Flight Tracking in Messages (and Anywhere Data Detectors Work)
Nelson Aguilar and Blake Stimac, writing for CNet:
That’s right. There’s a hidden flight tracker built right into
iMessage that you probably would have never noticed unless you
threw in the right combination of details within a message. […]
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:
AmericanAirlines9707 (no spaces)
AmericanAirlines 9707 (only one space)
AA9707 (airline name is abbreviated and no space)
AA 9707 (abbreviated and space)
This is a cool feature, but don’t cancel your Flighty subscription. It’s maddeningly inconsistent. Even some of CNet’s own suggestions don’t work — neither AmericanAirlines1776 nor AmericanAirlines 1776 works, but American Airlines 9707 does.
The abbreviated names work for the major U.S. airlines — AA123 (American), DL123 (Delta), and UA123 (United) are all recognized. But neither B6123 nor JBU123 (JetBlue) work, nor F9123 or FFT123 (Frontier).
JetBlue 123, JetBlue Airways 123, and JetBlue Airlines 123 work (and even Jet Blue 123 works, with the erroneous space), but you need to include “Airlines” for most carriers. None of these work: American 123, Delta 123, United 123, Frontier 123. All of those do work if you include “Airlines” in the name.
CNet attributes this feature to iMessage, going so far as to claim that it doesn’t work for messages sent using SMS, but that’s wrong. It works just fine for SMS messages. In fact, it’s not even a feature specific to the Messages app. It’s a feature from Apple’s DataDetection framework — the same system-wide feature that recognizes calendar events, postal addresses, URLs, shipment tracking numbers, and more. So you can use this same flight-code trick with, say, Apple Mail. It even works with text recognized in screenshots.
★
Nelson Aguilar and Blake Stimac, writing for CNet:
That’s right. There’s a hidden flight tracker built right into
iMessage that you probably would have never noticed unless you
threw in the right combination of details within a message. […]
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:
AmericanAirlines9707 (no spaces)
AmericanAirlines 9707 (only one space)
AA9707 (airline name is abbreviated and no space)
AA 9707 (abbreviated and space)
This is a cool feature, but don’t cancel your Flighty subscription. It’s maddeningly inconsistent. Even some of CNet’s own suggestions don’t work — neither AmericanAirlines1776 nor AmericanAirlines 1776 works, but American Airlines 9707 does.
The abbreviated names work for the major U.S. airlines — AA123 (American), DL123 (Delta), and UA123 (United) are all recognized. But neither B6123 nor JBU123 (JetBlue) work, nor F9123 or FFT123 (Frontier).
JetBlue 123, JetBlue Airways 123, and JetBlue Airlines 123 work (and even Jet Blue 123 works, with the erroneous space), but you need to include “Airlines” for most carriers. None of these work: American 123, Delta 123, United 123, Frontier 123. All of those do work if you include “Airlines” in the name.
CNet attributes this feature to iMessage, going so far as to claim that it doesn’t work for messages sent using SMS, but that’s wrong. It works just fine for SMS messages. In fact, it’s not even a feature specific to the Messages app. It’s a feature from Apple’s DataDetection framework — the same system-wide feature that recognizes calendar events, postal addresses, URLs, shipment tracking numbers, and more. So you can use this same flight-code trick with, say, Apple Mail. It even works with text recognized in screenshots.
