Aerial 4 - Free/Open source macOS screensaver
I came to know about Aerial, a screensaver/wallpaper app yesterday through MacVince's YT video. I was shocked to see that it exists since 2020 (6th year anniversary in 5 days) and built natively in Swift but still never saw it mentioned…
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“I came to know about Aerial, a screensaver/wallpaper app yesterday through MacVince's YT video. I was shocked to see that it exists since 2020 (6th year anniversary in 5 days) and built natively in Swift but still never saw it mentioned…”I came to know about Aerial, a screensaver/wallpaper app yesterday through MacVince's YT video. I was shocked to see that it exists since 2020 (6th year anniversary in 5 days) and built natively in Swift but still never saw it mentioned here.
In Aerial, you can
• select system screensaver from Aerial
• set your own video as screensaver/wallpaper or both!
• add live feed from home camera, YT or HLS urls
• access free/paid community picks (like this one)
While we see 3rd party wallpaper engines keep coming very now and then, Aerial being a free & open-source seems like a good fit for many users.
Website: https://aerialscreensaver.github.io
GitHub: https://github.com/AerialScreensaver/Aerial
I just wanted to share my new find here, so maybe give it a try. Thanks to u/cwizou for making such an incredible app ;)
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I wish it had space pictures. I love this though!
Tip for anyone trying it: the 4K HDR videos quietly eat disk space over time, so it is worth setting the cache limit in preferences or just pinning a few favorites instead of letting it grab everything. It can also switch to the night versions after sunset, which looks really good with the city flyovers.
Check the community videos section, there is an ISS set with NASA timelapses from orbit. Not still pictures but it absolutely scratches the space itch.
Does Apple allow this in the Mac App Store? I would like to put a screensaver in the Mac App Store, but I do not think that Apple will let me?
oh useful! Thank you, i'll check that out now! You mentioned the cache issue, can I target an external drive as a cache as Ihave a DAS with about 600tb lying handy. 😄 edit: never mind, found it and answered my own question.
nice find. one practical tip: if someone uses it as a wallpaper, check Activity Monitor for a few minutes on battery before leaving it on full time. the Apple aerials are usually fine, but custom 4K/HDR clips can quietly turn a screensaver app into a small background video player. i would also test it once with your actual monitor/sleep setup, because wallpaper/screensaver apps can behave differently on multi-display Macs.
Yeah, I agree! I will monitor
Ig they don’t have MAS version, it’s available as DMG and Brew install
Does it handle multi monitor setups well? I've had screensaver apps do weird stuff where one display sleeps and the other keeps playing
I don't have multi-monitor setup personally, but I can see a dedicated control page for it in settings. https://preview.redd.it/suu56dqxh6eh1.png?width=1900&format=png&auto=webp&s=3a254db0433023dd410f665450fe5af75fb04edf