iPhone 14 users in the US (including Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands) and Canada will now be able to use the Emergency SOS via satellite feature.
Apple says that every model from the iPhone 14 lineup – iPhone 14, iPhone 14 Plus, iPhone 14 Pro and the iPhone 14 Pro Max are compatible to run this software-designed feature. “Emergency SOS via satellite builds on existing features vital to iPhone users, including Emergency SOS, Medical ID, emergency contacts, and Find My location sharing, offering the ability to connect to a satellite,” Apple states in its blog post.
- In order for this feature to work, users will first have to answer a small questionnaire which will ask for vital information such as – what is the emergency, how many people need help and other such details.
- These questions and answers will then be forwarded to the emergency services which will receive the text or the Apple centres which will then make a call.
- Apart from the question answers, the smartphone can also forward the user’s Medical ID, this depends on whether the user has set it up. The Medical ID will have all the information about the user.
- Information like all the health conditions they have so (this could include any allergies or serious medications required) that the rescuers will be informed about the same.
- The user will then receive a message clarifying the same and get help. Apple has developed a compression that squeezes text by 300 per cent, even after doing this the smartphone will require 15 seconds to send a message. This is because satellite data is low bandwidth.
- When setting up, users will have to put in at least 10 iMessage emergency contacts who will get the emergency texts.
- While setting up with the satellite mode, the phone will first show a demo mode which will get you ready for emergency times.
