Yes, Morse code is still used every day, just not where it used to be. Commercial telegraphy and ships' distress calls have moved on, but aircraft navigation beacons still identify themselves in Morse, radio amateurs all over the world still send it, navies still flash it between ships, and people who cannot use a keyboard type with it.
Here is where you will find it, and where it has gone.
In the cockpit
Every VOR, the radio beacon that most aircraft navigation has been built around, sends its identifier in Morse code, usually three letters, at about 7 words per minute. Non-directional beacons do the same with one to three letters, and the instrument landing system on a runway identifies itself with four letters that always start with .., the letter I. The ILS on runway 4R at New York's JFK airport sends IJFK: .. .--- ..-. -.-.
Pilots listen to that identifier to make sure they have tuned the right station and that it is working. It is the most common use of Morse code on earth, and most of the people hearing it never think of it as Morse at all. There is more on this in how pilots use Morse code.
On the amateur radio bands
Radio amateurs call Morse "CW", for continuous wave, and it is still one of the most popular ways to make contacts across the world. A Morse signal needs only a sliver of the radio spectrum, so it gets through when voice cannot, and a small, cheap transmitter on Morse can reach other continents.
Knowing Morse was once required for an amateur licence. The International Telecommunication Union made that requirement optional in 2003, and in the United States it ended on 23 February 2007. People kept learning it anyway, because they want to. Many amateur repeaters, the hilltop relays used for voice, still identify themselves in Morse. See getting started with Morse in amateur radio.
Between ships
Navies have long used signal lamps to flash Morse from ship to ship, and they still do. A lamp cannot be overheard by a radio receiver, so it lets ships talk while keeping radio silence. It is slow and it needs line of sight, which is exactly why it is useful when nobody else should be listening.
On a phone, as a keyboard
Morse code is a full alphabet made of just two signals, which makes it a powerful way to type for people who can only press one or two switches. Android has allowed Morse input since version 5.0, and in 2018 Google added a Morse keyboard to Gboard, designed with Tania Finlayson, who has used Morse to communicate since the 1980s. We cover this in Morse code as assistive technology.
In an emergency
SOS, ...---..., is still recognised as a distress signal sent by any means: a torch, a whistle, a car horn, a mirror. You do not need a radio or a licence to use it. Our emergency signalling guide explains how to send it so it is understood.
Where it is no longer used
- Ships' distress calls. Morse was the international standard for distress at sea until 1999, when the satellite-based Global Maritime Distress and Safety System replaced it.
- Navies on radio. When the French Navy stopped using Morse code on 31 January 1997, its last message was "Calling all. This is our last call before our eternal silence."
- Commercial telegrams. The last commercial Morse transmission in the United States was sent on 12 July 1999. It signed off with the first official message of 1844, "What hath God wrought", and the prosign SK, end of contact.
Why it survives
Morse code is simple enough to send with anything that can be switched on and off, from a radio transmitter to a light to a fingertip on a table. It can be read by ear with no equipment at all. It works at very low power and through heavy noise. And it is one of very few standards that has worked, unchanged in its essentials, since the nineteenth century.
That is why it is worth knowing a little of it. If you want to try, the translator plays anything you type as sound and light, and the alphabet chart lets you hear every letter.