We Tested the iPhone 14's Emergency SOS via Satellite

hundreds of miles above the Earth beyond the sky and clouds flying by at 15 000 miles per hour our communication satellites while you can't see them with a human eye they could be vital to help you or someone you love if you're ever injured or indistress and out of cell service in fact if you have an iPhone 14 you can contact emergency dispatchers with one of these satellites even if you can't make a phone call the feature is called emergency SOS via satellite and hopefully like car crash detection is something you'll never have to use but if you're like me and you're curious about the future and how it works I got good news Apple invited me out to Apple Park on a very rainy morning to try the feature out and I gotta say I'm pretty impressed I'm back here at the CNet office and the first thing you should know is that you don't need to know anything about emergency SOS or how it works the service is designed to work on its own and the interface will walk you through the process step by step the second thing you should know is that using emergency SOS is equivalent to calling 9-1-1 in fact that's actually how you use it you dial 9-1-1 and your phone can't connect you can text Emergency Services via satellite hence the name you need to be outside with a clear view of the sky and after the 911 call fails you're presented with a screen to try emergency SOS tap the emergency text via satellite button by the way you can also go to messages to text 911 or SOS then tap Emergency Services notice the satellite icon on the top right of the phone next tap report emergency so since a back and forth conversation isn't really possible over a satellite connection like a regular phone Apple worked with emergency dispatchers to create a form a questionnaire that gathers the information they need in order to respond using Taps you answer the emergency questions to best describe your situation the types of emergencies you can choose between are car or vehicle issue sickness or injury crime lost or trapped or Fire And depending on your emergency you're going to get different prompts and questions for each one you can also choose to notify your emergency contacts next live on-screen directions help you connect to a satellite now the interface is simple and guides you to how to find the satellite and stay connected as the satellite moved I was prompted to move left or right to maintain the connection and despite a cloudy rainy day the connectivity worked within 20 to 30 seconds most of the time once you're connected your iPhone starts a text conversation with emergency responders and shares with them the emergency questionnaire answers your location including elevation as well as critical information like your medical ID and emergency contact information if you have them set up and it also shares the remaining battery life for your iPhone you might be asked to respond to additional messages to give specifics about where you're located or whether you have medication for example luckily at the top of the screen a window shows you your connection to the satellite and the status of your messages emergency dispatchers receive your messages and respond via text to start a conversation now if your local dispatch doesn't support text messages Apple has set up relay centers with operators who work as a go-between again hopefully you will never need to use the feature but I should note some fine print first emergency SOS via light only works on the iPhone 14 14 plus 14 pro and 14 pro Max the service doesn't work indoors and tall buildings mountains dents foliage and other objects actually could block connectivity between your phone and the satellite Apple announced that the service is free for two years but beyond that they haven't really shared any information about how much it will cost or if they ever will actually charge people to access it at launch it'll work in the US and Canada now if you want to test emergency SOS via satellite for yourself but not actually call 9-1-1 Apple has you covered they created a demo mode that you can try open settings tap emergency SOS and scroll to the bottom to try a demo the demo turns off your Cellular Connection and gives you a preview of the emergency questionnaire but to be clear it's not actually contacting emergency services and then the demo walks you through finding a satellite it's a really neat way to try the feature out either as a drill or just because it's cool because you're actually connected to a satellite in space I mean think about the possibilities but it turns out there's actually one other way to use satellite connectivity on your iPhone and that's sharing your location to let loved ones know where you are without messaging in the find my app tap me and when you expand the tab you'll see a new section called my location via satellite tap send my location foreign like I said in my iPhone 14 reviews some of the best features on these phones are things you can't see or probably things you'll never have to use which is a good thing an emergency SOS via satellite is honestly one of the best features on any phone I've seen this year but now I want to hear from you guys what do you think about emergency SOS via satellite also we do these Apple stuff videos every week let us know in the comments what you'd like to see last do all the YouTube things like subscribe and thank you for watching [Music]

Channel: CNET

Views: 501,021

Keywords: CNET, Technology, tech, apple, iphone, sos, iphone 14, iphone 14 pro, iphone 14 pro max, emergency call, sos 911, emergency sos, crash detection, ios 16, Patrick Holland, SOS, sos on iphone, emergency sos iphone, emergency sos iphone turn off, emergency sos iphone text, emergency contact iphone, emergency sos iphone accident, does emergency sos call 911, how to disable emergency sos on iphone, emergency sos via satellite, satellite, apple-show, health-wellness, auto, how-to, review, preview

Id: Dx1Wn7JpObM

Length: 6min 5sec (365 seconds)

Published: Tue Nov 15 2022