Know what light you are in, and when it changes.
Lightphase reads the sun’s angle where you are standing, names the phase of light you are in, and counts down to the next one.
Your location is used on your device to work out the sun’s position. It is never sent anywhere, stored, or attached to anything.
The web and the app
The web tells you now. The app tells you the whole day, from your wrist.
lightphase.app stays free, with no account and no install. It is the same engine as the app, computed in your browser, and it will keep answering the two questions the moment you open it.
The iPhone app is for the hours you are not looking at a browser: it scrubs forward to any moment, sits on your Lock Screen, and puts the countdown on your watch face.
$4.99. No subscription, nothing inside.
| What you get | lightphase.appWeb | iPhone appiPhone |
|---|---|---|
| The light you are in, and the countdown | ||
| Today, first light to last | ||
| The sun's path through the day | ||
| Works with no signal | Installed | |
| Location stays on the device | ||
| Scrub to any moment of the day | – | |
| Lock Screen and Home Screen widgets | – | |
| Apple Watch complications | – | |
| Price | Free | $4.99 once |
Scrub to any moment
Drag the sun along its curve and everything follows: the sky, the phase, the angle, the countdown, with a tick under your finger at every threshold. Find out what the light will be doing at six before you decide where to be at six.
On your wrist
Three complications for your watch face. The light you are in and when it changes. A countdown to one light you choose, with a ring that empties as it runs down. And today’s arc, with the sun where it stands. Glance, and keep walking.
Glance without opening anything
Lock Screen and Home Screen widgets carry the same two answers, and they keep updating while the phone is in your pocket. A browser tab cannot do that, which is most of why the app exists.
Six phases, by the sun’s angle
Sunrise and sunset are the instant the sun’s upper edge meets the horizon, between Civil Twilight and Golden Hour. Blue hour is the end of one twilight and the start of the next. How the numbers are made →
Works where the signal does not
No account, no server, no solar API. The sun is computed from your position and the time, on the web and in the app alike, so both work in airplane mode, in a canyon and on a ridge.
Your location never leaves the device. There is nothing to send it to.
Android
Android is next. Until then, lightphase.app installs from Chrome’s menu, works offline once it has loaded, and gives the same two answers.