The iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Pro series have just been announced, and while it has new features relating to eSIM and photography, another new feature is emergency SOS via satellite communication. This means that you can signal for help no matter where you are, even in remote areas where you don't have a mobile data signal. There are a number of different technologies that Apple has developed to make this work, removing the need for bulky hardware to communicate with a satellite over your head. It's included with every iPhone 14 for free for two years and will launch in the United States and Canada in November.
Apple iPhone 14
The new iPhone 14 series is available for pre-order now. You can check it out at both AT&T and Best Buy below.
How Apple's emergency SOS will work is by guiding you to point your phone at a satellite overhead. The company has developed a custom algorithm for the compression of text so that messages can be sent quicker than ever to a satellite. Apple has also said that it has worked with emergency experts to develop a list of the most common emergency questions so that you can simply tap an answer to a question rather than needing to type out the full nature of your emergency. This means you can get help quicker than ever.
You can also use the Find My app to share your location manually via satellite. How this will work when you can't move the phone to point it at a satellite is unclear, though we assume that we'll hear more from the company as we edge closer to the launch of emergency SOS. It also hasn't been confirmed what satellites Apple will be making use of for this feature, and if it will use Starlink or not. No matter what, though this is a pretty big safety feature that could save lives in the future, and we're looking forward to hearing more about how it works.