Apple’s latest iPhone feature could save your life

iOS 18 introduces Satellite Messages for times when cellular and Wi-Fi connections aren’t available for your iPhone. Powered by the same revolutionary technology as iPhone’s existing satellite capabilities, Messages via Satellite automatically prompts users to connect to the nearest satellite directly from the Messages app to send and receive texts, emoji and Tapbacks via iMessage and SMS. With Dynamic Island, users always know when they are connected to a satellite. Since iMessage was designed to protect user privacy, iMessages sent via satellite are end-to-end encrypted. Satellite Messages will be available in iOS 18 along with Apple’s existing satellite features in the US only on iPhone 14 and later.

Patrick Holland for CNET:
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(At WWDC), Apple introduced the Satellite Messages feature in iOS 18. And if it was three years ago, it was the only thing people were talking about.

Over the past few years, there have been numerous reports of people in distress being rescued or helped, in part by their iPhone. Apple highlights these stories before its big shows. One of the features behind some of the most spectacular rescues is Satellite Emergency SOS, which allows iPhone 14 and 15 owners without a cellular signal to contact emergency services.

Now, with iOS 18, Apple is taking this technology and expanding it so you can message anyone, even if it’s not an emergency.

If you use iMessage over a satellite connection, all messages will arrive regardless of who initiates the conversation. For satellite texting, you must initiate the conversation by sending the first message, unless that person is an emergency contact or part of the family setup.

“We support SMS,” (Kurt Knight, Apple’s senior director of platform product marketing) said. “So you can message pretty much anyone with a phone and they can just respond.”

Apple’s expansion of its satellite service for the iPhone outpaces other companies that had hoped to enter the emerging market… (O)only Apple’s partnership with Globalstar for iPhone satellite connectivity has brought the smartphones together to large-scale satellites.

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Taken from MacDailyNews: Only Apple. As for heart monitoring capabilities, fall detection, accident detection, etc. of the Apple Watch, the lifesaving potential of this service will sell many new iPhones and fuel iPhone upgrades among anxious Americans (millions and millions of American iPhone users do not have not yet done so). upgraded to 4+ years and satellite messaging only works with iPhone 14 and later).
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