Discover the magic of perfect skylight with Helios - your essential companion for capturing stunning outdoor photos and videos. Whether you're a professional photographer, an avid hiker, a traveler seeking the perfect shot, or just someone who loves taking photos with your phone, Helios helps you find those magical moments when natural light transforms the ordinary into the extraordinary.
WHAT ARE MAGIC HOURS?
The golden hour casts a warm, glowing light shortly after sunrise or before sunset, perfect for portraits and landscapes. The blue hour bathes everything in a serene, twilight blue just before sunrise or after sunset, ideal for moody and atmospheric shots. These magic hours are when your photography truly shines, and Helios makes sure you never miss them. The app works anywhere in the world, even without an internet connection, making it an indispensable tool for anyone who cares about lighting.
BEAUTIFUL DESIGN
Helios embraces modern design with its refined liquid glass aesthetic that feels right at home on your iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch and Mac. The interface is intuitive and elegant, featuring a sophisticated dark theme that's easy on the eyes while planning your shoots. Every detail has been carefully crafted to make exploring light and time as beautiful as the moments you're planning to capture.
EVERYTHING YOU NEED
Helios brings together everything you need in one streamlined experience. The main screen shows you a complete outlook of today's sun and moon events with a stunning realistic visualization, alongside a built-in calendar for planning ahead. Your current location and all your saved places live together in one convenient view, so you can quickly check conditions anywhere you've bookmarked.
The integrated Map Explorer lets you search for new locations and explore sun and moon positions anywhere in the world at any time. See exactly where the sun will rise or set, track golden hour and blue hour times, and plan your shoots with precision using detailed line-based visualizations.
For real-time guidance, the Live View provides a spatial experience that overlays celestial information directly on your camera view, so you can track the sun and moon's path through the sky in augmented reality. The Light Meter tool helps you nail the perfect exposure with detailed information right alongside your camera feed.
When you're checking out the outlook for a place, you'll see helpful information cards including map views and Look Around (subject to availability), giving you a better sense of the place and helping you plan the perfect spot for your shot. Set up personalized notifications to stay informed about upcoming magic hours, so you're always ready when the light is just right.
TRUSTED BY THOUSANDS
With over 50,000 downloads and a 4.7 average rating worldwide, Helios has been featured on the App Store Today page and recognized as one of the best iOS apps by TechnoBuffalo and Apple User. Join the community of photographers, travelers, and outdoor enthusiasts who rely on Helios to make the most of natural light.
Helios is more than an app - it's your guide to mastering time and light, ensuring you're always in the right place at the right moment.
Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/
Privacy Policy: https://tryhelios.app/privacy
This app does allow dates to be entered to find the hours. The app does allow locations to be set. The app allows these to be done easily and intuitively. However saved locations are not given or allowed to be given a location name. This means looking at maps and working out which is the one that is wanted. Irritating if travelled in sparse areas or at sea and so maps appear largely blank in a list of maps. Moreover the app does not allow for searching through a list of saved locations. Also it would be better if the location map was located above the given hours for that location. It was difficult to be certain of the actual location that the hours being looked. This app has the basis for being a good app but now needs the input of a photographer.
Been using this app for so many years now!
apple_magic
I really love this app, happy to see you’re keeping it alive and updating it. Please add a donation section as an in app purchase and I will donate as I remember paying close to nothing like 6 years ago or whenever!
Awesome
r1ly
Fantastic design, suits the apple aesthetic very well. Only thing lacking is no Apple Watch complication. Would be great to be able to click and open the app from my watch face.
Great value
Johano21
Fantastic app for photographers or in my case videographers aiming to be more conscious of time of day for lighting and plan better. A couple suggestions:1. People tend to plan trips well in advance, then refer to the output of this app to plan schedules on a particular day in 6 months time. It would therefore be great if when a location saved it also saved a date you will be kn that location, so you don’t need to keep re-finding.2. Similarly, would be great if the maps tool could also save / retain locations, and ideally also with a date/ time.Both these features would make the app more useable as a planning tool.
Developer Response
Thanks for the feedback. The major update just released unfortunately does not contain any features that would make this happen, but I'm already working on the next update, and will try to get those suggestions in as well.
What's new in 5.3.0
- This update includes a massive update to accessibility. All parts of the app are now fully accessible, supporting voice over, voice control, and more!
- A big upgrade to the light meter, it now includes a dedicated video mode, adapted for those in the cinematography space with support for shutter angle, tweaked priority modes, and the ability to chose a specific lens (ultra-wide, wide or telephoto) for when the shot doesn't quite match with what you are seeing in the viewfinder.
- Some slight UI tweaks to make the app feel better.
- Fixed an issue where the map button wouldn't open the correct screen after interacting with the atmospheric visualization.
Version 5.3.0
The developer, Matic Conradi, indicated that the app’s privacy practices may include handling of data as described below. For more information, see the developer’s privacy policy .
Data Not Collected
The developer does not collect any data from this app.
Privacy practices may vary, for example, based on the features you use or your age. Learn More
The developer indicated that this app supports the following accessibility features. Learn More
Supported Features
VoiceOver
Voice Control
Larger Text
Dark Interface
Differentiate Without Colour Alone
Sufficient Contrast
Reduced Motion
Information
Seller
Matic Conradi
Size
322.1 MB
Category
Photo & Video
Compatibility
Requires iOS 26.0 or later.
iPhone Requires iOS 26.0 or later.
iPad Requires iPadOS 26.0 or later.
Mac Requires macOS 26.0 or later and a Mac with Apple M1 chip or later.
Apple Vision Requires visionOS 26.0 or later.
Apple Watch Requires watchOS 26.0 or later.
Location
This app may use your location even when it isn’t open, which can decrease device battery life.