The Apple TV aerial-video screensaver for Mac, with live wallpaper mode, your own videos, and community expansion packs.
Our take
The open-source original this whole category gets measured against — shipping since 2015, nearly a decade before Apple added a limited version of the same idea to macOS itself.
- Price
- Free
- License
- Open source
- Requires
- macOS 15+ for the current release (4.1.2); Apple Silicon and Intel
- Get it via
- GitHub
Do you use Aerial?
Who made this
Are you Aerial community (JohnCoates and contributors; JoshuaMichaels, Hal Bergman for video packs)? Claim this profile to add a photo, a bio, and links — or ask us to remove it.
What it does
Apple’s full aerial library
Cities, deserts, oceans, and the ISS at native quality, including the newer 4K 240fps set.
Live wallpaper mode
Registers as a native macOS wallpaper (beta) rather than only a screensaver, and can keep playing on the login screen.
Bring your own videos
Drop .mov or .mp4 files into a folder and Aerial adds them to the rotation.
Live camera feeds
Stream RTSP cameras, HLS feeds, or YouTube live URLs as the screensaver.
Overlay editor
Drag and drop a clock, weather, and location captions into the frame with a live preview.
Community expansion packs
Install curated third-party video packs from inside the app.
The deal
- Free and open source, no telemetry per the developer
- Auto-updating single .app — drag to /Applications
Aerial — questions people ask
Is Aerial free?
Yes — free and open source, with no telemetry per the developer.
How is it different from Apple’s built-in aerial screensaver?
Apple’s built-in version has a small fixed library and no customization. Aerial adds the full library, your own videos, live camera feeds, overlays, multi-display control, and a live-wallpaper mode.
Is Aerial free?
Yes — Aerial is free.
Does Aerial work alongside a notch app like Alcove?
Yes — Aerial lives in the screen, so it runs happily alongside any Dynamic Island hub or notch app.
Where can I download Aerial?
Aerial is available via GitHub.
Is Aerial open source?
Yes — Aerial is open source.
Reviews
No public ratings yet. Reader reviews are coming to Kitsmith soon.
Listing hand-verified September 18, 2026 from the developer's site and public sources.
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