When to Expect the Emergency SOS via Satellite Feature to Launch on iPhone

[ElBerserko]

I am more interested in how well the satellite sharing your location through Find My works. While SOS is something most people will never use, the Find My feature is something a lot of people could get value from.

Keeping family members updated with your location while out on a hike in an area without cell reception would be fantastic.

 

[developer13245]

Perfect is the enemy of the good.

Emergency SOS isn’t really a feature you’d expect to use as a seasoned wilderness adventurer. It may still be a life saver though as you may lose one emergency item and not another so redundancies are good…

But it will certainly save people who may become injured or trapped during outdoor activities while being unaware of the lack of cell phone coverage.

Even outside of direct reaching out by individuals. It allows your family and friends to be able to see your last location that can be used to focus a search. Again, important for those who wandered to the near wilderness.

We have a lot of that in PA and NJ and elsewhere in the United States.

I live near and often visit some of the most remote wilderness in north America. Luckily I’ve never needed to contact EMS for myself but have helped others in distress. So I’m speaking from direct experience USING these services in emergency situations. I can say with high confidence that a “seasoned wilderness adventurer” will most likely be carrying a dedicated satellite PLB.

Ultimately, the effectiveness of an iPhone satellite SOS system will be demonstrated by incident data. But such data will not be reliable for several years.

Edit: Satellite PLBs are far from perfect. My experience also informed me that Iridium is better than Globalstar.

 

[Kar98]

This doesn't seem to be a Garmin replacement because you can't actually text people other than emergency services right? Or am I missing something?

What

 

[clive27]

I don't think Apple will be able to charge money for this service even after 2 years. Think about the possibility of someone dying in the wilderness because the person didn't pay $8/month subscription and the iPhone, while capable, refused to send SOS via satellite.
Sure, Apple won't care about having one less live customer, but they surely care about their image.
When a Tesla is involved in an accident, media always looks for clues whether FSD/autopilot was engaged. Media doesn't care about hundreds of thousands of accidents occurred to other cars, they want to know whether Tesla with FSD crashed.
Samething here, if someone with iPhone 14 Pro died in the wilderness, media will try to find out if the person tried to use the satellite feature. If the person could not send SOS due to unpaid subscription, it will be emphasized.

 

[LogicalApex]

No such rules exist…

There is a requirement from the FCC that all carriers allow 911 calls to terminate irrespective of the subscriber status of the cell phone.

 

[robertmorris2]

the iPhone 14 isn't in the grave yet and they're already talking about the 15...have they no soul?

 

[Deasnutz]

Satellite options when cell service is non-existent or poor would be a huge feature, I’d pay for that. But it shouldn’t be just SOS or 911 texts., which would be too limited.

‘Honestly, I‘m surprised the feature isn’t here already. Who are the backend satellite providers involved?

 

[LogicalApex]

I live near and often visit some of the most remote wilderness in north America. Luckily I’ve never needed to contact EMS for myself but have helped others in distress. So I’m speaking from direct experience USING these services in emergency situations. I can say with high confidence that a “seasoned wilderness adventurer” will most likely be carrying a dedicated satellite PLB.

Ultimately, the effectiveness of an iPhone satellite SOS system will be demonstrated by incident data. But such data will not be reliable for several years.

Edit: Satellite PLBs are far from perfect. My experience also informed me that Iridium is better than Globalstar.

Again, a person traveling to the wilderness will likely be prepared. They might benefit from the redundancy, but they will be prepared more than likely. As they knew ahead of time that they were going to the wilderness.

There are a lot of places in the US that have zero cellular coverage and are very close to major population centers. People visiting these places don’t immediately think they need to be preparing for a wilderness trek. They will benefit from the extra safety this feature adds.

 

[lukarak]

Like GPS? Haha.

No, GPS doesn't send anything to space, just receives a signal.

