One of the biggest announcements to emerge at Apple’s iPhone 14 launch event involved what the company might be able to do with its groundbreaking emergency SOS feature via satellite — but until now, we’ve heard little valuable information about when it will actually arrive.
In a new support post, Apple said Emergency SOS via Satellite “will be available in the iOS 16 software update coming in November 2022.” iOS 16.1 rolled out at the end of October, and iOS 16.2 is expected to arrive in December, so it’s possible that iOS 16.1.1 could roll out a life-saving feature in the coming weeks.
The iOS 16.2 and iPadOS 16.2 betas have been released, and we know that Apple is gearing up to roll out a fix for the persistent Wi-Fi bug that has plagued iPhone 14 users since iOS 16.1 launched. Well, for our money, emergency SOS via satellite will be coming to the iPhone 14 with this upcoming software patch.
To jog your memory, Apple says the new feature will help you contact emergency services in “extraordinary circumstances” when no other contact methods are available. If you’re out of cellular and Wi-Fi coverage, your iPhone will connect you via satellite to the help you need—or at least try to do so.
The feature is available on all four iPhone 14 models — including the iPhone 14 Plus, iPhone 14 Pro, and iPhone 14 Pro Max — although it will only be available in the U.S. and Canada initially. It is expected to launch in other countries by the end of 2023.
For the first two years after launch, all iPhone 14 owners will be able to make emergency calls via satellite for free, Apple said, suggesting the feature could be available on a subscription or pay-per-view basis by the end of 2024.
Apple claims that messages sent via emergency SOS via satellite can reach their destination within 15 seconds, but only if there is a “direct view of the sky and horizon.”
Messages processed “under a tree with light or moderate foliage” can take upwards of a minute to send – but if you break your leg in the wild, one message per minute is better than none, right?
Hopefully, we’ll be able to test Emergency SOS for ourselves via Satellite on the iPhone 14 – safe of course – when the feature goes live later this month.