You Can Send Texts via Satellite in iOS 18

[poorcody]

I’m sure there’s been situations this year where people haven’t been able to contact emergency services via their phones because they failed to pay their cellular phone bill. I don’t think there’s been any impact to those companies.

It's actually a federal law that cell phone companies have to pass-through 911 calls in the US even if service is not active. That is one reason your phone will say "SOS" when it can't reach your particular cell provider -- when "SOS" appears, it means it can reach another provider that will let your dial 911.

This, by the way, is not true with Satellite services. For example, if you have a Garmin Inreach, and discontinue service, you cannot reach emergency services.

 

[mashdots]

Phone calls from a flying Jet? Forget it - not possible. There are many reasons why... Distance to earth stations (regular 4G / 5G) is more or less the same as up to satellites; about 30K ft / 10km. If you can't reach down, you can't reach up as well (we talk about regular smartphones). Of course - with some tech in / on the plane it works - but just for the plane and his tech, not for costumers.

Nah i was referring to just messaging using UWB, not phone calls or cellular.

 

[ApAx]

You don’t since they won’t raise prices

iCloud+ is the only subscription service I use that hasn't raised prices this years. I hope they don't follow suit with everything else.

 

[roar08]

Now I just need GSAT to go full meme stock.

 

[poorcody]

I highly recommend a proper PLB if you are hiking in areas with no signal. I carry an ACR PLB myself. These are designed for life and death situations with a much more robust communications infrastructure and process. Those feature on the iPhone are nice but always want to have a secondary more failsafe comms in the event something serious happens.

I think it's debatable whether a PLB is superior. The way they work is when you activate them, it sends a 406 MHz emergency signal to a satellite which contains GPS information. It then subsequently sends out a 121 MHz beacon that emergency responders can use as a homing beacon, but only accurate to within a few miles (kind of useless unless you are drifting in a large body of water).

The big downside is you can't communicate with emergency services. So you don't know if they received the signal and if/when help is on the way. They can't asses your situation to decide the best way to respond. And you can't help them find you.

ACR ResQLink View PLB Review

If you need to call for a rescue in the backcountry, the ACR ResQLink View offers a solid, professional-level method to trigger a distress signal using the government-run satellite network.

hikingguy.com

 

[211]

With satellite messaging and RCS, would this move people away from using apps like WhatsApp and Messenger? Personally, I don’t see the attraction of WhatsApp, especially when everyone has unlimited messages in their phone plan (as far as I know)

 

[sxdev]

OMG right? Who cares that we're able to text from pretty much anywhere humanly habitable on earth?

Sadly satellites have to cooperate with lots of legal entities. If China, Cuba, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Nigeria, North Korea, Chad, Russia, Sri Lanka, Sudan, and Pakistan don’t allow satellite access via phone they will most likely not allow this either and that’s assuming Apple gets permission from all the countries that do allow it, and government doesn’t add more restrictions (I.e. Iran), etc.

 

[subjonas]

Smart move: introduce a feature for free, make it even more useful and then charge for it. Satellite communication is very expensive so of course Apple won't just eat the cost.

I can even see then getting you make an emergency SMS and charge you afterwards

Pay per use seems fair.

 

[raythompsontn]

I don’t see the attraction of WhatsApp

Texting, voice calling, and video calling to people overseas. It uses WiFi (or data) so no limits or charges from cell phone carriers.

 

[211]

Texting, voice calling, and video calling to people overseas. It uses WiFi (or data) so no limits or charges from cell phone carriers.

iMessage and FaceTime does the same thing (if they have an iPhone). The vast majority of people use WhatsApp to message people within their own country

 

[kc9hzn]

This is no longer true.

AT&T Demos Satellite Connectivity with an Unmodified Cellphone

The AT&T satellite connectivity came from AST SpaceMobile. An AT&T spokesperson said that in the future, the technology could

www.telecompetitor.com

https://twitter.com/x/status/1792981845296160791

How does that even work? Wouldn’t the phone need to operate on Starlink’s upload frequencies? Do they already? Either that, or this would require cell tower support (which, of course, kinda requires a cell tower).

 

[kc9hzn]

Just put it as part of iCloud + basic. I mean, they are eating the cost for two years so I hardly doubt it is that expensive to use.

No, satellite phone data and minutes are EXPENSIVE. Apple’s able to eat the costs for two or three years because it’s a lot like insurance. Most insurance customers aren’t going to make a large claim every year, and most iPhone users aren’t going to ever need the satellite communication features. So Apple can defray the costs of satellite usage thanks to the purchases of millions of people who probably will never need the feature.

 

[Justin Cymbal]

This will be a great feature to have!

