs (you know, like we used to do in the 1990's, by typing IP addresses and port numbers, or maybe DNS hostnames if we were being fancy)
• GPU accelerated, faster and smoother oscilloscope view in the DSP AFSK TNC for level adjustment. The refresh time and decay time are adjustable.
• Waterfall view, because why not - it runs cool on the GPU!
• A little less CPU usage, and no sample format conversions, in the DSP TNC.

Version 2.6.2 in July 2025:

• Fresh versions of the APRS device identification database are automatically downloaded from the upstream source - but only when modified.
• The DSP TNC can send back-to-back frames when necessary, reducing airtime and congestion
• A new TNC developer view for people implementing KISS modems: Support sending 1-3 small and 1-2 large packets, back-to-back. Useful for buffering tests and back-to-back packet support. Packets are sent with a "NOGATE" path, which should prevent them from traversing the APRS-IS. Tested with the AFSK modem and the Mobilinkd TNC3 (both seem to support back-to-back transmit and receive correctly).
• Fixed a few crashes in the APRS text message queue & database handling.

Version 2.6.1 in October 2024:

• It’s now possible to change the account callsign/nickname from within the app (More -> My account).
• A few improvements in the station profile rename feature, to improve the chances of having an AX.25 compliant callsign-SSID by default.

Version 2.6.0 in October 2024:

• New button in the map view to change the size of station symbol graphics and callsign labels. I'm getting older and my age vision is making progress, and I'm sure I'm not the only one. It's also great when using APRS in a car, or perhaps on an iPad, and looking the device when a bit further away.
• Made the map buttons a little bit larger, overall.
• A brand new symbol for RVs (Recreational Vehicles) to replace the rather boring "RV" text! This new symbol can also point to the direction the vehicle is moving. The new symbol is available in the open source APRS symbol set, too.
• More @3x high-resolution graphics to make things look really sharp on the latest devices.

Version 2.5.4 in October 2024:

• 1-year Extra Features subscriptions now support Family Sharing! Only one subscription needed for the whole family.
• Implemented device identifier detection for Mic-E position packets received from a TNC, with the help of the aprs-deviceid database.
• Messaging: The app used to crash when deleting threads without actually selecting any threads for deletion first. This might seem like an odd thing to do, but as a paying customer you have the right to delete all of 0 threads, and the app should certainly not crash. It no longer does.
• Messaging: The app used to crash when the "Select all" button was pressed, but no threads existed for selection. Fixed the silly little bug so that all of 0 threads can now selected without a crash.
• Messaging: Only show relevant actions in the message context menu (when pressing a message for a longer time). It no longer suggests you to "retransmit" a received message.
• Messaging: Links are now clickable in messages, and shall open up your preferred web browser.
• TNC: When stopping the DSP modem using the Disconnect button, the modem now actually closes the audio input device, and the recording indicator goes away.

Additionally, many of the versions included updates to translations / localisations contributed by users of the application. Thank you!

Bugs were fixed, frameworks were updated, and translations updated in most of these versions, too.

aprs.fi iPhone/iPad app update: v1.6.2

Version 1.6.2 of the aprs.fi iPhone/iPad app went out yesterday evening. I've been adding a few features and fixes here and there on the weekends, but most of the larger changes in the code are actually under the hood and not yet visible for the users. I've also spent a good amount of time upgrading the aprs.fi web site backend and fixing a few bugs here and there.

Here are the visible changes in 1.6.2, all of them were recently requested by users of the app:

• Tapping a station on the map multiple times switches the track line colour for that station.
• Track line width can be adjusted in Settings. The default size is slightly thicker than the previous default.
• The maximum tracked station tail/track length is now 6 hours.
• Previously selected stations and addresses can be deleted by swiping the respective table row to the left.
• Previously selected address search results are retained even if the application is killed manually by the user.
• Some small visual adjustments (more space between "Beacon now!" and "Delete station" buttons, etc).

Some folks are also asking for a feature to track multiple stations at the same time, but that can already be done, since version 1.0 – just tap the '+' button on the additional stations info view to add them in tracking. This video demonstrates tracking many stations in the iOS app.

Here are some of the new features added in previous versions this summer:

• Setting to hide/show station callsign labels on the map
• Setting to disable (accidental) map pinch rotation
• Latest packets of an APRS station can be viewed by clicking a new button in the station information view. Tap a packet to decode it using the aprs.fi packet decoder.
• Filtering feature to control what is shown on the map, for hiding weather and AIS stations, for example. Complex custom filtering will be available in the future.
• A feature to display road traffic information (traffic jams). The information can be hidden in Settings.

I'm also currently working on APRS-IS beaconing and messaging features, and arbitrary date/time range selection (with long time ranges), but they're not complete yet. Larger features take more time.

The app is already getting quite happy reviews, but it still needs a few features to really make it complete. The 5-star average rating and these reviews are for version 1.6.1, from users from the USA:

aprs.fi iOS app for iPhone and iPad!

The new, official aprs.fi iOS application went live on the App Store a week back. It runs on the iPhone and iPad, and currently supports iOS 7 to iOS 9. Purchase once – run on up to 10 devices associated to the same iTunes accounts!

It provides immediate, near-real-time visibility to APRS traffic around you, and has quick search-as-you-type station and address search functions. Zoom around the world as easily as on aprs.fi, or look up stations by their callsign. Multiple stations can be tracked at the same time.

Telemetry, weather, and APRS station statistics can be viewed as graphs.

The new high-resolution symbol graphics look crisp on Retina displays. iOS 9 Split-Screen multitasking is supported on applicable devices (iPad Air 2, iPad Pro, iPad mini 4, and newer). Landscape and portrait modes work too, of course.

Position beaconing to aprs.fi works great, although, as usual, GPS use in the background reduces battery life noticeably. The minimum transmit interval slider can be used to reduce transmission rate, allowing the GPS to turn off for longer periods of time. The app does not require location information, but it can be helpful for automatic map centering and calculating distances.

A little expectation management needs to be done at this point: Some future features will only be available for a small additional yearly price, through an in-app purchase. That price will be lower than the purchase price of the app. The rationale behind this is simple: There's only a rather small number of APRS iOS users around the world, and once most of them have bought the app once, there will be no more income from the app, ever. Having a small, steady income nicely keeps up the motivation in maintaining and improving the application in the future. A few APRS apps have already been practically abandoned on the app store, with no updates in one, two or three years. The original app, simply named "APRS" recently got deleted and replaced with something completely unrelated.

Some new features, and all bug fixes of course, will be free updates. The current version does not even include any support for in-app purchasing yet – it'll maybe come up some time next year, after the base features are ready.

Purchase the app now, and you'll get a nice APRS web site for free!

Frequently Asked Questions

What about Android?

Yes, maybe later. It takes a lot of time to produce these things. I concentrated on iOS mostly because all my devices happen to be iOS, I have some previous experience on iOS development, and APRSDroid is already so good.

Filtering, I wish to hide AIS vessels and/or weather stations?

Yes, that's on the top of my list of things to do, I can't live without them either.

Can not beacon to APRS-IS?

Not yet! This is the aprs.fi app, not an APRS-IS app, so it talks primarily to the aprs.fi service, not other services. Beaconing to APRS-IS will come later, stay tuned.

Connecting to the aprs.fi database makes the immediate real-time view happen, so that there's no need to wait 30 minutes for everyone to transmit their position once after opening the app. On the downside, if aprs.fi happens to be down, the app doesn't do much either. Luckily aprs.fi has proven to be very stable during its operation since 2007.

Messaging?

Yes, of course, later.