It's no secret that emergency SOS via satellite has been a huge success for Apple; since its launch in late 2022, there have been countless reports of people being able to call for help using satellite connections. So it's not surprising that iOS 18 will extend this capability and also offer satellite-based text messaging services.

The most important feature of Emergency SOS via satellite is that it has been completely free. Originally, Apple offered this service for only one year, but expanded it to two years when 12 months were about to pass. I had wondered if the same would happen with Message via satellite.

According to CNET, Message via satellite will be a free feature "at least for now". Apple does not elaborate on that, but suggests that, like Emergency SOS via satellite, this service may not be free forever. However, since it is not yet known how much emergency SOS via satellite will cost or when users will be required to pay for it, it is impossible to speculate how its text messaging counterpart might change.

The good news, however, is that messages via satellite do not require specialized hardware. Apple confirmed to CNET that it will be rolled out as a software update, though it will be limited to phones that already have satellite connectivity. This means the iPhone 14, iPhone 15, and possibly the upcoming iPhone 16.

The system uses satellite rather than regular cellular signals but is very similar to the regular iMessage system and includes both tap-back response and emoji support. Apple will not let bandwidth be clogged up by anything larger than that, like video or image files, but no limits are specified.

It is important to note that this is not an emergency feature. People using iMessage can send messages as usual, but SMS is also supported.

According to Apple, emergency contacts you have already set up can freely send messages via SMS. However, others will not be able to contact you via satellite unless you initiate the conversation first. However, when RCS messaging is launched in iOS 18, it will not be supported. That is simply because it is not optimized to account for the smaller transfer limitations of satellite messaging.

Messaging via satellite will launch in the US later this year, but other regions will have to wait a bit longer. In the meantime, Android users will begin to have access to similar services with Android 15 supporting phone calls and text messaging via satellite on compatible devices.