Closing LiveFlight's Flight Plan

December 12, 2024

TL;DR: LiveFlight is closing as of today. Thank you for your support over the years!

I launched LiveFlight on May 28, 2015, as Infinite Flight's first flight tracker on the web. It came about as Laura at Infinite Flight was experimenting with a new API to show all the active planes in Infinite Flight's relatively-new multiplayer feature, and was a great side project for the young, inexperienced developer I was back then.

After almost 10 years which included multiple websites, several rebuilds of the iOS app, server downtime, server uptime, debugging at ungodly hours, painful AWS bills, and lots of valuable lessons in product development... it is unfortunately time for me to close LiveFlight today.

In 2017, I was given the opportunity to start working with the Infinite Flight team, and they were gracious enough to give me an opportunity to work full time alongside some true professionals and pioneers in the mobile space. While I had more ideas for LiveFlight, I did not have the time to dedicate to it, and it quickly fell into a state of maintenance mode.

Now in 2024, there is a growing number of new developers working on trackers for Infinite Flight, so I felt it was the right time to retire LiveFlight and encourage Infinite Flight users to check out their great apps. Here is a selection of them:

iOS

InfiniteInfo

Ethan is doing an amazing job of creating a native iOS app that feels fast and smooth.

Web

Infinite View

Will is building on the same foundations as LiveFlight on the web, and it's fast and feature-rich.

InfiniteX

Avon works on the IF team after building this tracker, it speaks for itself!

FAQ

I used to subscribe to LiveFlight Horizon, what happened to my account?

I stopped offering subscriptions last year and waited for all of them to expire before retiring LiveFlight. I did not collect much personal data, only emails for login, but these are all deleted.

I still have the iOS app

I removed this from the store last year and the relevant server has been switched off. I recommend switching to InfiniteInfo.

What about Android?

There isn't an Android tracker available anymore. Val used to maintain one, but he has also retired this. I recommend using one of the websites, and encourage your friendly tracker devs to build an Android app :)

How can I learn more about the API?

Check out this website: Developer Reference

What lessons would you share from LiveFlight?

I learnt a lot! Here are some recommendations:

Don't rely on a relational database for realtime data. Young me learnt that the hard way. Keep things in-memory and profile.
Be careful with map SDK pricing. Back when I started, Google Maps on the web was free, but became paid a few years later. Mobile SDKs are generally free for this scale.
Ship early, and ship often.
Use Instagram, it's a great tool for reaching a wider base of IF users.
Don't use AWS, it's overkill for this.

Thank you to every LiveFlight user for giving me the opportunity of a lifetime. Without LiveFlight's success, I wouldn't be working at Infinite Flight today. It's a dream job and I am grateful every day for this :)

A special thank you to Laura and Philippe at Infinite Flight for giving me a chance to contribute to the Infinite Flight ecosystem, and for all the opportunities this mobile flight sim has given me. ❤️