iPhone 14 Emergency SOS via Satellite arrives ↦
Promised “later this year” when it was introduced in September, Apple announced on Tuesday that it has turned on its Emergency SOS via Satellite feature on iPhone 14 models in the U.S. and Canada. The company’s press release has some details about how the system works and how emergency communications are routed. Also there’s this tidbit: the service is coming to France, Germany, the UK, and Ireland in December.
If you want to try this feature out, don’t get yourself lost and needing to actually call for help. Instead, as Apple notes, you can go somewhere without cellular service and then share your location using Find My:
For users who go off the grid but don’t experience an emergency, this advanced technology also enables them to share their location via satellite with Find My. In the Find My app, users can open the Me tab, swipe up to see My Location via Satellite, and tap Send My Location.
I’d say that I’m looking forward to using this feature, but like the iPhone 14 Crash Detection feature, I’d prefer to never need it. Still, it’s nice to know it’s there.