 

[Shirasaki]

This is in preparation when Apple is planning to charge monthly for using the extra sensors in Apple Watch including: ECG, heart afib, bloodsugar and emergency calls when heartbeat stops. Health+. Similar features they marketed as life saving and want to make it available for free for everyone.

Squeezing every penny even if it takes lives.

Worse, they have all of those hardware built-in, but software locked behind paywall.
Just like subscription heat-seat, subscription hardware components inside processor (cough Intel cough), and so on.

What I can also see is companies are offering a very low cost hardware lease model (you don’t own those devices) where you use the hardware for 1 year or so before sending it back for an upgrade or replacement, after a few years. Meanwhile hardware ownership cost goes through the roof ($5000 base model iPhone) to Subsidise. We shall see.

 

[lukarak]

Satellite options when cell service is non-existent or poor would be a huge feature, I’d pay for that. But it shouldn’t be just SOS or 911 texts., which would be too limited.

‘Honestly, I‘m surprised the feature isn’t here already. Who are the backend satellite providers involved?

The problem is probably the 1400 km orbit of Globalstar's constellation. Their own phones have bigger antennas so regular cellphones might not be able to do much more than texts.

We should see what T-Mobile can do with Starlink, as that will work with iPhones as well.

 

[JapanApple]

like this service will cost 100.00 us a year. If apple does let them include it in the providers' service.

 

[svish]

Hopefully one day Apple can provide this service across the world and not just in US and Canada.

 

[citysnaps]

Globalstar is hosting an investor day on November 16. Pretty sure that's when we'll see this go live.

OMG... finally an intelligent comment. Instead of the typical inane race to the bottom juvenile pablum.

 

[ZZ9pluralZalpha]

Maybe Apple can fund the service with ads after the 2 years are up.

Each SOS sent also has an ad attached for the 911 responders to see. 🤣

Nah, the ad would be shown to the SOS sender. Limited to no means of fleeing, no other connectivity or diversions, paying attention to their device like (because) their lives depend on it—the pinnacle of a captive audience! 😆

 

[developer13245]

There is a requirement from the FCC that all carriers allow 911 calls to terminate irrespective of the subscriber status of the cell phone.

True, but iPhone Emergency SOS via satellite is NOT a 911 call.

 

[developer13245]

OMG... finally an intelligent comment. Instead of the typical inane race to the bottom juvenile pablum.

... until you check the GSAT stock price.

 

[SoldOnApple]

Is that free for two years with the purchase of a new iPhone, so if you upgrade every two years then you'll always have free satellite? And Australia gets it when?

 

[KeepCalmPeople]

Not sure why people think they should get satellite service for free. Satellites are not cheap. I pay 25 USD per month for a Garmin InReach and it includes only a limited number of text messages via satellite.

 

[Skyscraperfan]

I hope that works better than the crash detection that is triggered in roller coaster very often. 911 already is annoyed by that feature.

 

[FyrStrike]

I have in old XR (yeah, waiting for the 15 now with a C connector) and noticed that sometimes when in low service areas the signal indicator changes to SOS but with no signal. What’s that all about?

 

[Skyscraperfan]

I have in old XR (yeah, waiting for the 15 now with a C connector) and noticed that sometimes when in low service areas the signal indicator changes to SOS but with no signal. What’s that all about?

I think the signal indicator only measures the signal in the network you have bought a plan for, while for SOS calls you can use any network even without having a SIM card in your phone. At least it works that way in Germany. So some people even own an old phone without a SIM card just for use in an emergency.

 

[Samuel Sosa]

They can always charge you later after use. you'll see a 9.99 charge on your Apple account lol

 

[citysnaps]

... until you check the GSAT stock price.

No worries on that - a plus. Wait for the day. There will be a couple of interesting announcements; especially regarding Apple's large investment in their next generation satellites.

Shrewd move on Apple's part getting in at that point.

 

[LightSwitch]

I’d pay for a non-emergency service to family and friends with similar short info / details / location. I wonder when that will be offered up? Hopefully way before 2 years.