Apple is expanding iPhone 14’s Emergency SOS via satellite feature to more countries. The feature is now available to iPhone 14 owners in the United Kingdom, France, Germany and Ireland starting today.
Emergency SOS was only available in the United States and Canada so far. Apple previously confirmed the feature would expand to more countries in December.
Your iPhone 14 can connect to satellites
With Emergency SOS, iPhone 14 users can contact emergency services even when they are not in mobile network or Wi-Fi coverage. The feature allows Apple’s latest iPhones to connect to a satellite and share important information with your friends, family and emergency responders.
While Emergency SOS was first announced alongside the iPhone 14 series in October, the feature went live in the U.S. in mid-November. Since then, it has already helped save the life of a stranded man in Alaska.
To ensure your iPhone can connect to a satellite, you must be outside with a clear view of the sky. Your iPhone will also provide relevant directions on where to point the device for quicker connectivity. Under the right condition, your iPhone can connect to first responders using Emergency SOS via satellite in 15 seconds.
Try out satellite connectivity on your iPhone 14
Since satellite connectivity has limited bandwidth, the Emergency SOS app will ask some vital questions to assess your condition. This information is then relayed to emergency services along with your location. To make optimum use of the limited bandwidth, Apple even developed a compression algorithm to reduce the average text message size by up to 3x.
Apple provides a built-in Emergency SOS via satellite demo to test the feature. You can find this option in the Emergency SOS app.
The emergency service is free for two years for all iPhone 14 users. It is unclear how much Apple will charge for the service after that.
Source: Apple