I remember when I was backpacking in the middle of nowhere (in Cimarron, New Mexico) at Philmont and for two weeks, we didn’t have any way of contacting the outside world, but about halfway through the trek, one of the people that I was with had 1 bar of service (on AT&T) so I was able to make a phone call to my Mom back home

Texting via satellite would be a great thing to be able to have for times like that when there’s no cell phone service while in remote areas

 

[x-evil-x]

I have an iPhone 15 Pro and I just bought a Garmin Inreach Mini 2 last week. I purposely went somewhere to test it to see how it compared to the emergency SOS satellite on the iPhone. I found a really bad flaw in the Apple Satellite feature. Where I was, my iPhone said I had one bar of signal, but the signal was so weak, I was not able to make any calls or send any iMessages/SMS. I tried to send my location via satellite (to test the satellite without actually setting off an emergency) and the iPhone said that satellite was not available because I had cellular signal (even thought the cellular signal was too weak to use). The Garmin worked with no issue. Worth the money for me for the Garmin, but the Apple satellite is good to have as a back up solution, I would not rely on it. Had that been a real emergency I would have been screwed if not for the Garmin.

I’d imagine you can go into cellular and turn off the lte/5g so it won’t make a signal at all then you’ll be able to use the satellite instead

 

[raythompsontn]

iMessage and FaceTime does the same thing (if they have an iPhone).

WhatsApp is platform neutral. Most of the people I contact in Europe have Android phones. Texting through SMS would be expensive.

 

[kc9hzn]

WhatsApp is platform neutral. Most of the people I contact in Europe have Android phones. Texting through SMS would be expensive.

Granted, that’s one of those American vs European differences. Unlimited SMS plans are really common here in the US these days, to the point where I can’t remember when the last time I paid for an individual text message was (probably on Tracfone back in the late 2000s or in 2010). That’s probably part of the reason why WhatsApp never really caught on here* other than for people who frequently chat with people overseas who use WhatsApp.

* Why did Facebook buy it, then? Probably as a part of their “next billion users” initiatives. They probably felt that it would give them greater market penetration in the developing world (like internet.org).

 

[raythompsontn]

Why did Facebook buy it, then?

Because they could? So far FB has not destroyed the app. However, the year is young.

When the wife and I travel to Europe WiFi calling on the iPhone is used a lot. The wife will call her mother and brother and talk for about an hour each call. The calls cost me nothing. Amazing. The mother has a flip phone and has no idea how to text.

I also get a local SIM card for data as I need the the train apps to schedule travel. Texting was limited to X number of messages which I never exceeded.

 

[ChrisA]

SpaceX just launched a batch of experimental "direct to phone" satellites. These will provide cell coverage to normal phones (even an old iPhone 6)

It will be years until this service is available but it is already tested and working in a very limited way
https://api.starlink.com/public-files/DIRECT_TO_CELL_FIRST_TEXT_UPDATE.pdf

So even if Apple does nothing at some point in the future you could use your phone for normal calls and text anyplace in the world.

 

[poorcody]

I’d imagine you can go into cellular and turn off the lte/5g so it won’t make a signal at all then you’ll be able to use the satellite instead

Interestingly they don't let you do that -- iPhone will only allow you to connect to Satellite if cellular and Wifi are on but neither has a signal. No way to fake it. This probably allows them to be confident their expensive Satellite bandwidth won't be overwhelmed by too many users at once.

 

[Tevos]

This is actually the most awesome feature announced so far. Especially given that its still free for the moment. Emergency messages when off grid (like you're lost in the forest or being kidnapped)

 

[Radeon85]

This feature is amazing, knowing I'll have a 100% chance of messaging someone even in the middle of nowhere if all cell is reception is gone is a great peace of mind especially if I don't need the emergency services.

Satellite communications is expensive but just allowing it for basic text only should be free for everyone as it can save lives and it's not as if it's going to be used a lot. Wouldn't be great PR if someone dies because they didn't pay for a subscription.

 

[svish]

Fantastic to hear this. Hopefully the feature expands to more countries in the near future.

 

[applesith]

No. If you add it as a part of iCloud + without raising the prices then you don’t charge for it in the consumer eyes

The cost will have to come out somewhere, so prices will go up.

 

[Baywatchboy]

I have an iPhone 15 Pro and I just bought a Garmin Inreach Mini 2 last week. I purposely went somewhere to test it to see how it compared to the emergency SOS satellite on the iPhone. I found a really bad flaw in the Apple Satellite feature. Where I was, my iPhone said I had one bar of signal, but the signal was so weak, I was not able to make any calls or send any iMessages/SMS. I tried to send my location via satellite (to test the satellite without actually setting off an emergency) and the iPhone said that satellite was not available because I had cellular signal (even thought the cellular signal was too weak to use). The Garmin worked with no issue. Worth the money for me for the Garmin, but the Apple satellite is good to have as a back up solution, I would not rely on it. Had that been a real emergency I would have been screwed if not for the Garmin.

Thank you for this. Looks like I've got some research to do.

 

[Mrkevinfinnerty]

Meh, wake me up when I can send satellites via text.