After Apple announced last year that the company’s iPhone 14 series would receive SOS messages via satellite (a feature that allows for two-way messaging across multiple satellites), there was always the question of what Samsung was going to do. When will it offer a similar feature for its Galaxy S23 family? Despite all three Galaxy S23 models being officially announced, the Korean company has yet to talk about satellite connectivity, but that doesn’t mean the feature won’t be there. In fact, all smartphones have a processor Snapdragon 8 generation 2 Qualcommthat will receive.
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Qualcomm’s partnership with Iridium Communications enabled two-way messaging between smartphones and satellites
Even though Samsung hasn’t announced this feature for its new Galaxy S23 series, it still doesn’t mean that Qualcomm and Iridium Communications have ignored it. At CES 2023, the San Diego-based chipmaker announced Snapdragon Satellite, a two-way messaging feature that allows Android smartphones to integrate satellite communications, which the Galaxy S23 also uses. The processor can have this feature. The iPhone 14 series has already achieved satellite communication capabilities thanks to the Snapdragon X65.
On the other hand, the X70 5G Snapdragon 8 generation 2 modem also provides this possibility. Presumably because Samsung has no direct partnership with Iridium Communications, it hasn’t announced this feature publicly. But Qualcomm has already partnered with Iridium and made it official, so it doesn’t make sense to advertise a feature that two different companies are working on. However, the Snapdragon Satellite feature is not yet fully supported when the Galaxy S23 models become available for purchase.
The lack of support in that time frame is because the feature will arrive in the second half of 2023, and even Qualcomm hasn’t specified which regions of the world will be able to use it after that. Just like Apple, the Snapdragon Satellite is expected to be available only to consumers in the US and Canada before branching out to other regions.
Unfortunately, we don’t know the pricing details or if Snapdragon Satellite will be free for a limited time or if Qualcomm plans to charge customers once the feature is launched. But what is clear is that we will have to wait a little longer to see the feature released for the Galaxy S23 series. In any case, it is better for Samsung to have this feature, because it will really need it to compete with its competitor, the iPhone 14.
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