Live flight status. Flights read the everyday way ("Southwest 4438", "American 6275 › 1370") with the airline code (WN4438) in small type underneath; shared pictures use the everyday name only. ATOM tracks every booked flight with FlightAware, the same source airline apps use, starting about a day and a half before departure.
A DEPARTURES BOARD ON EVERY SCREEN (Travel, Flights tab): an old-style split-flap airport board (the letters flip when something changes; it stays dark in light mode too, like a real board). Header with the current time; trips by month, one row per trip: big departure time and date (amber with "was 2:36 PM" when late), the flight, the route with city names, the arrival time, who's flying, the gate ("--" until it posts) and the status (SCHEDULED, ON TIME, BOARDING in pink, IN AIR in blue with a progress line, DELAYED in amber with how late, LANDED, CANCELLED in red) with the countdown. Late, boarding and cancelled rows are outlined in their color. When you're on a trip, your name comes first (in teal) in the travelers, so even a big party shows you're on it without opening "+N more". A connecting trip shows each layover ("1h 36m layover in Denver"), amber when it's under 30 minutes and red when the first flight now lands after the next one leaves. Arrival weather shows for trips in the next week. Terminal maps: every airport on the trip has a link (departure, connections, arrival) that opens a search for that airport's terminal map; the flight screen has one under each airport too. Tap a row to open the flight and edit it. Above the board, tiles count trips in the air, delayed, cancelled, scheduled and landed. Past trips are behind Show past trips.
SIZES: a computer gets every column (time, flight, route, travelers, gate, status). An iPad (or a narrow window) gets three columns: time, the route with the flight and travelers under it, and the status with the gate. A phone gets one stacked row per trip: time and date on top, the status flaps under them, the airport codes, then the details. On the iPhone app, trips in the next day have Show on lock screen when that build is installed.
GATE TIMES: DEP is when the plane leaves the gate (what boarding runs off), not wheels-up. ARR is when it reaches the gate at the other end. Both are in the airport's local time.
THE DAY SCHEDULE FOLLOWS THE TRACKER: a flight's line on the day schedule moves to the live gate times as they change, checked every 5 minutes. A flight more than 15 minutes late turns yellow with "+48m, was 6:10 PM" so everyone sees the original booked time too. A cancelled or diverted flight turns red. Nothing is saved: the booking keeps its original time, and the line goes back to it if the tracker has no news.
WHEN DOES IT UPDATE? On screen, while someone has the Travel page or the day open. Separately, ATOM checks every booked flight from about 4 hours before departure until it lands and sends flight alerts for delays, gate changes, cancellations and connections at risk, even with ATOM closed. Gates and most delays post a few hours before departure, so a blank gate early in the day is normal.
SHARE OR SNAPSHOT A FLIGHT OR DRIVE: the same two buttons as the day page: on the flight's own screen (top bar, next to Edit flight), on every card in the day page Travel tab, and on a ground run's screen. Share sends the travel as plain text (the share sheet on a phone, copied to the clipboard on a computer). Snapshot (camera icon) shows the ATOM picture of it with Copy picture (paste into a text, email or Slack), Save picture (a PNG in your Downloads; the Mac app opens it too) and, on a phone or iPad, Share (Messages, Mail, AirDrop, Save Image). There is no share link; the picture is that moment.
SHARED PICTURES USE LIVE DATA: the picture is live: a status bar (+57 MIN LATE, ON TIME, CANCELLED) with the time it was true, gate departure and arrival, "was 6:10 PM" when late, gates, aircraft, conf and who's flying with seats. The flight's own screen shows the live departure at the top too.
ON YOUR LOCK SCREEN (coming): a live flight card on the iPhone lock screen and Dynamic Island is built but not in the App Store app yet. Until it is, flight alerts buzz your phone when a flight is delayed, changes gate, is cancelled or puts a connection at risk (see Flight alerts on your phone).
WRONG FLIGHT OR NO LIVE DATA? The flight needs to be matched to a real flight (Travel, open the flight). Flights entered by hand without a flight number can't be tracked.