ACARS

Name: ACARS
Price: 2.99 USD
Rating: 3.3 (12 reviews)
Author: Black Cat Systems

By: Black Cat Systems

Lifestyle

Features & Capabilities

Want to display ACARS transmissions, without using a bulky computer? ACARS lets you view ACARS aircraft transmissions on your iPad, iPhone, and iPod Touch.

A radio/scanner capable of tuning the 118-136 MHz aircraft band is required. Just set it next to the radio's speaker, tune in an ACARS frequency, and watch the decodes. Or, for even better reception, use a pair of earbuds, plugged into the radio’s headphone jack, rather than the internal speaker.

You can save decoded ACARS packets to a file to view later, or transfer to your computer via iTunes.

Aircraft model information for many planes in a built in database is displayed along with the decoded packets. You can also add your own plane information to the database.

Packet fields are color coded on iOS 6 and later.

Buy your copy right now, and start decoding and displaying ACARS transmissions in minutes.

User Growth & Download Statistics

App

By:

Black Cat Systems

Rating:

3.30

(12)

Version:

1.4 Last updated: 2016-01-07

Version code:

841389001

Creation date:

2010-08-26

Compatible devices:

Size:

1.68MB

Price:

2.99

URLs:

Website

Full description:

Source:

Apple Apps Store

Data ingested on:

2026-06-10

Compare stats and ranking:

Ranking

# 410,852 ▼ 1,871

For Developers

Monetize with App Pass Boost with Extension Booster

Contact the developer

Chrome-Stats does not own this Apple app. Please use these information below to contact the Apple app developer.

Developed by:

Black Cat Systems

Apple Apps Store

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/acars/id386825917

Website:

http://www.blackcatsystems.com/ipad-iphone-ipod-touch-shortwave-ham-amateur-radio-app/ACARS-decoder-decoding-planespotting-airplane-aircraft-vhf-aeronautical-131.550-131.725-130.025-130.425-131.450-131.525-MHZ.html

User Reviews

Users broadly laud ACARS decoding and real-time display, usable with common scanners and external mics. However, success hinges on fiddly hardware setup, and the app lacks background operation, data management features, and refined UX. Apple Watch support and older iOS compatibility are gaps. Overall, it’s a solid, usable proof-of-concept that decodes ACARS well when properly tweaked, but needs feature and usability improvements to broaden appeal.

Pros

ACARS decoding works as the app's core function and is consistently praised.
App accepts off-air reception using common hardware (scanner + external microphone) allowing practical use.
Real-time data scrolling/display on the phone helps users monitor reception as it decodes.
Works on iOS devices (iPhone/iPad) across various hardware setups, appealing to hobbyists.
Users find the app useful for understanding data even when some parts are garbled, providing meaningful results.

Cons

Hardware setup is fiddly—requires careful microphone and antenna placement and receiver tweaks to achieve quality decodes.
No background operation; data clears when switching apps, which disrupts workflow.
Limited feature set: no pause, save/export, data organization/filtering, or advanced data handling; basic UI.
Lack of Apple Watch support (not available) and some OS compatibility issues on older iOS versions.
Exit/UX could be improved (clumsy to quit; basic, proof-of-concept feel).

Recent reviews

The app does work, but requires some tweaking/experimenting with the microphone and speaker placement, signal/antenna. Pretty good app, would like to see an update though. I copied signals from two different radios, an Icom ICR6 Communications Receiver and an XHDATA D808 portable shortwave radio . Both performed reasonably well tuned to 130.551 mHz Air band (AM).

by Js*****, 2023-06-19

First make sure you can get the RF from the planes as high quality as you can (good antenna, receiver tweaks). Then it will require various experimenting placing the iPhone in good position so the phone mics can hear the transmission. And also experiment with the receiver’s volume. You will see the data scrolling on the phone screen if you get all of the above correct. Now look at your data for quality decodes. If the data looks garbled, play around with the settings and positions again. And....in the app’s configuration, make sure you have a file selected to store the data on the phone. Another thing I really dislike in the app is that if you open another app, all the data displayed in the ACARS screen goes blank and then if you want to view the data, you have to open the stored data files. It does this everytime you goto another app on your phone. I want to try this app after adding an external microphone to my iPhone 8+ via a splitter cable. I really hope this will help with the decoding of crap data to quality data. Good luck - when all is tweaked correctly, it is a great app. But honestly, use PDW on a PC.

by PD*****, 2019-03-23

VERY minimum application, it receives ACARS and that's it. You can put your earbud microphone next to radio speaker, but best bet would be a line-level microphone input. Even if packet doesn't fully decide properly, you get what does decode. Thats a plus. Wish it could run in the background. Only thing I understand is Tail number and type aircraft in packet. It would be nice if the rest of the jibberish is translated to what it actually means. However, it does work. I use in with SDR on the Airband.