Although it was not one of the most talked about, one of the new features of the iPhone 14 that I found the most interesting and noteworthy was without a doubt the ability to send an emergency message even in the complete absence of cellular coverage, it uses a satellite connection for this purpose. A feature that has only been available in the United States and Canada since its first debut until now, with the rest of the world awaiting its arrival in other geographies.

And finally today we saw the first step in that regard, as the emergency messages via satellite jumped the pond and landed Germany, France, Ireland and the United Kingdom. iPhone 14 users in these countries will now have this safety feature, which will allow them to contact emergency services even if their devices are without coverage, either due to a lack of coverage in the area or a general network drop. .

This feature is activated automatically if the user tries to call an emergency number and the iPhone 14 detects that it cannot be made. At that moment, the option to send an emergency text message via satellite appears. If the user confirms the action, he will be presented with a short list of questions about the nature of the emergency he wants to declare, and at the same time it will be necessary to point the terminal towards the sky in order to send the message directly to the satellite in the network used by this function, that is, the Globalstar network.

Due to the complexity of this connection, Apple had to face many technical challenges, from creating a terminal capable of transmitting a signal with the necessary power to reach the satellite, to solving the problem of low bandwidth of said connection, due to which the company developed its own compression algorithm that reduces the average message size by a third of what they would be without him. In this way, the energy required for signal transmission is reduced and the time required for said radiation is also reduced.

Apple claims that the message can be received by its recipients in as little as 15 seconds, but some system tests that have already been carried out in recent weeks claim that the time frame can be even shorter, with times under 10 or even 5 seconds. In addition, by answering the questions to send the message, the emergency services will know what problem they are dealing with and will then be able to activate the necessary resources for it.

Apple says the satellite emergency messaging service will roll out to more countries next year, though it hasn’t specified which ones or at what time of year.

More information: Apple