If you’re caught somewhere without Wi-Fi or cell service, these features could save your life.
After Hurricane Rita nailed Southeast Texas in 2005, the worst part for residents like the author was the inability to contact friends and family to both make sure they were okay and also reassure them of our safety. Now, over a million folks in Florida are still struggling with the same sort of state in the wake of Hurricane Milton.
If you’re reading this site, you clearly have internet access, but if you’re ever stuck in a situation where you don’t and you need to contact others, you can use a recent iPhone or Pixel device to contact people using emergency satellite services. It’s exactly what it sounds like: you can communicate via satellite directly from your smartphone, even when cellular services are down.
To be clear, this won’t work on every device. You will need an iPhone 14, 15, or 16, and ideally one that that has been updated to iOS 18. Alternatively, a Pixel 9 device can work—although the Pixel’s support for these features is relatively limited compared to Apple’s. For that reason, we’ll cover it first.
Satellite SOS Messaging On Google’s Pixel 9If you’re somewhere that you can’t get cellular or Wi-Fi service, you can still contact emergency services using a Pixel 9 device, including the Pixel 9, Pixel 9 Pro, Pixel 9 Pro XL, and Pixel 9 Pro Fold.
