Do you really think it doesn’t send a GPS location? The problem is that it’s not always accurate. It’s always smart to ask for more information and landmarks.
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Testing Apple's New Emergency SOS via Satellite Feature
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Great feature on iPhones and good to see the demo.
Well, marine radio channel 9, 16 is our first choice. Hope you don’t have to use the epirb because there could be ships close by that could arrive much faster depending on the emergency.
All else being equal, cellular data uses more battery than wi-fi, right? As such, the question about battery drain on satellite is quite valid. If I’m contacting emergency services, then of course, I get it—shut up and take my battery. But what about just walking/driving/hiking around in places with low/no cellular coverage? Do all those pings and pongs drain appreciably more battery? I have learned not to trust everything Apple claims about batteries…
It doesn’t just “ping and pong” whenever you have no signal - you have to select emergency SOS via satellite and then it will begin trying to contact the satellites.
Battery life if you don’t use this feature should be exactly the same. While it’s actively being used it’ll be a big power draw though.
Cool feature (and it will save lives) but for those of us who sail or walk in areas without coverage there will still be a place for the non-emergency two-way satellite comms systems like Inreach, ACR Bivy, etc. It's good to have tracking and to be able to chat during those periods in the prelude to the "incident pit" when things might be going wrong but you're not quite prepared to call a full emergency.
I would imagine it’s pretty battery friendly. I think looking for the signal is just receiving from the satellite. The data it transmits is intentionally small which is why it asks you everything upfront.
FWIW, I think this is a completely valid question. No idea why anyone would twist this into a debate about whether emergency help or your normal iPhone entertainment is more important. You said nothing to that effect.
I think it's pretty clear for now: since the US and international waters are not the same thing, it will not work. In other words, connection with a satellite would be possible but there are no agreements with agencies needed to offer help in such a situation.
Just tested the satellite using the demo. Worked perfectly and it was great to see how it would operate when used. Glad to have it and I hope to never need it. When XC skiing, hiking, or snowshoeing we are often in places without service. Large dead zones. I have rented satellite phones in the past when vacationing in very remote areas.
Apple is using Globalstar.
Garmin inReach devices use Iridium.
Most people I know that spend a lot of time in those conditions carry a real emergency device PLB as a backup. I like my InReach with the Earthmate app but I would never trust it or my phone alone.
I am a Search and Rescue volunteer in a Northern California county that has many rugged Sierra Nevada backcountry searches. One common denominator with many of our searches is people who have a cell phone but the battery has gone dead. When traveling in these areas with either weak or no cellular service, the battery drains much quicker than normal, even if you never pull it out of your pocket. It is quite common for us to reach out to the phone's carrier (i.e. Verizon or AT&T) and get ping results. Because the area is full of rocky canyons and such, these ping signals are nearly impossible to properly triangulate. Unless you plan your trip properly and have methods to supplement your phone's built-in battery, it would be better to use additional tools, such as a dedicated GPS unit with a satellite beacon system than rely on your phone. I am NOT saying that the SOS feature is a waste, I'm just pointing out the need to think of having a backup power source if traveling in areas without cellular service. A large number of our calls are related to poor planning.
I understand the appeal to go to these rugged, beautiful, secluded locations and people do it all the time without incident. Unfortunately, many people, especially those from urban areas that don't do so routinely, fail to plan properly before going.
I thought I would need this when traveling to 3rd world countries. Turns out 3rd world countries have better cell phone coverage than I have in the US.....
But inReach has a SOS feature which doesn’t need the Earthmate app to function so I don’t see the need for a PLB. Seems like you are saying you would want an inReach and and a PLB as a backup. I’m saying I’ve been ok with the inReach so far and having emergency satellite service on my iPhone as a backup is a bonus. It is diminishing returns.
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It’s using the same cell radio to send small messages (compressed, even, so it’s more efficient). It uses LTE band 53 which Globalstar was cleared to use. So by all accounts, it’s just like cellular, but with low signal strength since you’re much farther from satellites, and it’s only short burst messages, not a stream of data. Battery life should not be a huge issue just for contacting emergency services, should only take a few minutes to send and receive everything the emergency service needs.
And if you were wondering if it had any impact outside of an emergency, that would be a no. It doesn’t connect to satellites all the time, you initiate the connection by calling 911, then if the call fails it tells you to retry with satellite SOS. There’s no need for it to connect to satellites outside of the SOS feature. Or if you were in an area with no signal and you used the Find My feature to send your location over satellite (again, you initiate the usage of the feature, it’s not connecting to satellites in the background).
It does use your location by necessity so it may use more battery just by having location enabled, if you were in the habit of disabling location services normally.
And personally, I would not prioritize sending a “last message”. It’s not an ideal platform for that. The emergency rescuers may ask you questions about how you’re feeling or your environment, prioritize answering their questions, and in my experience, satellite messaging takes minutes per message to send and receive. You will be jamming up all your bandwidth to send such a message but your focus should be on your rescue and you may in fact be impeding your rescue! Write a note on your phone or a physical note if you want to!
No currently only in US and Canada - so I think the use case is very very small since most places even remote once you got signal in the US ... (here comes the well actually I know this spot where you don't)..... Where this would be REALLY useful is it was world wide - you could use 2000$ satellite phone when we are out, and that comes with a hefty 59 $ a month subscription. Last time I REALLY needed this was when our boat did not pick us up and we were in Greenland way way off the cell network then this would have been nice.. we were stranded in 36 hours with no food and only the water we could smelt. .. if it ever becomes tru world wide then it will be a nice feature... but also im guessing it won't work if you get to near to the Pooles like in greenland, since most satellites don't go that fare north in their orbit, so it can be hard even to get accurate GPS signal up there.