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wtf is aerial?

johncoates/aerial — explained in plain English

Analysis updated 2026-06-21

★ 20,973SwiftAudience · generalComplexity · 1/5Setup · easy

TL;DR

Aerial is a free, open-source Mac screensaver that plays the same beautiful aerial flyover videos seen on Apple TV, sweeping city and nature footage, with optional live weather overlays, running natively on Apple Silicon.

Mindmap

mindmap
  root((aerial))
    What It Does
      Mac screensaver
      Aerial video player
      Weather overlay
    Tech Stack
      Swift
      macOS
    Content
      City aerials
      Nature footage
      Community translations
    Use Cases
      Cinematic screensaver
      Location info display
      Weather display
    Audience
      Mac users
      Apple TV fans

Code map

Detail Auto

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filefunction / class

Why would anyone build with this?

REASON 1

Set up an Apple TV-style cinematic screensaver on your Mac with aerial footage of cities and natural landscapes.

REASON 2

Display live weather information and forecasts as an overlay on your screensaver using OpenWeather data.

REASON 3

Browse and install additional community aerial video packs beyond the default Apple TV set.

What's in the stack?

SwiftmacOS

How it stacks up

johncoates/aerialnikitabobko/aerospacesnapkit/snapkit
Stars20,97320,63820,335
LanguageSwiftSwiftSwift
Setup difficultyeasyeasyeasy
Complexity1/54/52/5
Audiencegeneraldeveloperdeveloper

Figures from each repo's GitHub metadata at analysis time.

How do you spin it up?

Difficulty · easy Time to first run · 5min

Requires macOS 10.12 Sierra or later, download and install from the project website, no Xcode build required for end users.

The explanation does not specify the license terms for this repository.

Wtf does this do

Aerial is a free, open-source Mac screensaver written in Swift that plays the same cinematic aerial videos used by Apple TV, sweeping footage shot over New York, San Francisco, Hawaii, China, and other locations. It requires macOS 10.12 (Sierra) or later and runs natively on Apple Silicon. Starting with version 2.0.0, Aerial also includes additional videos from Joshua Michaels and Hal Bergman. From version 2.3.0 onwards, it can display current weather information and forecasts for your location using OpenWeather. The screensaver shows overlay descriptions of the geographic features visible in each video, with community-contributed translations available in many languages including Spanish, French, and Polish. Downloads and full installation instructions are available at the project's website at aerialscreensaver.github.io. Windows and Linux equivalents are maintained separately by other community contributors.

Yoink these prompts

Prompt 1
I'm building a Swift screensaver for macOS similar to Aerial. Show me how to use ScreenSaverView and play video files on the user's desktop.
Prompt 2
Help me understand how Aerial's Swift code detects Apple Silicon vs Intel and handles video playback differences between them.
Prompt 3
I want to add a weather data overlay to a macOS Swift app. How does Aerial integrate with the OpenWeather API and draw text on top of a video?
Prompt 4
Show me how to implement multi-monitor support in a macOS Swift screensaver, similar to how Aerial plays different videos on each screen.

Frequently asked questions

wtf is aerial?

Aerial is a free, open-source Mac screensaver that plays the same beautiful aerial flyover videos seen on Apple TV, sweeping city and nature footage, with optional live weather overlays, running natively on Apple Silicon.

What language is aerial written in?

Mainly Swift. The stack also includes Swift, macOS.

What license does aerial use?

The explanation does not specify the license terms for this repository.

How hard is aerial to set up?

Setup difficulty is rated easy, with roughly 5min to a first successful run.

Who is aerial for?

Mainly general.

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