A while back, Apple created quite the wave with its Emergency SOS via Satellite for iPhone 14 and its plans to cover more expansive areas with the services being available for free for one more year. Google was said to follow the Cupertino-based tech giant steps by preparing to offer the Satellite SOS for its Pixel phones. Now, we have been hearing speculations that Samsung will join the likes of other big companies by working on a similar feature for its Galaxy phones. It's only recently that we were given hints on the possibility of the capability making its way to the flagship devices.
APK Teardown reveals hints regarding Samsung's work on finally bringing satellite connectivity feature to possibly the Galaxy S25
Apple introduced satellite connectivity in 2022 for its latest iPhone lineup, creating a buzz among the tech community and pushing other companies to extend support for satellite communication. The rumor mill has long been churning about Samsung introducing emergency messaging via satellite for its Galaxy S series. These speculations, however, did not materialize as the Galaxy S23 and S24 were rolled out without including the feature. A recent APK teardown might be giving clues regarding the capability under development, which could be coming soon.
Android Authority was able to spot the feature in its stock apps through a work-in-progress code. While digging through the Samsung apps, code strings revealed links to provide support for satellite communication. Hints about the feature were found in the Messages, Phone, and Emergency SOS apps with the following codes: v15.5.10.39, v15.2.80, and 15.5.00.14, respectively.
The publication was able to find out what the codes in the specific stock apps indicated:
- Emergency SOS: The code for emergency SOS suggests that users could use satellite to communicate in emergency situations and could use emergency services when they are in a distant location or their cellular network is out of range.
- Phone app: The phone app lets the users know they can send and receive messages in satellite mode. The emergency may still be connected even if your cellular network is available.
- Messages app: The code stated that Samsung Messages does not support satellite messaging. Users must set Google Messages as the default messaging app to send and receive text via satellite.
Given the current information, it seems like Samsung has not forgotten its plan to bring satellite connectivity to its ecosystem. There is still ambiguity regarding which Galaxy devices would receive the functionality, but we expect more clarity in this regard with the roll-out of Android 15.
Follow Wccftech on Google to get more of our news coverage in your feeds.
