Aerial
Free Apple TV screensaver for Mac that also works as a live wallpaper, with clock and weather overlays.
Aerial is a screensaver for Mac that plays the aerial videos made for Apple TV. Since version 4.1 it can also run as a live desktop wallpaper, so the same video carries on from the desktop into the screensaver.
An overlay editor lets you drag a clock, weather, location captions and other items into seven zones on screen and style them. Videos can come from the full Apple TV catalogue, your own .mov or .mp4 files, live camera feeds over RTSP, HLS or YouTube, or community video packs installed from inside the app. It handles several displays, including one video stretched across all of them, and has playlists, global hotkeys and time-of-day tags for your own clips. Playback pauses on its own under thermal pressure, in Low Power Mode or while the camera is in use.
Version 4 ships as Aerial.app with the screensaver inside as an app extension. Open the app once and a setup assistant asks whether you want a screensaver only, a still or live wallpaper, which overlay style to use, and whether the app sits in the menu bar or the Dock. You can change all of this later.
Aerial is MIT licensed and has no telemetry. It started in 2015 as John Coates's project and has been maintained by Guillaume Louel since 2018. The current 4.1 release needs macOS 26 Tahoe, and older builds remain available for earlier systems.
Frequently asked questions
Is Aerial free?
Yes. Aerial is free and open source. Donations through Ko-fi are optional, and the site also sells optional expansion packs.
Is Aerial safe and open source?
The code is on GitHub at AerialScreensaver/Aerial under the MIT licence, and the app collects no telemetry. Since version 4 the screensaver is an app extension that runs in its own sandboxed process instead of an old .saver plugin loaded into the system.
How do I install Aerial?
Run brew install --cask aerial. The cask picks the build that matches your macOS, so a Mac on macOS 15 gets 4.0.16. You can also download the zip from the website, drag Aerial.app to Applications and open it once to register the screensaver.
What macOS version does Aerial need?
Aerial 4.1.9 needs macOS 26 Tahoe or later. Aerial 4.0.16 is the last release for macOS 15 Sequoia and has no wallpaper extension. Aerial Companion 1.5.2 covers Macs that cannot run macOS 15, and the unmaintained 3.6.3 .saver build is kept for the oldest systems.
What happened to the JohnCoates/Aerial repository?
It is now the historical home of the old .saver version. Development of Aerial 4 moved to github.com/AerialScreensaver/Aerial, and the website is aerialscreensaver.github.io.
Can Aerial play my own videos?
Yes. Add your own .mov or .mp4 files, tag them by time of day, or add live camera feeds over RTSP, HLS or YouTube. Community video packs can be installed from inside the app.
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